2010-11 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy President
Associate Dean for Professional and External Relations Rod Carter was sworn in as president of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) in July—the second AACP president from the University of Minnesota in the past several years. Dean Marilyn Speedie also served as AACP president in 2007-08.
In his address to the House of Delegates, Carter advocated that “we must move now if we are to realize the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners (JCPP) 2015 vision of a truly patient-centered practice, of a ‘new American pharmacist’—one who uses knowledge of drugs and drug products, and patient care skills; someone who accepts the responsibility of working with people to improve drug therapy outcomes and thereby improve patients' health.”
Carter cites the health care home model as an opportunity for pharmacists to step forward and not wait to be called upon.
“We need to ensure that patients will benefit from having pharmacists as a team member of the health care home, providing medication therapy management and practicing patient-centered pharmaceutical care,” said Carter. “In pharmacy academia, it is our job to discover the knowledge and provide the evidence that are the foundations of this practice.”
Having pharmacists as part of the health care home is critical to the profession’s future, according to Carter.
“Health economists are recognizing pharmacy’s potential in reducing health care costs,” explained Carter. “New care models will be forming as physicians and other care providers organize to create patient-centered health homes and accountable care organizations.”
Carter stressed that the “stars are aligned” and the door is now open for pharmacists “to provide the evidence of the value of this new practice so that financial barriers to patient centered care are broken.”
To move the academy and the profession forward, Carter charged the AACP’s standing committees and one special task force to “act on an overall plan that will assist us in equipping our graduates for this new reality; for working with our pharmacy practice partners in realizing it; for taking our message about it to the public, employers, payers and policy makers; and for assuring that our researchers and graduate programs can continue to provide the evidence, the new knowledge and faculty to support it.”
To read Carter’s address online in its entirety, visit ajpe.org, volume 74, issue 08.
This Featured Leader is part of an ongoing series from the Center for Leading Healthcare Change that profiles pharmacy leaders in the community.