Going to AMCP? Be Sure to Check Out NPC’s Presentations & Exhibit Booth

Are you heading to San Diego to attend the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy’s (AMCP) 27th Annual Meeting and Expo on April 7-10? The National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC) encourages you to schedule the following programs into your Annual Meeting itinerary!

On Monday and Tuesday, April 6 and 7, the Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) Collaborative, a partnership among NPC, AMCP and the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, along with the University of Maryland, will host a series of in-person, four-hour training sessions. Participants in the CER Certificate Program are required to attend one of these sessions as part of the online and in-person continuing education program. This program guides pharmacists and other clinical decision-makers by advancing their expertise in assessing evidence that comes from new, unfamiliar research designs, particularly observational research methods, indirect treatment comparisons, modeling and meta-analyses, while making use of the online CER Collaborative tool and resources.

If you have yet to complete the five online modules needed to attend the training session, you can still learn more about the program by checking out a poster presentation, “The Impact of Comparative Effectiveness Research Continuing Education Certificate Program on Real-World Decision-Making Ability,” by University of Maryland School of Pharmacy Postdoctoral Fellow Matthew Pickering, PharmD, RPh, on Thursday, April 9, at 11:45 a.m. PT (Hall B). (You also can plan to attend the next in-person training session in October at AMCP Nexus 2015 in Orlando, FL, or enroll in the forthcoming all-web training option.) Furthermore, you can check out student pharmacists putting the CER Collaborative’s online tools into action during the AMCP Foundation’s 15th Annual National P&T Competition on Thursday, April 9, also starting at 11:45 a.m. PT (Rooms 8 & 9).

Elsewhere at AMCP’s 27th Annual Meeting

On Wednesday, April 8, Chuck Shih, PhD, MHS, former NPC postdoctoral CER Policy fellow and current senior officer of specialty drugs at The Pew Charitable Trusts, will present at and moderate a continuing pharmacy education session, “Stakeholder Perspectives on Balancing Patient-Centeredness & Drug Costs in the Design of Pharmacy Benefits,” at 1:00 p.m. PT (Room 6D). He will be joined by J. Russell Teagarden, pharmacist, researcher, writer; Cheryl Larson, BA, vice president, Midwest Business Group on Health; and Helen Sherman, RPh, PharmD, vice president, Solid Benefit Guidance.

Details about this session may be found at http://www.amcpmeetings.org/detailed.php. As part of “The Landscape of Contemporary Managed Care Pharmacy” education track, you can learn about pharmacy benefit design, accountable care organizations, the impact of electronic prior authorization on care delivery, oncology clinical care pathways, and more.

On Friday, April 10, NPC Chief Science Officer Robert W. Dubois, MD, PhD, will present at and moderate “Navigating Oncology Clinical Care Pathways” during a continuing pharmacy education session at 8:00 a.m. PT (Room 6D). He will be joined by Michael Kolodziej, MD, FACP, national medical director, oncology solutions, Aetna; Ann Nguyen, PharmD, oncology solutions director, Anthem Inc.; and Winston Wong, PharmD, president, W-Squared Group.

Check out www.amcpmeetings.org/detailed.php for more session details.

NPC also will host an exhibition booth (#506). Be sure to stop by and check out our latest health policy research—we hope to see you there!