PHARMACY PRACTICE
HOPA President Foresees Opportunities Continued from cover with others on the healthcare team. Then I did my pharmacy practice residency at the University of California San Diego Medical Center and my oncology pharmacy practice residency at the University of Colorado. In 2004, I attended the Making a Difference in Oncology meeting and heard about HOPA, which was just being formed. I joined and immediately got involved in committee work within HOPA. That evolved into serving in leadership positions as secretary, president-elect, and now as president.
What have been some of the highlights of your year as HOPA president? This has been a year of laying the foundation for the organization and watching the initial parts of the strategic plan come to fruition. HOPA is still a relatively young organization, and we’re still very much a member volunteer organization. As we grow, we rely on our members to take time out of their busy lives to get everything done. HOPA has accomplished so many things this year it is hard to pick out the highlights. Last year when Jim Koeller was president, HOPA University was established; this year, the education and standards committee has developed programming that allowed our membership to have online access to continuing education programs. As HOPA Universtiy expands, we will be able to provide relevant and high-quality continuing education not only at annual meetings but also throughout the year. As the organization moves forward, it is important that we are able to provide funding opportunities so the membership can do research, especially in areas were there are gaps in knowledge regarding oncology patient care and oncology pharmacy. The research committee has worked hard to establish an Investigator Research Award for which we hope to award sometime this year.
sessions offered at each organization’s annual meeting. In addition, we’ve been working with other oncology professional groups, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Oncology Nursing Society, on developing standards for the safety of the administration of chemotherapy. We are looking to work with the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy on the development of an oncology pharmacy curriculum guide to provide some standardization of what we as practitioners feel is important and needs to be communicated to pharmacy students. The hope here is that students are exposed early and really understand what oncology pharmacy involves and what opportunities it offers.
Are there any plans to establish regional chapters of HOPA? There is nothing formally set up within HOPA to provide regional chapters, but some regional or state societies have asked for input in some of their programming and meetings. This is part of HOPA’s strategic plan and, as we move forward, we are looking at the viability of regional or local chapters within our own organization to allow exchange of ideas and education between members on a more frequent basis. At this point, with HOPA’s rapid growth, we’re spending a lot of time establishing necessary infrastructure within the organization, getting policies and procedures set up, and making sure committees have directions and are functioning at a high level. What are some of the highlights that we can look forward to at this year’s meeting? This year is going to be another great meeting with many learning opportunities. It’s been organized by an active program committee, with the goal of involving the membership more in the education process by having more debates, case discussions, and more
We’ve been looking at ways that pharmacists can be included as a provider of services and able to bill for their cognitive and other services. We’ve also been working collaboratively with several outside organizations, such as the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, on how we can improve and streamline the oncology pharmacy board certification process. As a result, HOPA will now provide the testing and continuing education credit for the BCOP [boardcertified oncology pharmacist] specialty
10
diverse workshops with hands-on type activities to meet the needs of our different types of members. We’re trying to get to the nitty gritty of what we do as hematology/oncology pharmacists and how we do it and to get a lot of input from our membership. Our members are very talented and active, and we’re trying to tap into their expertise. At the opening session, Ernest Anderson from the Association of Community Cancer
G REEN H ILL H EALTHCARE C OMMUNICATIONS
We are having students do some volunteer work at the meeting, and we hope that once they see the great things we do on a daily basis, it will encourage them to consider a career in oncology pharmacy. Centers will present the keynote address, providing us with a global, costeffectiveness perspective on cancer care, which is something we may not think about on a daily basis when we are taking care of patients. We will be having a town hall meeting to give the members a voice and allow them to discuss issues that are important to HOPA and hematology/oncology pharmacy. Additionally, HOPA is sponsoring the Run from the Sun, our first annual run/walk and charity drive benefiting the Richard David Kann Melanoma Foundation.
Does HOPA get involved in policy and legislative issues on the state or national level? We have a legislative affairs committee, and they have been quite active this year, mostly at the federal level. For instance, they have written letters to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regarding funding for Medicare services and to the FDA regarding drug shortages. We are working with a group of 11 pharmacy organizations to support payment systems within pharmacy and to assess what impact the new funding that is going to be coming through with the federal stimulus package will have on pharmacy in general and on oncology pharmacy in particular. We’ve been looking at ways that pharmacists can be included as a provider of services and able to bill for their cognitive and other services. The president-elect of HOPA, Philip Johnson from Moffitt, has a passion for legislative issues, so I foresee that in the coming years there will be even more work done in the legislative realm. Does HOPA have any plans to address the predicted oncology workforce shortage? The HOPA board has just begun thinking about what this shortage will be and what impact it will have on oncology pharmacy. We’ve started talking about forming task forces to provide recommendations on how HOPA should approach this shortage. The shortage appears to be one that mostly affects physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and others who provide more direct, basic care more than some pharmacists. It may actually provide opportunities for oncology pharmacists to become more integrated into
patient care, allowing us to be more active mid-level practitioners. There’s going to be a need for that, and oncology pharmacists can provide high-quality direct patient care if given the opportunity. Another area where oncology pharmacy may see some gains would be in the area of research. If there are fewer practitioners to see patients, that means fewer people with time to do research, which opens a door for oncology pharmacists to do some rigorous research in the area of oncology pharmacy.
Does HOPA offer any research support or other programs for pharmacy students or residents to encourage them to get involved in oncology pharmacy? HOPA has done a good job of reaching out to the residents. At our meeting every year we have a resident poster reception, which is very well attended. A large majority of the oncology pharmacy practice residents across the country come to HOPA and present their residency projects. We offer merit-based travel grants to some of the residents so they can attend the meeting. We’ve tried to incorporate residents on every committee as well as several new practitioners so they can get involved in the organization early in their career and become part of the committee structure. HOPA realizes that it is important to train the future of our organization. This year, students from NOVA Southeastern University will serve as volunteers at the meeting, and we hope that once they see the great things we do on a daily basis, it will encourage them to consider a career in oncology pharmacy. Any final comments? I think HOPA is a great organization with wonderful and talented people. Although we are relatively young, we are quite poised to become a leader in oncology care. We are working to develop standards and guidelines that will impact oncology patient care and outcomes. It has been a great honor to serve as president. I look forward to HOPA’s future successes and being a part of this outstanding organization throughout my career. —Karen Rosenberg
June 2009