Another fun filled summer again has passed. I hope all of you had fun this summer enjoying the heat and sun. Welcome back to another term of CE programs that our Board members are currently organizing.

For those of you who have not heard, our current President-Elect, Mitzi McGinnis is now working with University of Illinois in Chicago. I would like wish Mitzi and her husband all the best from WMSHP. In light of Mitzi’s departure, we will be looking for her replacement. This year we will be filling two president-elect positions. One to fulfill the remaining term and to serve as President in Jan 2006 and the other to serve as President-elect next year.

We will again be conducting elections in the fall for the upcoming year. We will be looking for a number of board members. Please consider serving on our board. If you have any questions regarding these positions, please speak of any of our current board members.

Also as a reminder, MSHP will be having their annual meeting on November 4, 2005 in Lansing. I will update you with details.

For our April meeting, we will again be showcasing pharmacy practice residency projects conducted by our area pharmacy residents who have been working hard in preparing their projects to present to our membership. The first presentation is titled "Compliance with Sequential Compression Devices Used for Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis in Surgical Patients" presented by Heather Bockheim, Pharm.D. from Spectrum Health. Our second presentation is titled "Pharmacokinetics of Once Daily Tobramycin for Therapy of Pulmonary Exacerbation of Cystic Fibrosis" presented by Margaret Lincoln, Pharm.D. from Bronson Hospital. I would like to thank these residents for sharing their projects and results with us.

Further update on the increase in membership: The increase to $20 will be in effect as of January 2006. A reminder will be sent to you in the fall.

Again, I wanted to remind all of you of our annual WMSHP Spring Seminar held on May 5, 2005 at the Grand Rapids Hilton. We have a number of great speakers this year. Keep an eye out in your mailbox for our flyer!

Annual dues for WMSHP members were increased from $10 to $20 at the February WMSHP Board meeting. This is the first ever increase in membership dues and will aid WMSHP in continuing to provide you with all the benefits of membership.

Just a reminder, the annual WMSHP Spring Seminar is just around the corner. It will be held on May 5, 2005 at the Grand Rapids Hilton. Peggy DeVoest has been working very hard to organize this seminar for the membership. The goal of this seminar is to provide pharmacy health care professionals with an opportunity to explore state-of-the-art pharmacy practice issues while earning continuing education. We have a roster of great speakers, so mark your calendars!!!!

Hope to see you at the March program in Kalamazoo!

February 18-20 is the Michigan Pharmacist Association 2005 Annual Convention & Exposition (ACE) held at the Dearborn Hyatt Regency. The theme is year is “Building a Brighter Future”. The ACE program welcomes pharmacists, technicians, students and guests. Continuing Education credits are also available.

MPA House of Delegates will be held on Saturday, February 19. Jesse Hogue, Vicki Sternhagen and Mitzi McGinnis will be representing WMSHP. These delegates, along with other delegates from MSHP, will be voting on issues and policies identified by the membership and considered by the Executive Board. Please contact any of these representatives if you have any issues that you would like discussed at their meetings.

Please note that this year at the MPA-ACE meeting, there is an Emergency Preparedness Certificate Program in Pharmacy. Pharmacists have been identified as key players in the event of a new emerging infectious disease outbreak or bioterrorism. This certification consists of seven live programs scheduled throughout the ACE program, providing 10.5 contact hours, as well as home study, independent practical demonstration exercises and post tests. To receive additional information you may contact Mary Farrington at MPA 517-377-0234 or mary@michiganpharmacists.org

Hope to see you in Grand Rapids for the February CE program!

I hope everyone enjoyed the Holiday season with lots of good friends and warm cheer!

A warm ‘welcome back’ to Jeff VanHouten, Jesse Hogue, and Ryan Bickel, who will be serving for an additional two years as board members. I would also like to take this time to introduce two new board members:

Dana Staat is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Ferris State University. Originating from Port Hope, she traveled to West Michigan to obtain her Pharm D from Ferris State University and then completed her pharmacy practice residency program at Spectrum Health. She oversees the internal medicine rotation at Saint Mary’s Health Care and her interests include pharmacokinetics and infectious disease.

Natalie Vazzana is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Ferris State University. Hailing from Homer Glen (suburb of Chicago), IL, she obtained her Pharm D degree at Purdue University and completed a pharmacy practice residency from McKesson Medication Management at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. Her clinical site is Spectrum Health – Butterworth’s internal medicine program. Natalie will be serving for one year, as a replacement for Mitzi McGinnis who will be your new President-Elect.

On behalf of the WMSHP board, I would like to thank Peggy DeVoest, who has done a tremendous job as President in 2004. Also, thanks to Mike Jonkman for his two-year service as Board Member and Jaci DeYoung for her service during her Past-President year. Thank you so much for all your hard work!

I hope to see all of you in the months ahead for the great educational programs we have planned. Please feel free to contact any member of the board or myself with ideas you may have for educational programs, topics you would like to have addressed, or ideas for our website. Please check out our website at www.wmshp.net.

