PharmaSir Magazine: Dr. DeLon Mark Canterbury

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Breaking the Cycle of Overmedication Deprescribing with Pharmacogenomics

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Executive Editor in Chief Dr. Jerrica Dodd Creative Director Shannon S. G. Jarrett - Speak Beautiful Cover Photographer Ken Demery Photography PharmaSisMag.com

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PharmaSir Magazine! I like the sound of that! Just like PharmaSis Magazine was a thought and dream back in 2019, so was PharmaSir in 2020. But the pandemic hit!...Just like the rest of the world, I had to figure out what life looked like during the pandemic, something I had never done before. My plans were stalled and I didn’t get to work on this project as I planned pre-pandemic. It is with such excitement and pride that I am able to feature a gentleman in pharmacy as it has always been my goal to celebrate Men in Pharmacy as well as Women in Pharmacy.

Welcome to the first special edition of PharmaSir Magazine and know that this will not the be last! I am thrilled to feature Dr. DeLon Canterbury, CEO of GeriatRx. If you have not seen his videos discussing Red Pill/Blue Pill then you are missing out! As you meet Dr. DeLon on these pages, read his story while following him as he builds his legacy to the community as well as the world of pharmacy. You will be amazed at what a gentleman in pharmacy can create! I am proud to have had a window into his world while he was bringing together his story and his dream of how he wants to serve. He is Also, be sure to check out the other gentlemen in pharmacy who have joined me in sponsoring this issue by sharing their businesses in our ads in PharmaSir Magazine. Connect with them, support them and spread the word about their businesses.

Again, WELCOME to the 1st special edition of PharmaSis Magazine… PharmaSir Magazine: Celebrating Men in Pharmacy!

Jerrica

Dr. Jerrica Dodd Founder/Editor, PharmaSis Magazine Founder/CEO, Your Pharmacy Advocate PharmD, Florida A&M Univ. 1998 MS, Pharmacy Administration, The Ohio State Univ. 2000 MS, Applied Pharmacoeconomics, Univ. of Florida 2012

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Inside this Issue SENIOR CARE CONSULTING 10

DR. DELON MARK CANTERBURY DEPRESCRIBING ADVOCATE AND FOUNDER |CEO OF GERIATRX SHARES HIS PASSION FOR CHANGE IN SENIOR PHARMACEUTICAL CARE

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DR. CANTERBURY ON PHARMACOGENOMICS 24

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Overprescribing medications is a well-known problem within the US health care system, that seems to surprisingly get very little attention. And I don’t mean just the opioid epidemic, but literally, millions of well-intentioned prescriptions are harming our seniors and sending our most vulnerable population to the ER! The lack of pharmacist oversight before prescriptions are written in addition to the poor management of prescriptions contributes to more than $528 billion dollars of wasted health care expenses amounting to almost 275,000 preventable deaths annually. Older adults account for nearly 16% of the United States’ population, but they consume nearly 30% of prescription drugs used within the United States, a number estimated to grow to 40% by the year 2030. Prescriptions are literally killing American citizens, and our senior citizens are the ones who are most likely to suffer the worst from fatal drug interactions, while having the highest use of OTC and herbal supplements out of any other demographic in the US!

a medication that was harmful and inappropriate, and subsequentially demanded the medication be stopped. Thankfully, her symptoms subsided after having a pharmacist fight and defend Mildred’s wellbeing, something that has been the reason why I founded GeriatRx. As a pharmacist, I decided to take these matters into my own hands by creating GeriatRx, a health care consulting company focusing on Medication Management, prescription deprescribing, and gene testing to determine which medications will not work for you before taking a single pill! GeriatRx uses patient-centered and concierge methods that take the headache out of healthcare by providing cost-effective strategies to reduce harmful medications, and by empowering patients and caregivers on how to fight back against a broken health care system while saving thousands of dollars. We also take pride in founding the Deprescribing Accelerator, a 12-week coaching program for senior care providers who want to learn how to SPOT and STOP harmful medications in seniors while increasing revenue for their clinical practice. The Deprescribing Accelerator focuses on teaching senior care organizations, medical homes, hom health agencies, nurses, pharmacists, and social workers on how to future-proof their business using value-based care and patient advocacy around Deprescribing. If you ready to level up your practice, and get the inside scope on how monetize deprescribing, and leverage pharmacists then our program is perfect for you. I never want any of my patients to experience what my grandmother, Mildred did, so let GeriatRx help you and your clients get off of those medications today!

Sadly, my grandmother, Mildred, was one of these very same statistics, who was forcibly removed from her nursing home in NY to my parent’s home in Georgia due to behavioral symptoms related to a medication side effect. She suffered from dementia and it had only worsened once she was prescribed an antipsychotic medication, known as Ziprasidone. Her behavior became irritable, erratic, and even more confused while she was on this drug for months. My caregiving parents suffered from seeing her mental state decline, where she would wake up in the middle of the night and wander our neighborhood while waking my mom up by ringing our doorbell. It was not until a pharmacist advocated for her and found that she was prescribed

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PHARMACEUTICAL ADVOCATE

Dr. DeLon Mark Canterbury, Deprescribing Advocate and Founder |CEO of GeriatRx shares his passion for change in Senior Pharmaceutical Care

Tell your story…how did you get here?

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y journey began from a place of depression, anger, and frustration with a health system that continues to marginalize communities of color and impede care for our seniors. After graduating pharmacy school, like most, the only option I had available to start my career in pharmacy was to work at my local retail pharmacy as a floater to eventually manage multiple pharmacy settings within the NC Research Triangle Park. As a disgruntled slave, working for the corner of depression and insanity, I realized how little I honestly knew about geriatric pharmacology, especially when serving a high senior population in the town of Henderson, NC. Sadly, seniors were the ones I noticed having the most drug-drug interactions, as well as a higher risk of side effects due to physiological changes in how their bodies respond to medicines.

Furthermore, I kept witnessing how my senior patients were the ones with the most social barriers to care, seeing far too many patients forced to decide between buying medications or food for the holidays. I hated that I had to watch these terrible decisions being made, and worse yet, I had to do it with a smile knowing that this narcotic script I just checked is going to be misused.

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DURHAM, NC | PHARMACY SCHOOL: UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA – ESHELMAN SCHOOL OF PHARMACY | DEGREES: PHARMD, BA CHEMISTRY | PREVIOUS CAREER: COMMUNITY PHARMACY MANAGER , SPECIALTY PHARMACY MANAGER ON SITE, POISON CONTROL PHARMACIST | NOW CAREER : CEO/PRESIDENT OF GERIATRX FOUNDER OF DEPRESCRIBING ACCELERATOR, CO-FOUNDER OF PGX ACCELERATOR

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The truth is I felt like a complete passenger in my own life, literally every second of every day, where it got to a point, I started hating my staff, myself, and worse yet the very same patients I was paid to serve. I was in retail hell for about six years, and I just kept seeing the very same patients who were either minorities or elderly coming in with the same medication errors. It became so repetitive that I thought, ‘how can we avoid this all together? How can we stop seniors from coming in with duplicate therapies and drug interactions that are sending these hardworking citizens to the only urgent care in town to get even worse care?’

What served as the final straw for me was having to tell a patient that their copay is $1,200, even after I checked for multiple coupons and researched manufacturer and patient assistance foundations. Our health system is broken and inequitable, and I felt like I was simply another cog on the wheel contributing to the machine that monetizes off of sick care.

So, I tried to pull myself out of this depression by focusing on why I got into pharmacy in the first place, which was serving communities in most need of health care services.

The truth is I felt like a complete passenger in my own life, literally every second of every day, where it got to a point, I started hating my staff, myself, and worse yet the very same patients I was paid to serve.

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Unfortunately, my grandmother, Mildred, suffered from dementia in her later years while I was still applying to pharmacy school, and that encouraged me to get that Board Certified Geriatrics Pharmacotherapy Certificate. We had to move her from New York to Atlanta because she was declining so poorly in her care and her dementia was worsening.

