Published On: May 30, 2018282 words1.7 min readCategories: ArticleTags: ,

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NACDS President and CEO Steven C. Anderson, IOM, CAE, at center, with Cynthia Kirkwood, PharmD, fourth from right, executive associate dean for academic affairs of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy, and members of the student-pharmacist panel who engaged in the NACDS Retail Advisory Board Market Immersion in Richmond.

Previously, I described the NACDS Retail Advisory Board Market Immersion in Richmond, Virginia. I focused on our discussion with Dr. Dan Carey, Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources, about opioid abuse prevention. I also provided an overview of the Market Immersion’s focus on topics of relevance to the entire store, including supply chain topics; home-delivery trends; e-commerce; omni-channel packaging; health and wellness brand activation; virtual-augmented reality; and more.

At this time, I would like to mention how thankful I was that a panel of student pharmacists from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy joined us to discuss health and wellness issues, and specifically the community pharmacy practice setting. They were terrific. In their remarks, they discussed enhancing pharmacists’ scope-of-practice – including enhanced vaccination and screening authority; current topics associated with accountable care organizations; the role of pharmacy technicians in optimizing patient care; advancing medication therapy management; and other topics.

The topics that the students raised aligned with many of the priorities of NACDS. This alignment further validates the work that NACDS is doing for pharmacies, pharmacists and their patients – including the student pharmacists on the panel who ultimately will contribute to pharmacy’s role as the face of neighborhood healthcare.

These individuals from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy are enthusiastic ambassadors for pharmacy, and the participants in the NACDS Retail Advisory Board Market Immersion benefited tremendously from their engagement with us.