On October 18th, WMSHP co-sponsored a residency showcase with Ferris State University in Grand Rapids at MERC. There were about forty people in attendance, which included program directors, residents and P2-P4 pharmacy students. The program was set up so that the each of the eleven programs from around the state could provide a brief overview of their pharmacy practice residencies and specialty residencies. Following the presentations, each of the programs’ representatives was available so the students could ask additional questions. Overall, the program was very valuable for both students and residency directors.

An upcoming event to consider is the MSHP annual meeting on November 12 at the Lansing Center in downtown Lansing. The program agenda and registration can be obtained at www.michiganpharmacists.org.

It is well-known that all licensed pharmacists must complete thirty hours of continuing education every two years for renewal. These hours can consist of any of the following forms of education: on-line, journals or live programming. Currently, pharmacists can elect to earn all their credits in one venue and may never attend a single program; but, this may all change in the future. The Board of Pharmacy has proposed that at least ten of the thirty hours be obtained from live programs. This proposal is being considered, and if passed, may go into effect starting next year. The WMSHP Board is considering this proposal very carefully and working hard to ensure that most if not all of our programs will offer continuing education for all of its members. We want to offer programs that are informative and useful for daily practice. Please let me know what you would like to see in the programming.

Another opportunity to obtain live continuing education is the Michigan Society of Health-System Pharmacists annual meeting. This year, the conference will take place on November 12th at the Lansing Center from 9:00-4:30. The program includes a wide variety of topics for pharmacists, technicians and students. The opening session includes two presentations: one on Bioethics, followed by a discussion on Emergency Preparedness. The afternoon offers three concurrent sessions focusing on leadership, pharmacy technicians and a clinical session. Some topics of note include pharmacogenomics, pharmacoeconomics, pharmacy informatics and technology. For more information log on to the MPA website at www.michiganpharmacists.org.

We are now accepting nominations for the following positions:

• Board Members – 2005 through 2006
   
• President-Elect – 2005

Please email the names of potential candidates to us at nominations@wmshp.net. Our membership will have the opportunity to vote on candidates when the October newsletter is distributed.

Labor Day marks the last celebration of summer. This Holiday is also very unique since it doesn’t glorify a conflict, battle, person, race or nation. It is celebrated the first Monday of September and is devoted to the achievements of all American workers. Labor Day for me symbolizes the beginning of Fall. Usually at this time I stop to regroup and reflect on the events that occurred over the Summer and plan the upcoming Fall.

During the Summer, the Board had a meeting to plan the education programs for the upcoming months. As in years past, we are having monthly meetings starting in September and rounding out the year in May with the Annual Spring Seminar. December is the only month we will not conduct an education session. The programs will be rotating between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo monthly. We are attempting to schedule meetings on the second Thursday of the month based on speaker and facility availability. We are also beginning to organize the Spring Seminar for May 2005. If you have topics you would like presented at either monthly education meetings or Spring Seminar please forward those to me at devoestm@ferris.edu. Also, remember to check out the WMSHP website (www.wmshp.net) for program details. It is loaded with useful information including information on our monthly CE programs, resources for PDA’s, and much more. I look forward to hearing from you!

This month our education program is slightly different than most programs. Two pharmacy practice residents will present their residency projects that they have been working on during the year. This year Dana Staat from Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids and Michelle Brodin from Mercy Health System in Muskegon have been selected.

Dana completed her pre-Pharmacy education and Pharm.D. degree through Ferris State University. Dana’s project is entitled "The Development and Implementation of a Pharmacy Competency Program". This was formed around the premise that health care is a rapidly changing field that requires constant education and a commitment to learn. Competencies are one way to accomplish continual education and training. To begin this continual process at Spectrum Health, a survey was administered to pharmacists to gauge the interests and needs that each individual pharmacist required for optimal education. After the results of the survey were tabulated, it was clear that a combination of CE and a shared-drive-based packet would serve best as a competency tool. Community-acquired pneumonia was chosen as the pilot focus for the competency template. After the competency was given, a follow-up survey was distributed to the same pharmacists to gain further information on the effectiveness of this education process. Documentation of pharmacist competency was also created as part of the formation of the competency program. Results of the effectiveness of the competency template will be reported at the April WMSHP meeting.

Michelle received her Pharm.D. from South Dakota State University College of Pharmacy in May of 2003. Michelle’s project involves anemia management in renal failure. She is working with area nephrologists to develop and improve a pre-dialysis monitoring service for outpatient kidney disease patients who are on either Procrit or Aranesp. She will describe their current practice and outline future plans for the service. Included in her evaluation of the project will be dosing of the medications, hemoglobin goals, hemoglobin monitoring frequency, iron lab frequency, management of missed doses, and a cost assessment. Since it is in the early stages, it is difficult to draw many conclusions on the success of the program, however preliminary data look promising.