Come to find out, when we went to refill her prescriptions, a pharmacist realized she was on an inappropriate antipsychotic, Ziprasidone, that was worsening all of her symptoms. Preventable. My parents suffered for months in trying to figure out the cause, with countless medical bills and expenses wasted on a condition that was due to an inappropriately prescribed medication. Imagine how many other caregivers and family members are suffering just like this without a pharmacist to guide them along their medication management journey? Her side effects completely subsided after the pharmacist talked to her doctor and changed her medication. Health care shouldn’t be so plug and chug that those errors slip through the cracks. That also inspired me to continue in pharmacy, but to also specialize in geriatric care.

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I eventually stepped down from my pharmacy manager position and started rediscovering what makes DeLon happy. My first love with pharmacy came through volunteerism, but first I wanted to put my Board-Certified Geriatric Pharmacotherapy credential to good use and partnered with Senior PharmAssist, led by Gina Upchurch and her interdisciplinary team.

Senior PharmAssist is a nonprofit focusing on helping older patients with Medicare patient copay assistance and Medicare enrollment in Durham. I served on their formulary committee and started researching medications we should approve or remove from the formulary, and that was so fun! It got my fire back; it got my passion back. I even became the telehealth director for Community Health Coalition while I was starting GeriatRx, and dedicated my team of nurses and social workers to check on seniors in nursing homes during COVID to provide them with thermometers, food resources and wellness calls while they were isolating during the pandemic. I finally felt I was able to give

that extra help outside of the four walls of a pharmacy and it encouraged me to see how pharmacists can tremendously influence the way health care is delivered and change the impact with have by addressing the social drivers to health.

I’ve not only changed my perspective, but remain forever grateful for the exposure and experiences I’ve gained along this journey while starting a business in the middle of COVID. I never imagined I would be internationally recognized as a leader in pharmacy, would be a paid public speaker, have multiple blogs, news articles, media features, podcasts, nor start a second business along Dr. Jamie Wilkey and Dr. Howard McLeod, helping other PGx focused pharmacists to scale their business with our PGx Accelerator, all because of I bet on myself and trusted that God would see the rest come to fruition. I’m so grateful to serve my patients and build lasting relationships with them and can’t wait to see what the next few years will uncover with our Deprescribing Accelerator movement!

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Describe what you are building/have built.

I am building an army of pharmacist-led Deprescribing Advocates with a passion for stopping harmful medications in seniors using precision medicine and comprehensive medication management while addressing social barriers to care. Our Deprescribing Accelerator towards value-based care that empowers nursing homes, senior care organizations, and nurses and pharmacists on how they can increase client referrals and revenue for their practice by leveraging deprescribing!

What’s been your biggest lesson you have learned along your journey?

The biggest lesson I’ve taken away from my journey in creating GeriatRx is to check my limiting beliefs at the door and kick “what I thought I knew” out of the window! Entrepreneurs are constantly learning something new, so the key to success comes from having an abundance mindset, essentially meaning that there are countless opportunities to explore along the way!

What does it mean to be considered a leader in your profession and industry?

Personally, leadership should equate to how are you authentically showing up each and every day to serve those in most need.

Leaders have to not only lead by example, but should have a healthy appetite for maximizing their value and impact for the greater good of healthcare. I never thought that the work I’ve put in out of sheer darkness and hatred for my profession would have an international impact for pharmacists and other clinicians across the world

At this time, pharmacists are being challenged to think out of the box more than ever. What advice do you have for the pharmacist who is wondering how to do that?

Analysis Paralysis, which us pharmacists love to fixate on, is the kryptonite to our success as entrepreneurs. Fear is normal, but it’s how you roll with the fear, and embrace the freefall into the unknown that separates those who remain constant and those authentically serve others more than themselves.

How do you respond to fear?

I gave all of my negative thoughts, worries, anxieties, and selfdoubt to God. Fear generally is an inch away from success, so choosing how to alter one’s perspective from fear of failure, to simply doing without delay and embracing the freefall of the unknown has led to momentous growth and critical breakthroughs for my journey. I’ve deepened my trust in spirituality, prayer, and aligning what I want for myself with serving God and others from the heart!

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Who do you look up to or model yourself after (personal or professional)?

