PILLS 4th General Meeting

1
PILLS 4th General Meeting

• Careers in Pharmacy
• Tuesday November 18th, 2008

2
Icebreaker

• Each person has a comic strip panel that has a
  number on the back
• Find people with the same number and try to
  assemble your panels into a complete comic
• Each comic has only 3 panels to it
• When finished, share comics with other people in
  your group
• Talk to each other!

3
Retail Pharmacy

• Pharmacists in community pharmacies dispense
  medications, counsel patients on the use of
  prescription and over-the-counter medications,
  and advise physicians about patients medication
  therapy. They also advise patients about general
  health topics such as diet, exercise, and stress
  management, and provide information on products
  such as medical equipment or home health care
  supplies. In addition, they may complete
  third-party insurance forms and other paperwork.
• Median annual wage/salary retail pharmacists in
  May 2006 was 94,520
• Job examples Walgreens, CVS, Rite-Aid, Walmart
• Qualifications
• Must enjoy talking to patients
• Must be able to handle stressful working
  conditions
• Must be able to pay attention to detail, and
  work quickly
• Why retail pharmacy?
• Working in retail pharmacy allows you to really
  help and be involved with your community.

4
Clinical Pharmacy

• Description
• Branch of pharmacy where pharmacists provide
  patient care to optimize medication therapy
• Work as part of medical team or as the care
  provider in clinic settings
• Monitor patients and recommend medication
  therapies to the team
• Can adjust and monitor the efficacy of medication
  therapy
• Advantages
• Direct patient care
• New, evolving challenges
• Do not directly deal with insurance companies

Environment Can be found in all healthcare
settings Salary 112,072 in the Bay Area
5
Ambulatory Care Pharmacy

• Description
• Specialized branch of clinical pharmacy
• Provide care in pharmacist-managed clinic
• Manage specific disease states diabetes,
  hypercholesterolemia, hypertension,
  anticoagulation, psychiatry, oncology, infectious
  disease and smoking cessation
• Performs testing for parameters like blood
  glucose, lipid panel, liver function, etc.
• Environment
• Pharmacist-Run clinics in various healthcare
  settings

• Advantages
• One-on-on patient care
• Development of long-term relationships with
  patients
• No medication dispensing
• Set and stable hours

6
Compounding Pharmacy

• Setting Mainly specialty pharmacy dedicated to
  compounding
• Central belief Every patient is different and
  has unique needs
• Examples Veterinary Compounding, Pediatrics,
  Hormone Replacement Therapy, Pain Relief
• Skills needed patience, curiosity, problem
  solving, communication, good understanding of the
  chemistry behind medications
• Job expectations collaboration with health care
  professionals, consultations and teaching
  patients, compounding

7
Pharmaceutical Industry

• Job Description The pharmaceutical industry
  develops, produces, and markets medicinal drugs.
• Qualifications Many pharmacists go on to obtain
  postgraduate degrees in order to meet the
  technical demands and scientific duties required
  in pharmaceutical manufacturing.
• Working Environment Research universities,
  hospitals, biotech companies.
• Salary 100,000
• