Amanda Ryan, PharmD, BCGP, CPHQ, Director of Education, Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) joins the Quality Corner Show to talk about what to expect at the upcoming PQA Annual Meeting 2024 in Baltimore on May 14 - 16.

Quality Corner Show Host and PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, Nick Dorich asks Ryan about the main reasons to attend this year's meeting, who is attending, and how to register. Ryan breaks down the agenda for the event and promotes additional opportunities for pharmacists and pharmacy students.

2024 PQA Annual Meeting Website

The Quality Corner show reunites with Veronica Vernon, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP, MSCP, and Assistant Professor and Vice Chair of Pharmacy Practice  at Butler College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences for a newsworthy update on contraception access at the pharmacy level.

Vernon chats with podcast host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts about medical terminology for contraception, pharmacy prescribing at the state level, and the recent announcement of the OTC norgestrel pill, Opill.

Vernon first appeared on S3 EP23
Addressing Healthcare for the LGBTQIA Community - Roundtable Discussion

The Quality Corner show welcomes back Vibhuti Arya, PharmD, MPH, FAPhA and Professor at St. John's University's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences for a discussion on interpersonal conflict and how that relates to healthcare.
Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, chats with Arya about different types of conflict and how connections are formed through these conflicts.
Discussion revolves around internal boundaries and external relationships and the conversations that form from these interactions.

Vibhuti Arya on previous episodes:
SDOH
Improving Data and Storytelling for SDOH

PQS Senior Manager of Pharmacy Training and Support, Brittany Boyd, returns to the Quality Corner show to help unpack the full year of performance data for 2023 in EQUIPP that is available with the 2024 February EQUIPP Refresh. 

Boyd talks with Quality Corner Show Host and PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, Nick Dorich, about what pharmacies can do with the full year performance data, where to start, and best tips in reviewing this information. She also promotes a team effort mentality on how pharmacies can engage their staff in working together in EQUIPP.

The PQS Quality Corner Show welcomes back PQS Director of Analytics and Program Development Andrew Thorne, PharmD, MS, to talk about findings from the 2023 Trend Report in Pharmacy Quality.
Thorne first breaks down the first chapter of the report that studies the impact of socio-demographic factors, including age, gender, and low-income subsidy (LIS) status, on adherence rates for Cholesterol, Diabetes, and Renin Angiotensin System Antagonists (RASA) Proportion of Days Covered (PDC) measures.
He then talks about the trend report examines how adherence can be impacted by factors such as drug switching within a measurement year and the utilization of extended fills.

Download the 2023 PQS Trend Report in Pharmacy Quality

Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, chats with Emily Endres, VP of Client Services at PQS about why pharmacy and healthcare quality will matter more in 2024.

Endres talks briefly about CMS legislation in 2024 and how that affects quality care and why that still matters for pharmacies. There is also discussion about what pharmacy teams should prioritize in relation to medication, adherence and and engagement.

Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, partners with fellow teammate Connor Kovatch, Customer Experience Specialist to run down answers to the top EQUIPP questions from 2023.
 Kovatch addresses common questions that EQUIPP users have had related to medication adherence performance rates. Questions cover scenarios where patients have discontinued medications, are in hospice care, or have recently deceased.  

The PQS Quality Corner Show welcomes Radha V. Patel, PharmD, MPH, BCACP, Director, Pharmacy Quality Improvement  at Centene Corporation  to talk about how the managed care community can engage with community pharmacies to support adherence and clinical measures like Controlling Blood Pressure.

Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts asks Patel why blood pressure management and cardiovascular health is a particular focus for a health plan to work with pharmacies. Dorich and Patel also talk about how the pharmacy team can ensure these programs will be successful.

Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, interviews Stephanie Hale, PQS Quality Programs Manager about Enhanced Services opportunities currently available in EQUIPP.

Stephanie talks about three programs: Controlling Blood Pressure, A1c, and Year End Adherence programs, and the response of pharmacies that are implementing these programs.

For more information on PQS Enhanced Services visit
https://www.pharmacyquality.com/pharmacyenhancedservices/

The Quality Corner Show invites back Jesse McCullough, Founder of Keystone Pharmacy Insights, to cover a variety of leadership lessons and topics without getting thrown by podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Senior Manager of Pharmacy Accounts.

McCullough talks about directional leadership, suggests implementing Judo tactics into leadership strategy such as reversal moves, and explores the discipline of the hope of healthcare.

Read the start of the Hope of Healthcare below:
It's time to explore pharmacy as the hope of healthcare

Jesse McCullough on LinkedIn
http://www.facebook.com/groups/kpipharmacy/

The Quality Corner Show welcomes back Dr. Ben Urick, PharmD, PhD, Principal Health Outcomes Researcher at Prime Therapeutics and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Clinical Education at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, to talk about trends in medication adherence including creating value through medication adherence improvement.

Urick reviews a bit of existing literature on medication adherence and then explores the relationship between health expenditures and medication adherence.  Other topics include social determinants of health and what disease states are currently popular for medication adherence research.

Ben Urick Referenced Materials:

PBMI National Conference Video with Managed Healthcare Executive

PQS Quality Corner Show Season 1 Episode 30

Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, welcomes Zachary Green, CPhT, Associate Director, Partnership Development at the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) to the Quality Corner Show to talk about PTCB involvement with the Pharmacy Technician Educators Council (PTEC).

Green provides a little history on PTEC and promotes a new conference slated for summer 2024 that would provide continuing education for Pharmacy Technicians.

https://www.ptec.org/

PQS Quality Corner Show Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Senior Manager of Pharmacy Accounts, recaps EQUIPP's appearance at three summer trade shows including McKesson IdeaShare, Cardinal's RBC, and AmerisourceBergen's Thoughtspot in 2023.

