Leading Health Officials Visit the School of Pharmacy

Presentations to the School’s Board of Visitors focus on the pharmacists’ role in health care reform

By Steve Berberich
May 18, 2009

Representatives from the State of Maryland and several pharmacy professional organizations visited the School of Pharmacy on May 7 to talk with its Board of Visitors about pharmacies’ role in the federal governments’ pending health care reform plans.

John Colmers, MPH, Maryland’s Secretary of Health and Mental Hygiene, lead his presentation with a recap of the recent H1N1, or swine flu, outbreak, and asked for feedback from the School of Pharmacy, with its extensive network of pharmacists, on “what worked and what didn’t work.”

Colmers said that “we are not out of the woods yet. We have identified that this is a virus that is in our population, and we are in the phase now of lessons learned.” He said his department is gathering data on medication and counseling provided by pharmacists during the outbreak.

He said his department is a strong partner with the School, which is the oldest and largest pharmacy school in the state and is associated with a network of several hundred preceptors–or mentors–for students. The volunteers, usually pharmacists, serve as practitioner-educators.

Colmers said the availability of antiviral drugs was of great interest during the swine flu outbreak. Although the federal government released 25 percent of its stockpile of medications and supplies for a possible pandemic, Colmers said, “We don’t understand the supply side.” He said a policy is needed to obtain better information on what is available during an outbreak.

He added that the crisis was “odd” because it occurred at the end of the typical cool-weather flu season.

“It’s been a remarkable couple of weeks. As a public health professional you are trained for moments like this. These are fluid moments and you have to make decisions with incomplete information,” he said.

Colmers also asked for feedback on how an innovative program called Maryland P3 (Patients, Pharmacists, Partnerships), managed by the School of Pharmacy, is performing in Maryland. The program provides participating employers with the support and tools to link employees, retirees, and their dependents, as well as Maryland Medical Assistance Program patients enrolled in Maryland Physicians Care, with community pharmacists to help them manage their diabetes. The program, which began in 2006 with 125 patients in Western Maryland, now reaches more than 350 patients at seven self-insured companies.

“This is a participatory model where there is opportunity for improved patient self-management,” he said, adding that early results on patients’ service while saving the state health care costs are encouraging. “We have a system in this country now that is far too reliant on specialty care dollars. I am most interested in how the P3 program is performing in Maryland,” he said.

Tom Menighan, executive vice president and CEO designate of the American Pharmacists Association, spoke about the pharmacy professions’ role in helping shaping the federal governments’ health care reform package. “A vast array of pharmacy organizations are involved in health care reform principals concerning pharmacy,” he said. “I’m extremely proud of this group and the leadership involved in creating these principals, which focus on patient access, safety and quality, and health information technology.”

Menighan noted that when President Barak Obama hosted his first town hall meeting to discuss health care reform, pharmacy wasn’t included and wasn’t mentioned. “Now we’ve been able to meet with a number of senators, and lobbyists from the pharmacy professional organizations have sat down with White House aides to stress the important role pharmacy can play in health care reform. Our bottom line message is that pharmacists are caregivers, not just medication dispensers, and that there is a medication use crisis in this country.”

Also presenting at the meeting were Brian Meyer of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacy and several School of Pharmacy faculty members, who provided updates on the P3 Program, the School’s research enterprise, its new Center for Drug Safety and a health care home concept.