GRANTS WILL HELP PHARMACY AND PATIENT CARE

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation recently awarded $140,000 in grants to help fund projects that seek to address, identify, and develop ways to promote the practice of community pharmacy and improve patient care.

The grant program was first launched in 2007 by the foundation to partner with pharmacy schools and related organizations to develop projects that advance community pharmacy practice and positively impact patient care. Grants were awarded to the following:

• Drake University College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences was awarded $20,000 for the "Internship Program for Partnering Students with Chain Pharmacy Entrepreneurs." This program will partner pharmacy students with chain pharmacy entrepreneurs dedicated to developing future pharmacy leaders, new practice models, or engaging in innovation.
• New Mexico Medical Review Association was awarded $50,000 for "Improving Patient Outcomes Using a Medication Therapy Management Collaborative Approach." The goal of this pilot program is to improve medication adherence via face-to-face medication therapy management (MTM) provided by community pharmacists to the state's Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Part D drug plans over 1 year, and to evaluate the efficacy of MTM in this representative group of patients and pharmacists.
• University of California San Francisco School of Pharmacy was awarded $50,000 for research provided as part of the "Northern California Collaborative (NCC) for Pharmacist Care Services." This pilot program is designed to demonstrate the clinical and cost effectiveness of community pharmacist intervention in patient care, and develop a field manual for the replication of this for California payers of health care, insurers, pharmacists, and schools of pharmacy.
• University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy was awarded $20,000 for an "Analysis of Physician-Identified Medication-Related Need in the Community: Opportunities for Pharmacist-Provided Medication Therapy Management (MTM)." The goal of the study is to identify, from the physician perspective, unmet patient medication-related needs and how these needs can be met by pharmacist provision of MTM services.