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Welcome to the inaugural edition of A Dose of Difference, a newsletter of the NACDS Foundation. Four times a year, A Dose of Difference will be delivered to your inbox to update you about the programs and activities of the NACDS Foundation, the charitable supporting organization of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. In an effort to achieve its vision of improving the health and wellness of all patients, the NACDS Foundation supports educational, research and charitable programs that focus on the patient and providing quality care through community pharmacy.

The NACDS Foundation appreciates the support of our generous benefactors that make our programs possible.

UPCOMING EVENTS

IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO SUPPORT OUR NATION’S FUTURE PHARMACISTS…

For 15 years the NACDS Foundation Pharmacy Partners Scholarship Program has provided crucial scholarship support to all U.S. colleges and schools of pharmacy through a program held at the NACDS Annual Meeting. Scholarships awarded to the colleges and schools of pharmacy are designated for the schools' scholarship funds for qualifying pharmacy students.

With many pharmacy school scholarship programs facing strains on their scholarship programs due to high demand, this year’s program has taken on an added significance.

All scholarship benefactors are invited to attend the scholarship drawing, reception, and dinner on Monday, April 26, 2010, at The Beach Club at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. For more information and to make sure your company’s name is not left off this important list of contributors contact NACDS’ Sarah Sneeringer, Director, Foundation Development at ssneeringer@nacds.org or (703) 837-4278.

NACDS FOUNDATION 12TH ANNUAL DINNER

Save the Date for the NACDS Foundation 12th Annual Dinner which will be held on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, at the Hilton New York, New York, NY.

Funds raised at the Annual Foundation Dinner enable the Foundation to increase support for pharmacy education and student scholarships, conduct research to advance patient care, and support those charitable organizations, and their respective members, who benefit from the healthcare services community pharmacy provides the public.

Be on the lookout for more detailed information on the 12th Annual Dinner in the weeks ahead.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD MEDICATION ADHERENCE: THE NATIONAL CONSUMERS LEAGUE CAMPAIGN

Every day, patients fail to pick up their prescriptions, skip doses, take their medications incorrectly, or simply stop taking their medications over time. An estimated one-third to one-half of all patients in the United States does not take their medications as prescribed by their providers. A February 2010 study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, revealed that 1 in 4 new prescriptions went unfilled, especially common for medications treating chronic conditions, including high blood pressure, diabetes, and high cholesterol.

Because medication adherence is an enormous, yet largely overlooked public health issue, the National Consumer’s League (NCL) – with planning funds from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) – has taken the lead in coordinating a national medication adherence campaign to broadly promote the importance of taking medications as prescribed. NCL has built a diverse coalition of more than 100 public and private stakeholder organizations to help shape and develop the campaign plan.

The media campaign is expected to launch in 2010, with mass media and social marketing approaches in addition to targeted outreach efforts. All forms of media will be designed to raise awareness about the importance of good medication adherence and to ultimately improve patient attitudes and behaviors relative to taking medications. Messages will be geared to the general adult population, with a focus on adults with chronic conditions. A secondary campaign is also being developed for healthcare practitioners, providing them tools and resources to reinforce the message of the campaign with patients.

The NACDS Foundation provided $50,000 grants in 2009 and 2010 for this important consumer awareness program. For more information on the NCL National Medication Adherence Campaign, please visit the NCL website.

THINKING OUTSIDE THE PILLBOX: INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO IMPROVE MEDICATION ADHERENCE

Since 2009, the NACDS Foundation has been a sponsor and participant in the New England Healthcare Institute’s (NEHI) Medication Adherence Initiative. NEHI embarked on a multi-phase adherence project, with a goal of addressing patient medication adherence for chronic disease from a system-wide perspective.

The first phase of this initiative was completed in 2009. An expert roundtable and research conducted by Avalere Health led to NEHI’s release of a medication adherence issue brief in August 2009, entitled Thinking Outside the Pillbox. The report gained national media attention, with features in the Boston Globe (link), Wall Street Journal (link), and Modern Healthcare (link) among others. The issue brief identified medication non-adherence as a source of waste and inefficiency in the health care system, estimating it to cost as much as $290 billion annually, or 13% of total healthcare expenditures.

NEHI also identified the four most promising solutions to address poor medication adherence:

Creating healthcare teams
Patient engagement and education
Payment reform
Leveraging health information technologies

As NEHI moved into the second phase of this project, workgroups were formed to further investigate these high opportunity targets, with specific focus on 1) care team coordination, and 2) patient engagement and patient financial incentives. The work groups continue to convene, and will soon release parameters for scalable, replicable demonstration projects to test these adherence levers later this year. Stay tuned for updates as these demonstration projects are implemented.

HEART MATTERS IN PHARMACY

The NACDS Foundation Research and Mission Advancing Grants Program provides funding to research projects which seek to address, identify, and develop ways to advance community pharmacy's ability to enhance patient care services in their neighborhoods and the healthcare system at large. This quarter’s featured “Mission Advancing” Program is The University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Pharmacy’s “The Heart Matters in Pharmacy Practice.”

As the pharmacist’s role expands to provide medication therapy management services, the importance of interpersonal skills needed to connect with patients is becoming critical. “The Heart Matters in Pharmacy Practice” is a unique course that utilizes storytelling and reflection to re-introduce humanism into the pharmacy curriculum. It was inspired by comparable work in schools of medicine and addresses two critical questions: how can we reclaim the call to serve to fully attend to our patients, and how do we find and develop in our students the courage to care?

The elective course developed by and offered at UCSF School of Pharmacy explores the concept of “attending” to the human perspective in pharmacy. The course syllabus and facilitator’s guide were made available to all colleges and schools of pharmacy through the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) website in December (www.aacp.org) and the NACDS Foundation website (www.NACDSFoundation.org).

PHARMACY STUDENT SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

Since 2003, the NACDS Foundation Pharmacy Student Scholarship Program has been supporting the development of future pharmacy caregivers while recognizing pharmacy students who have a strong interest in pursuing a career in community pharmacy. In December, 93 students were awarded the NACDS Foundation Pharmacy Student Scholarship. A total of $196,000 in scholarships was awarded to pharmacy students representing 59 colleges and schools of pharmacy in 29 states and the District of Columbia.

The NACDS Foundation was proud to award eight named scholarships honoring distinguished individuals and organizations who share the commitment to pharmacy’s role in public health; the Robert J. Bolger Scholarship ($2,500), the Taro Research Foundation Scholarship ($2,500) and two new scholarships, the Edmond Fougera Scholarship ($3,000) and the Leonard J. DeMino Scholarship ($5,000). In total, 85 pharmacy student received scholarships of $2,000; four students received scholarships of $2,500; two students received scholarships of $3,000; and two students received scholarships of $5,000 – totaling $196,000 and 93 scholarships. Click here to see the future pharmacists who benefited from the NACDS Foundation’s scholarship contributions.

The NACDS Foundation would like to thank the following contributors for their support of the 2009 Pharmacy Student Scholarship Program:

CostCo Fouger Lilly P & G Taro

COMMUNITY PHARMACY PATIENT SAFETY TOOLS NOW AVAILABLE

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) was awarded a $50,000 grant from the NACDS Foundation to create a program entitled “Improving Medication Safety in Community Pharmacy: Assessing Risk and Opportunities for Change.” The program, available now, is designed to help community pharmacy personnel identify potential medication safety risks and prevent errors in the pharmacy. Pharmacists and other pharmacy personnel can use the materials and tools in this manual to pinpoint specific system weakness in the medication-use process and to provide a starting point for successful organizational improvements intended to help improve patient outcomes.

After utilizing this manual, community pharmacy personnel will be able to initiate a risk assessment process to identify system-based medication safety risks and improvements in the community pharmacy setting, use ISMP’s Key Elements of the Medication Use System^™ to help identify breakdowns in the system and prevent risk in daily practice, examine flow diagrams or flow charts of the medication- use process to identify process variability, and select effective error-reduction strategies that can prevent patient harm. This valuable program can be accessed at www.NACDSFoundation.org.

NACDS FOUNDATION LAUNCHES PATIENT CARE DATABASE

For the past two decades, community pharmacists have been regarded as one of the most accessible and trusted healthcare professionals in America, providing patient care services such as Medication Therapy Management, immunizations, and diagnostic screenings in addition to dispensing medication. The services community pharmacists perform have been shown to decrease hospitalizations, adverse drug events, and emergency department visits, all of which lead to improved patient health outcomes.

Through the Patient Care Database Project, the NACDS Foundation seeks to provide a one-stop resource to identify trends and provide documentation for community pharmacist provided patient care services. Launched in February 2010, this online searchable resource of recent academic studies and trade press articles is available to patients, academia, researchers and the general public seeking to identify trends and successes in expanded pharmacist-provided patient care services.

In development for one-year, the project was launched successfully under the leadership of Dr. Lawrence M. Brown, PharmD, PhD, from the University of Tennessee Center for Medication Therapy Management, known for his expertise and work in the medication therapy management (MTM) arena both in the U.S. and abroad. Users of the database are able to search for articles by disease state, clinical service, or geographic location among other filters. The database will continue to grow over time, with the University of Tennessee Center for Medication Therapy Management adding additional items to the evolving database over the next 2 years. To use the Patient Care Database, visit the Foundation website here.

FUNDRAISING

FEATURED DONORS

The NACDS Foundation is proud to acknowledge the support of its contributors. Your commitment endorses the Foundation’s mission of providing research, education, training, and charitable initiatives to advance patient care services.

Contributions for Calendar Year 2010 are welcome. For more information or to make a donation, contact Sarah Sneeringer, NACDS’ Director, Foundation Development, at (703) 837-4278.

2009 Foundation Donors

Abbott – Pharmaceutical Products Division
Alberto-Culver Company
Alcon Laboratories, Inc.
ALVA-AMCO Pharmacal Cos., Inc.
American Greetings Corporation
Amerigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
AmerisourceBergen Corporation
Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
Apotex Corp.
AstraZeneca
Atico International, Inc.
The Bartell Drug Company
Bayer HealthCare, Consumer Care
Beiersdorf, Inc.
Berkshire Axis Innovations Inc.
Bob Kwait Consulting Group/Kwait & Associates, Inc.
Boehringer Ingelheim Consumer Health Care
Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Brand Resources, LLC div of Burn Free USA
C.T. Hellmuth & Associates
Cadbury North America
Cardinal Health, Inc.
CARE Pharmacies, Inc.
Catalina Marketing Services
Chattem, Inc.
Coca-Cola
Colgate-Palmolive Co. Inc.
Conair Corporation
Costco Wholesale dba Costco Pharmacies
Coty Beauty
CROSSMARK, Inc.
CVS Caremark Corporation
Dickstein Shapiro LLP
Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc.
Dr. Fresh, Inc.
Drive Medical Design & Manufacturing
Drug Store News
Duane Reade Inc.
ECRM
Energizer Household Products Division
eRx Network, an Emdeon Company
Express Scripts, Inc.
FGX International
Fleming Pharmaceuticals
Forest Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Fougera
Fruth Pharmacy
Giant Eagle, Inc.
Giant Pharmacy
GlaxoSmithKline
GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare
Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Hartig Drug Company, Inc.
H-E-B
The Hershey Company
Hi-School Pharmacy Inc.
IMS HEALTH
Information Resources, Inc.
Johnson & Johnson Group of Consumer Companies
Kao Brands Company
Kerr Drug, Inc.
Kimberly-Clark Corporation
Kinney Drugs, Inc.
Kiss Products, Inc.
L’Oréal Paris
L’Oréal USA
Lewis Drugs, Inc.
LifeLabs
Lilly USA, LLC
Long Island University Arnold and Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy
Lornamead, Inc.
Maybelline New York/Garnier
McKesson Corporation
MedImpact Healthcare Systems, Inc.
The Mentholatum Company
Merck
Mylan Pharmaceuticals
National Consumers League
The Nielsen Company
Novartis Consumer Health, Inc. (OTC N.A.)
Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
Novo Nordisk, Inc.
Osborn Drugs, Inc.
Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc.
Pamida Foundation
PepsiCo.
Perrigo Company
Pfizer Consumer Healthcare
Pharmavite
Prescription Solutions
Procter & Gamble Company
Product Quest Manufacturing, LLC
Reckitt Benckiser
Revlon
Rexall Pharma Plus/Snyder's
Rexam Prescription Products, Inc.
Rite Aid Corporation
Roche Diagnostics
Roxane Laboratories (A Boehringer Ingelheim Co.)
S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc., North American Consumer Products
Sandoz
sanofi-aventis
Sato Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Save Mart Supermarkets
ScriptPro
Shurtech Brands, LLC
Softsheen/Carson
Stop & Shop Pharmacy
StoreBoard Media LLC
SUPERVALU INC.
Surescripts
The Swanson Group
Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc.
Target Corporation
Taro Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc.
Teva Pharmaceuticals
3M
Thriftway/Zitomer Drug
Time Warner Retail
Tiny Jewel Box
TOP RX, INC
UCB, Inc.
Unilever
Upsher-Smith Laboratories, Inc.
URL Pharma
USA Drug
VersaPharm
Wahl Clipper Corporation
Walgreen Co.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Watson Pharma, Inc.
Weider Global Nutrition
Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company
Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions
Zicam LLC

UPCOMING EVENTS

It’s not too late to support our nation’s future pharmacists...Pharmacy Partners Scholarship Program
April 26, 2010

NACDS Foundation 12th Annual Dinner
November 30, 2010

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Raising Public Awareness About the Importance of Good Medication Adherence: The National Consumers League Campaign

Thinking Outside the Pillbox: Innovative Approaches to Improve Medication Adherence

Heart Matters in Pharmacy

Pharmacy Student Scholarship Program

Community Pharmacy Patient Safety Tools Now Available

NACDS Foundation Launches Patient Care Database

FUNDRAISING

Featured Donors

CONTACT INFORMATION

foundation@nacds.org
703.837.4276