Personally, I believe my parents, Sandra and Stanley Canterbury are who I look up to the most in this world. Both having been immigrants from Guyana, to the number of sacrifices made in raising 3 amazing children in the US is no easy feat. I embody my mom’s spirit for adventure and thrill-seeking, while I’ve developed a healthy sense of altruism and servant-leadership from my father. Professionally, I model myself after Dr. Kenneth Schell, who has been a friend and a mentor since the beginning of GeriatRx. Kenneth serves as a model pharmacist, having been the past president of the California Board of Pharmacy while growing his own pharmacist consulting practice. He consistently believes in reaching back and grooming others towards entrepreneurship, open-mindedness and the passion to serve others through health care and patient advocacy

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What message would you share with other colleagues in pharmacy?

focused pharmacists who are looking to scale their business alongside Dr. Jamie Wilkey and Dr. Howard McLeod with the PGx Accelerator, helping pharmacists scale their PGx practice!

Pharmacy is going through a huge transformation from our traditional retail/ hospital routes to a multitude of unique integrative health services. This is the perfect opportunity to start differentiating yourself and marketing what you truly want to do if you are pursuing other avenues and use this opportunity to garnish mentors and leverage your network to ensure success! We need to start using our super power of Deprescribing to exemplify the value pharmacists bring to the table!

Where can we find you to further connect?

Deprescribing Accelerator Appointments www.geriatrx.as.me Website: www.geriatrx.org Instagram: https://www.geriatrx.org/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/geriatrx Twitter: https://twitter.com/GeriatRx

What’s next for you and/or your business?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ GeriatRxInc

GeriatRx intends on becoming a nationally franchised organization utilizing an interdisciplinary care team with a focus on PHARAMCISTS leading the charge for medication deprescribing for vulnerable seniors in various senior care organizations, home health agencies, and nursing homes across the world! I also am actively training PGx-

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCoM_p87s9c5Gvv0s-2fgH7A

Dr. DeLon M. Canterbury Consultant Pharmacist 404.484.5092

6409 Fayetteville Street Suite 120-218 Durham, NC 27713 geriatrxinc@gmail.com geriatrx.org

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DR. CANTERBURY ON PHARMACOGENOMICS

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ave you ever wondered whether that same medication you are taking is actually the best one for you? Ever wonder why you may take a medication and have all the side effects in the world, but your family member using the same drug has no issues whatsoever? Your genes may be the reason why! It’s unbelievable that the majority of modern medicinal and pharmacological practices seen within our US health system come from outdated clinical studies with an overwhelming majority of white male subjects.

Literally, the antibiotics, blood pressure, anxiety medications, and several other drugs we prescribe chronically are derived from a majority white population that doesn’t truly reflect the melting pot that we proudly call USA. It’s true that if you slice any human, we all bleed the same, but when it comes to how people respond to the drugs that we take regularly, we have completely different responses from each other!

Humans have similarities of nearly 99.9% of our DNA, but for that 0.1% there can

be significant gene changes that affect how well or how poorly you may tolerate your medication. GeriatRx specializes in the World of Pharmacogenomics (Gene Testing / Precision Medicine), the use of studying these specific gene changes that influence whether that medication could be lifesaving for you, or potentially fatal for another. We believe all patients should have access to precision medicine especially among our aging population, which can prevent unnecessary harm in seniors that tend to have the highest side effect profile out of any other group!

So why are you now hearing about this? The truth is health care still is not truly accessible to everyone where those with the most resources and financial means, still struggle to find the best health care solutions. Even though the use and study of precision medicine has been around for 20 years, initially, most insurances weren’t covering it, where now it is widely accessible and affordable for those interested. As a concerned pharmacist with a passion for health equity and 25

medication deprescribing, we have an absolute responsibility in sharing how using these genetic tests can stop harmful and fatal medications from entering your body before they even happen! This has been a pivotal tool within the Deprescribing Accelerator where we coach pharmacists, nurses, and senior care providers on how they can leverage pharmacogenomics testing to stop harmful medication use.

We all have unique backgrounds, ethnicities, and genes, so we can’t assume that all medications will work completely the same when applied to other populations. GeriatRx creates personalized Deprescribing Action Plans and can identify potentially rare genetic disorders, while keeping you from taking ineffective and expensive medications, in while working with your provider on how to best prescribe new drugs! Pharmacists are one of the most accessible and trusted resource, so let us advocate for you with GeriatRx and get your own personalized genetic test today with your own personal pharmacist today!

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