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Society News
Education Committee Formed for 2008: Call for Volunteers
The Society has recently formed its 2008 education committee. The committee is working to develop specific projects, white papers, and training and development programs on behalf of our members. We are also in the process of developing the program for our 2008 annual conference, November 6-7 in Washington, DC. If you would like to volunteer to serve on the committee, become a faculty member or submit a topic idea for our annual conference, please contact Joe Eichenholz, executive director, at 201-923-4534 or 860-657-3207, or jeichenholz@PandTSociety.org.
2008 Annual Conference
Access to Pharmaceuticals: Public and Private Solutions
November 6-7, 2008 in Washington, DC.
Early-bird registration ends October 10, 2008
2007 Annual Conference
The most successful annual conference in the history of the Society was held November 8-9, 2007 at The Fairmont Washington, DC. This conference included presentations by leading figures in formulary and policy development. General session topics included generating and translating evidence for healthcare decision making ("comparative effectiveness"), and biomarkers, individualized medicine and the future of evidence-based medicine. Panel discussions addressed "medication reconciliation", processes to insure appropriate drug therapy for patients across practice settings along the continuum of care, and the evolution and refinement of evidence based formularies in multiple practice settings. The conference luncheon speaker, Society President Celynda Tadlock, provided a perspective on directions in pharmacy management and formulary development. Dr. Tadlock was able to share her insights as a pharmacist and business executive regarding the issues we need to address as a healthcare community as pharmaceutical therapy grows in importance over the coming years. Workshops combined new approaches to methodology with discussions in key therapeutic areas: the role of the employer in benefit design and formulary in HIV/AIDS, use of treatment guidelines in oncology, and use of differenct forms of evidence for decision making in the management of diabetes.
The Society is taking a major step with two program initiatives for 2008 launched recently at the annual conference:
- The P&T Academy is a therapeutic area/drug category specific program that helps formulary committees and their "generalists" (the non-subspecialist physicians and the non-physicians) better understand the structure, endpoints, and usefulness/limitations of the randomized clinical trials and their relationship to the clinical success measures from "regular clinical practice" that ultimately need to guide formulary decisions. This program is designed for individual member use or as a tool that can be used by a formulary committee for member training or orientation.
- The P&T Perspective is a program for colleges of pharmacy to help pharmacy students understand how a formulary committee operates in both an institutional and managed care settings. It will help them become more effective as staff for formulary committees once they graduate, and provide them with a framework and a pathway for assuming leadership positions over time. This program is also disease/therapeutic area specific. Content development and overall implementation at colleges of pharmacy are being guided be a steering committee composed of deans of colleges of pharmacy and their directors of curriculum development. We are very pleased with some early guidance on how to make this program useful during various stages of pharmacy training, and even how to apply the program where appropriate in multidisciplinary courses for physicians, nurses and pharmacists at universities that offer such opportunities. Finally, we intend to included each therapeutic area module a template for those colleges of pharmacy that want to create their own P&T committee competition among groups of students. This will help them better assimilate the program content and provide an opportunity for more junior students to begin to use the P&T process earlier in their training by watching competitions featuring fellow students.
We invite interested individuals and companies to contact us about participating in these two initiatives.
Corporate members and supporters
We have received support from a number of pharmaceutical companies and other healthcare organizations, both as sponsors of our 2007 annual conference and as corporate members for 2007-2008 (see Sponsorship section of website). We wish to thank these forward-thinking supporters of the Society and encourage you all to consider the role that the Society plays in elevating issues of concern to you and your organizations to a national stage that will facilitate their resolution. Corporate memberships are available in varying amounts and with varying direct and indirect benefits. We urge you to consider such memberships where appropriate.
We are also asking each of you who may have visited our webpage or who are readers of Managed Care Interface , to consider applying for a $100 individual membership in the Society. Individual membership conveys a number of benefits, including a complimentary, one-year subscription to Managed Care Interface , a discount on registration fees for our annual conference and other paid events (such as the upcoming web conference series) and the opportunity to participate on the committees of the Society and access our board members both formally and informally. As part of member exchange, we are all committed to helping our colleagues within the Society address the individual and organizational implications and ramifications of the types of issues we are addressing nationally as a Society. But most importantly, the Society is advancing state-of-the-art policies and processes to establish and manage P&T committees, improve review and evaluation of drugs and technologies, and help you perfect your own knowledge and expertise. There is no better way for you to enrich the policy deliberations and the internal discussions of your organizations than with input gained from your interaction with Society colleagues. The $100 membership fee carries with it significantly more in direct monetary benefits than the charge itself. The intangible benefits deriving from your involvement in addressing critical healthcare issues and in being able to access your colleagues on the Society will be of inestimable value both personally and professionally.
We urge you to complete and return the membership application. We also urge you to consider a corporate membership as appropriate. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Executive Director, Joe Eichenholz (JEichenholz@PandTSociety.org) at 201.923.4534 or 8660-657-3207.
We are also asking each of you who may have visited our webpage or who are readers of Managed Care Interface , to consider applying for a $100 individual membership in the Society. Individual membership conveys a number of benefits, including a complimentary, one-year subscription to Managed Care Interface , a discount on registration fees for our annual conference and other paid events (such as the upcoming web conference series) and the opportunity to participate on the committees of the Society and access our board members both formally and informally. As part of member exchange, we are all committed to helping our colleagues within the Society address the individual and organizational implications and ramifications of the types of issues we are addressing nationally as a Society. But most importantly, the Society is advancing state-of-the-art policies and processes to establish and manage P&T committees, improve review and evaluation of drugs and technologies, and help you perfect your own knowledge and expertise. There is no better way for you to enrich the policy deliberations and the internal discussions of your organizations than with input gained from your interaction with Society colleagues. The $100 membership fee carries with it significantly more in direct monetary benefits than the charge itself. The intangible benefits deriving from your involvement in addressing critical healthcare issues and in being able to access your colleagues on the Society will be of inestimable value both personally and professionally.
We urge you to complete and return the membership application. We also urge you to consider a corporate membership as appropriate. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our Executive Director, Joe Eichenholz (JEichenholz@PandTSociety.org) at 201.923.4534 or 8660-657-3207.
Institute of Medicine Task Force Report: Medical and Medication Errors:
The Society is forming a 2008 task force to address issues in the quality and safety of medications. This project is being conducted at the invitation of the Institute of Medicine.
The P&T Society's 2004 task force report was also developed at the invitation of the Institute of Medicine to provide practical guidance to P&T committee efforts to improve patient safety and reduce medical and medication errors. That report was endorsed by the Leapfrog Group. The Society is building on the results of this report through its 2008 project
Please contact the executive director, Joe Eichenholz, at or at 201-923-4534, or 860-657-3207, if you are interested in participating.
To view the 2004 IOM Task Force Report click here.
Watch your mail, or check www.PandTSociety.org, for news and information on new PTS programs and initiatives.
We hope that our expanded services and educational programs will help you meet the challenges of the P&T process
The P&T Society's 2004 task force report was also developed at the invitation of the Institute of Medicine to provide practical guidance to P&T committee efforts to improve patient safety and reduce medical and medication errors. That report was endorsed by the Leapfrog Group. The Society is building on the results of this report through its 2008 project
Please contact the executive director, Joe Eichenholz, at or at 201-923-4534, or 860-657-3207, if you are interested in participating.
To view the 2004 IOM Task Force Report click here.
Watch your mail, or check www.PandTSociety.org, for news and information on new PTS programs and initiatives.
We hope that our expanded services and educational programs will help you meet the challenges of the P&T process