PQS Team members that guest on this episode include Pharmacy Account Manager Patti Duda, Quality Programs Manager Stephanie Hale, and Sr. Director, Strategic Initiatives Ian Hubbell. They each share their experiences interacting with pharmacists and share the pharmacists' thoughts about new features and services offered in the EQUIPP® platform.

The Quality Corner Show explores the rise of AI in healthcare and more specifically its use in pharmacy. Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, interviews co-founders of the AI Collective Whitley Yi, PharmD, BCPS, and Christy Cheung, PharmD about how pharmacists can leverage artificial intelligence as a tool in the workplace currently and what does the future hold for AI.

Whitley Yi, PharmD, BCPS, Delivery Manager and Pharmacy Specialist, Well & Adjunct Lecturer, University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences 

Christy Cheung, PharmD, Lead, Digital Health, Insights, and Learning at Sanofi & Co-Founder of AI Collective 

Founder and CEO of Uptown Creation Chris Cozzolino, PharmD joins the Quality Corner Show to talk about how pharmacies should optimize social media strategies with Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts.

Cozzolino talks about which social media channels can have the biggest impact in optimizing your online presence and the importance of promoting a pharmacist's healthcare expertise. He also stresses that taking a leap and moving past your comfort zone can be helpful in producing content that reaches a wider audience.

The Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy recently published an editorial in 2023 asking the question, "Is the “clinical pharmacist” designation still relevant?"
Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts,  interviews the author of this article, Dave L. Dixon PharmD, FCCP, Professor & Chair, Dept. of Pharmacotherapy & Outcomes Science (DPOS) at VCU on this episode of the Quality Corner Show.

The origins of "Clinical Pharmacist" are discussed, as well as what it actually means to pharmacists and the general public. The merits of the title are also weighed and the requirements of clinical pharmacists are reviewed.

To read the article visit the JACCP
Is the “clinical pharmacist” designation still relevant?

The Quality Corner Show welcomes back the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) to talk about what is next for pharmacy technicians. This time Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts sits down with William Schimmel, Executive Director & CEO at PTCB.
Schimmel talks about how the role of pharmacy technicians has evolved pre-pandemic to post-pandemic, and what lies ahead in the form of new opportunities.

PTCB

Olunife Akinmolayan, PharmD, aka "O",  APhA Executive Resident, Practice & Government Affairs, American Pharmacists Association, praises his experience at the PQA 2023 Annual Meeting and provides his takeaways from the event on the Quality Corner Show.
Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, asks "O" about highlights from the event, and "O" details sessions pertaining to collaborative practice agreements and the medication use quality workshop.

https://www.pqaalliance.org/online-courses

Olunife Akinmolayan, PharmD
Olunife on Instagram

Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, moderates a discussion and review of the health equity highlights from the PQA Annual Meeting 2023 in Nashville, TN. The guests for this episode include Christie Teigland​, VP, Research Science and Advanced Analytics at Inovalon, and Lisa Hines, PharmD, CPHQ, Chief Quality and Innovation Officer at the Pharmacy Quality Alliance.
Teigland speaks about the coming health equity index and Hines' talks about the PQA risk adjustment model.

PQA Annual Meeting Exploring Solutions to Improve Equity in Medication Use Quality Slides

Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, talks about pharmacist intervention to close statin gaps with Jennifer L. Bacci, PharmD, MPH, BCACP, Endowed Associate Professor in Innovative Pharmacy Practice at University of Washington School of Pharmacy. She's one of the co-authors of the JAMA article
Community Pharmacist Intervention to Optimize Statin Adherence in Diabetes Care.

In this episode Bacci explains why statin initiation is an important clinical gap for patients with diabetes and how pharmacist involvement can improve patient outcomes.

The PQS Quality Corner Show welcomes Thomas Franko, PharmD, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Wilkes University on the podcast to talk about the upcoming release of OTC Naloxone and what that means for pharmacists in improving community access. 

Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts also asks Franko about where Naloxone will fit in the pharmacy setting and how pharmacists can tackle education on this medicine. 

How can pharmacists utilize year-to-date data in EQUIPP for continuous quality improvement? 
The PQS Quality Corner Show Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts asks Crosby Tindal, PharmD, BCPS, Pharmacy Quality Manager, Operations Specialist at Cub Pharmacies about pharmacy team adherence-focused goals using year-to-date and end of year data. 
Tindal offers some strategy on using EQUIPP data throughout the year and what improving patient outcomes means for his team.

PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, Nick Dorich, PharmD,  wraps up APhA 2023 with a set of interviews with Sidrah Alam, PharmD, MS PGx, Jessica K. Marx, PharmD, BCPS, and Sandra Rosa, B.S., R.PH.  
The group speaks about the importance of professional involvement at APhA, connecting with friends and pharmily, and the mental rejuvenation after attending the conference. 

The Quality Corner Show welcomes back DeLon Canterbury, PharmD, BCGP, Deprescribing Implementation Strategist and President/CEO of GeriatRx, Inc. , to talk about deprescribing antipsychotic medications in geriatric populations and why the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is cracking down on nursing homes that overprescribe antipsychotic drugs.
Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, asks Canterbury how to safely deprescribe antipsychotic medications and how providers, patients, and caregivers define improving patient outcomes as it relates to these medications.

website:
Geriatrx.org

Salam Kabbani, PharmD, Infectious Diseases Pharmacist Specialist and author of COVID Long-Hauler: My Life Since COVID joins the Quality Corner Show to talk about the patient experience and what pharmacists need to understand about Long COVID. 
Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts, asks Kabbani to define Long COVID and explain how healthcare providers are learning and adapting to working with Long COVID patients.
 
Visit Salam Kabbani's website
Book: COVID Long-Hauler: My Life Since COVID