PFC Helps CA Board of Pharmacy With New Patient Ed. Video
Earlier this week, the CA Board of Pharmacy (BoP) released a new video educating patients about the importance of a pharmacist consultation.  PFC CEO Michael Negrete consulted on the project, and the video was shot in PFC’s Don and June Salvatori California Pharmacy Museum.  To see the video, please visit the BoP website (www.pharmacy.ca.gov/consumers/avoid_med_errors.wmv).

Only 49 Days Left to Help PFC Strike Out Med Errors
The holidays are the perfect time of year to ask your friends and family to support your work on an important charitable event.  On Friday, February 5 at Outlook 2010, PFC will host its third annual charity bowl-a-thon to raise funds and awareness to promote safer medication use practices.  If your school, local association, academy, or company has yet to enter or sponsor a team, do so TODAY (www.pfc.dojiggy.com) before it’s too late! Please note that a limited number of Strike OutSponsorships ($5,000) andSpare Sponsorships ($2,500) are still available.  For a list of FAQs about this fun and worthwhile event, please visit www.pharmacyfoundation.org/bowling.pdf. 

Illinois MTM Collaborative to Address Gaps in Care
Last week, Medco Health Solutions (which manages pharmacy benefits for the state of Illinois' employees, retirees and their families) announced a new collaboration with the State, the Illinois Pharmacists Assn, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Mirixa Corporation.  The purpose of the collaborative is to determine the effectiveness of training community pharmacies using an advanced networked safety system to identify medication-related issues and provide clinical interventions to improve patient health outcomes and lower costs.  According to Michael Minesinger, Chairman of the Illinois Pharmacists Association, "This initiative recognizes the value provided by community pharmacists across Illinois and creates an opportunity to set a new standard for high-quality, personalized patient care. It will also allow pharmacists to be compensated appropriately, for providing these value-added clinical services, and we encourage all community pharmacies to participate."  Under the program, Medco will analyze prescription drug records daily to identify patients with potential adherence and omission gaps. The company will transmit electronic alerts via MirixaPro to trained community pharmacists when potential adherence gaps or omissions are identified. Approximately 50 percent of the cost of the study is directed to UIC's community pharmacist training program and pharmacists' counseling fees. The partners estimate millions of dollars in savings are possible related to lower medical expenses as member compliance with chronic drug therapies improves. .

CA Pharmacy Council Provides Support for MTM Comparative Study
Next week, a coalition of healthcare stakeholders led by the Santa Monica-based RAND Corporation will submit a multi-year, multimillion dollar proposal for a study to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of Chronic Disease Self Management and pharmacist-directed MTM in improving diabetes and cardiovascular outcomes among diverse populations and practice settings.  The proposal is in response to an RFA from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for projects to be funded by the 2009 Recovery Act’s “Clinical Outcomes Initiative in Comparative Effectiveness” (CHOICE) grants.  To increase the chances of success for this application, the Pharmacy Foundation of California was requested to coordinate the development of a support letter from the California Pharmacy Council which represents the top leadership from California’s pharmacy-related academic, professional, regulatory, and advocacy/policy organizations.  A copy of the letter can be downloaded from the PFC website.

PFC Announces Free Online “Safe Med Service”
This week, PFC launched the beta version of a new website made possible through a collaboration with iGuard.  The site allows patients and caregivers to enter information about their medications and health conditions, and obtain a free personalized risk assessment for potential drug interactions, duplications and side effects.  PFC plans to incorporate this new tool into its consumer education and outreach efforts designed to encourage consumers to request and use services that promote safer medication use practices (e.g. pharmacist consultations & MTM).  If you have any comments about this new site, please email them to Michael Negrete at menegrete@pharmacyfoundation.org.

NACDS Foundation Gives $20,000 for PFC’s Safe Med Programs
The National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation has approved a $20,000 grant to PFC in support of its consumer education and outreach efforts. These funds will help PFC further develop and disseminate its safe medication use information to seniors and female family caregivers.  PFC invites other organizations and individuals to join NACDS in their support of these important programs.

New Nat’l Alert System to Prevent Med Errors
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) are partnering to develop the National Alert Network for Serious Medication Errors (NAN). NAN will be triggered when a seriously harmful or potentially seriously harmful error has occurred.  The alert will include a description of the error, as well as recommendations to prevent the same error in the future. The alert network was created as a result of ASHP's I.V. Safety Summit held in 2007. The I.V. Safety Summit brought together top experts to discuss ways to help bring an end to deadly medication errors, such as the one that seriously harmed Dennis Quaid's infant twins. 

5 Medication Mistakes That Can Kill You
Every year, millions of people get sick, hurt or even die from medication mistakes -- and those mistakes don't always happen in hospitals. Many of the problems come from medications in our homes. Check out this video (http://tinyurl.com/5medMistakes) where Dr. Art Mollen runs down five of the most common mistakes.