SOP well-represented at VPhA Mid-Year Conference
About 175 people from across the state attended Virginia Pharmacists Association’s Mid-Year Conference Feb. 27-28 in Charlottesville.
Among the many participants and session leaders who have ties to VCU School of Pharmacy were:
- Akash Alexander (2008 Community Practice Resident), assistant professor: OTC roundtable leader on “Gastrointestinal”
- Toni Coe (Pharm.D. ’09), Community Practice Resident: OTC roundtable leader on “Muscle Pain, Fever and Headache”
- Sharon Gatewood (Pharm.D. ’02), assistant professor: OTC roundtable leader on “Cough and Cold”
- Preston Hale (B.S. ’72): presided over several sessions as 2009-10 VPhA president
- Holly Hurley (Pharm.D. ’04): OTC roundtable leader on “Women’s Health”
- Gretchen Kreckel, Community Practice Resident: co-speaker for “Pharmacy’s Role in Hospice Care”
- Sarah Melton (B.S. ’91, Pharm.D. ‘94): co-speaker for “The Role of the Pharmacist in the Patient-Centered Medical Home: Taking Collaborative Practice to the Next Level”
- Traci Poole (Pharm.D. ’09), Community Practice Resident: co-leader of “Side Effects and Reactions of Common Medicines”
- Amy W. Rudenko (Pharm.D. ’98), assistant professor: co-leader of “Side Effects and Reactions of Common Medicines”
- Al Shalow (B.S. ’61): introduced Tom Menighan, executive vice president and CEO of American Pharmacists Association, as guest speaker for the 29th Annual R. Reginald Rooke Lecture
- Casey Valiente, Community Practice Resident: speaker for “Medication Management Issues and Opportunities”
Several School of Pharmacy students also attended the conference, including John Shilan (P3), who was stunned to find out he had won a sizeable amount of money in the Saturday raffle. (Hale noted that Shilan was more than welcome to donate his winnings to VPhA!) Students participated in much of the regular programming, in addition to a special session on “Financial Planning for Student Pharmacists” and a leadership roundtable.
Highlights during the day on Saturday included Schalow’s quoted “words of wisdom,” such as “The optimist invents the airplane; the pessimist invents the parachute.” Melton gave a shout-out to the school’s Gary Matzke, encouraging the audience to “read his wonderful article” on the key pharmacy provisions in proposed health-care reform. (You can find his commentary in the January/February 2010 issue of Virginia Pharmacist, page 17.) In the session led by Melton and her husband, the couple noted that collaboration is key to the health-care team. “We have to share responsibility for the patient.”
Their discussion of pharmacy’s role in the hospice setting drew a number of questions for Kreckel and Kelly Rea of Richmond’s Buford Road Pharmacy . And Whitaker and Poole’s “Jeopardy!”-based session injected a lively note. The four teams choosing the categories erupted into cheers, groans or fist-pumping, depending on their scores at the time. All the presentation lacked was the game show’s theme tune (though a few in the crowd began humming it at one point).
Saturday’s events drew to a close with a School of Pharmacy Alumni and Friends Dessert Reception at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel, hosted by Dean Victor Yanchick and featuring an elegant array of make-your-own-sundae ingredients and various libations. The Sunday sessions began early the next day with a general membership meeting.
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