GCOP Pharmacist Cross and Family Physician Blackwelder deliver keynote

Changes are needed in training and practice to help build a better pharmacistphysician team to care for patients, Reid Blackwelder, MD, FAAFP, American Academy of Family Physicians Board Chair, told attendees at the Opening General Session of the 2015 APhA Annual Meeting & Exposition on Saturday.

Its all about relationships, Blackwelder said. The most symbiotic relationship in medicine is that of the physician and the pharmacist, he said. Weve got to find a way to sit down at the table together, assuming good intent on both sides. Advising the thousands of pharmacists in the audience to reach across the aisle, he said, Heres the really good news. Its all up to youfinding a way to create a relationship and a connection.

Blackwelder, together with Brian Cross, PharmD, BCACP, CDE, delivered the accessible and down-to-earth keynote, Interprofessional Practice: Start at the Grassroots. As featured in the cover story for October 2014s Pharmacy Today, Blackwelder and Cross collaborate in family medicine clinics in Tennessee. Their tag-team presentationcomplete with an on-stage recreation of a photo in the cover story of their mid-air chest bump that symbolizes how well they work together for the patientwas punctuated throughout with situational in-joke shouts of agreement from the audience of Amen!

The keynote by Blackwelder and Cross was built around the visual metaphor of changing from a bowtie to a regular tie to symbolize the bringing together of physician skills and pharmacist skills into one piece of cloth that is worn by the patient. Their presentation transcended buzzwords such as patient-centered care and team-based care as, respectively, Blackwelder explained that things are not patient-centered until the patient says it is patient-centered, and Cross asked rhetorically, How do we know at all whats going on with our patients when electronic medical records in a pharmacy dont have interoperability with those at the hospital literally up the hill? 

Emphasizing the concept of community-based care, Cross said, We are all community pharmacistsregardless of practice settingin the community where you have been called to serve.

APhA President Matthew C. Osterhaus, BSPharm, FASCP, FAPhA, used the connecting of puzzle pieces as an extended metaphor throughout his Opening General Session address, Advancing As One: The Pharmacy Family Is On The Move. Four puzzle pieces during the past year of his presidency, he said, were a unified profession, a unified Association, a unified health care team, and a unified patient care process.

Noting that the collective effort of the Patient Access to Pharmacists Care Coalitionof which APhA is a memberhas led to the introduction of the federal provider status legislation known as the Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Areas Enhancement Act (H.R. 592/S. 314), Osterhaus said to applause, We want to see President Obama sign this legislation. He spoke of APhAs Pharmacists Provide Care campaign, which has garnered more than 16,500 supporters and 128 videos from 50 states. Lets not be afraid to foster new relationships, he concluded, and do the little things right in making our big dream a reality.

The Opening General Session began with the U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Diego presenting the colors and the singing of the national anthem.

Mark Walberg, the host of Antiques Roadshow, was back for his seventh year as emcee for the APhA General Sessions. Osterhaus joined Walberg, and then introduced the APhA Board of Trustees to the stage. They led the audience in reciting the Oath of a Pharmacist.

Next, APhA Award winners were recognized. Osterhaus presented the Remington Honor Medal to Calvin H. Knowlton, BSPharm, MDiv, PhD. When Walberg interviewed Knowlton on stage, Knowlton discussed advances in personalized medicine and said, The progression of whats going on in the profession is just amazing. Knowlton mentioned two mentors, Eugene White and Carl Emswiller, who had set the pace for him.

For the APhA Academies, the Linwood F. Tice Friend of the APhA Academy of Student Pharmacists Award went to Donald G. Floriddia, PhD, FASCP, FAPhA. The APhA Academy of Pharmaceutical Research & Sciences Takeru Higuchi Research Prize went to Philip S. Portoghese, BS, MS, PhD. The Daniel B. Smith Practice Excellence Award, administered by the APhA Academy of Pharmacy Practice & Management, went to Cynthia J. Boyle, BSPharm, PharmD, FAPhA. The 2015 APhA Fellows for the practice and science academies were also introduced.

The Hugo H. Schaefer Award was presented to Baeteena M. Black, DPh. Todd D. Sorensen, PharmD, FAPhA, received the Gloria Niemeyer Francke Leadership Mentor Award. The H.A.B. Dunning Award went to CVS Health.

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