Last week, the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners, a coalition of national pharmacy organizations, brought CEOs, presidential officers, and senior staff together in Alexandria, Va., to examine how technology, policy, and communication can be leveraged to strengthen patient care across settings.
The first session covered state-level Rural Health Transformation projects, with speakers from Missouri and Alaska who described how pharmacists are being integrated into care teams to expand access in underserved communities. Panelists highlighted technology-enabled services and use of data to demonstrate and document pharmacist service value, payment approaches for pharmacist-provided care, and early impact on patient outcomes.
That was followed by a talk on federal efforts to advance interoperability and their implications for pharmacist-provided care led by Mark Atalla, PharmD, MBA, the deputy national coordinator for health IT at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.
Another panel, moderated by NCPA CEO Douglas Hoey and featuring pharmacists Jeff Rochon of the Pharmacy HIT Collaborative and Frank Harvey of Surescripts, focused on interoperability "inside pharmacy," highlighting practical success stories, remaining barriers, and concrete steps associations can take to support adoption of interoperable systems.
Last was a session led by Todd Wolynn, executive director of Trusted Messenger, which covered evidence-based communication strategies, methods to counter misinformation, building trust with patients and communities, and how to equip association members to effectively explain new care models, digital tools, and access issues to patients, families, and policymakers.
Attendees then worked together to identify key commitments and areas for follow-up work, including supporting rural health innovation involving pharmacists, advancing priority interoperability use cases, and exploring tools and training to strengthen pharmacists' roles as trusted messengers.
