INSIGHTS AND PERSPECTIVES

Chris Fitzmaurice, director of industry data resources at ScriptPro, explains why pharmacists should accept a greater measure of responsibility and continue to accept the demands of medical professionals, as well as expand on what it means to provide pharmaceutical care.

This will be a year of major shifts in pharmacy, as new players enter the field and adoption of pharmacy innovation continues to increase, said Scott Seidelmann, executive vice president and chief commercialization officer at Omnicell. 

To remain relevant, pharmacies must have a value add or differentiation other than location, says Doyle Jensen, executive vice president of global business development at Innovation. 

In order to provide the best care for patients, real impediments to delivering patient care in all pharmacy practice settings need to be addressed, according to Janet Engle professor, senior associate dean for professional and international affairs at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy.

Through thoughtful design features that addressed injection therapy obstacles, Owen Mumford brought to market a product that made injection therapy easier, safer and more convenient, explains Casey Pflieger, director of North American marketing at Owen Mumford.

As technology continues to transform the way people live, healthcare professionals are seeing the impact this transformation is having on patients’ expectations on how they access healthcare services and how those services are delivered, according to Magaly Rodriguez de Bittner.

The conversation at the pharmacy counter traditionally has been about which pills to take when, but with advances in medical science, a new frontier — biologics and biosimilars — is flourishing, explains Chip Davis, president and CEO of the Association for Accessible Medicines. 

Fred Mayer, CEO of Pharmacists Planning Services, explains how as the political healthcare debate rages on, many of the “first-world” problems that cause illness and compromise our quality of life are problems pharmacists can help solve.