NEIAP Is Evolving to Meet the Changing Needs of Ambulatory Care Pharmacy

In an interview with Pharmacy Times, Katelyn O'Brien, PharmD, BCPS, CDCES, BC-ADM, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist at Boston Medical Center, introduces the New England Institute for Ambulatory Care Pharmacy (NEIAP), a regional organization that gives ambulatory care pharmacists in the Boston area a space to network, share best practices, and educate themselves on a plethora of topics in the space.

Looking ahead to NEIAP's September meeting, O'Brien highlights sessions on hypertension, lipid management, as well as new developments in continuous glucose and ketone monitoring technology, as key reasons pharmacists should attend. O'Brien will also present an overview of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and their expanded role beyond type 2 diabetes into cardiorenal metabolic care. She closes by noting how NEIAP has adapted alongside the profession in recent years, pointing to roundtable discussions on telehealth, remote patient monitoring, and billing considerations that emerged in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pharmacy Times: Can you tell us about NEIAP—what it is, who it serves, and what makes it unique in the pharmacy community?

Katelyn O’Brien, PharmD, BCPS, CDCES, BC-ADM: NEIAP is an acronym, it stands for the New England Institute for Ambulatory Care Pharmacy. It is kind of a homegrown organization, so many organizations [that] you're involved in as a pharmacist, you're paying membership dues, they're part of a larger parent organization at a national level...but this is just local to New England. Most of the events—social networking, education—do often occur in Boston, but it's a great space to share ideas and network with other ambulatory care pharmacists in the area, and helps us to grow services among our hospitals, learn about different things—like billing or collaborative practice agreements—so [it is] really specific to the ambulatory care role that pharmacists can play. It's great to network and share what we're doing across institutions and how to learn from each other.

Pharmacy Times: What are the key reasons pharmacists should prioritize attending the September meeting, and what specific topics or learning opportunities are on the agenda?

O’Brien: Well, I think looking at the agenda is a great reason for people to consider joining. I work in diabetes, but it's great to keep up to date with other ambulatory care hot topics when new guidelines or new medications come out, and the lineup of faculty and the agenda topics will give a good variety for the ambulatory care pharmacists practicing in primary care or across multiple disease states. Personally, I'm looking forward to learning and staying up to date on hypertension and lipids, since that's an area that I don't often focus my learning on when I go to diabetes conferences, so I'm looking forward to those talks, as well as the in the diabetes realm, the continuous glucose and ketone monitoring, since there's new developments in that diabetes technology space.

Pharmacy Times: Can you briefly describe the session/presentation you will be involved in at the upcoming NEIAP event?

O’Brien: I'm a faculty for the event coming up in September for NEIAP, and I was asked to give an update or an overview on SGLT2 inhibitors. They were obviously first came to market for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, but in the last decade they've evolved into the cardio-renal space, and so I'll be giving an overview for pharmacists of SGLT2 [inhibitor]s in cardiorenal metabolic care.

Pharmacy Times: How has NEIAP's work evolved in response to changes in ambulatory care and the pharmacy profession over the past few years?

O’Brien: NEIAP has evolved with, alongside the profession of ambulatory pharmacy, over the last few years. I think we've had some really great roundtables on the use of telehealth, remote patient monitoring, and billing considerations that we have faced since the COVID-19 pandemic, and so I think that's a great example of how it's adapted to the changes of our role in health care, and how we can provide services to patients in a multitude of ways, not just face-to-face.