I received confirmation from Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS) Executive Director Bill Ellis that the BPS Board on April 12 approved two new specialties for development, including the critical care pharmacy petition and the pediatric pharmacy petition.

The BPS announcement and pharmacist.com news article provide some background on the two newly approved petitions.

Critical care pharmacy becomes the seventh BPS specialty. The petition was submitted jointly by the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, American Pharmacists Association, and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

Pediatric pharmacy becomes the eighth BPS specialty. The petition was submitted jointly by the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, American Pharmacists Association, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the Pediatric Pharmacy Advocacy Group.

Following are the next steps in the specialty certification process. BPS will issue a call on May 3, 2013, for nominations to serve on the Critical Care and Pediatric Pharmacy Specialty Councils. The closing date for nominations will be August 2, 2013. BPS will appoint nine members to each council by September 15, 2013, and the councils will convene in the fall of 2013. Examination item writing for the new specialties will begin between the fourth quarter of 2013 and the first quarter of 2014.

This is great news for both APhA and BPS. Congratulations to all who had a hand in shepherding this process along!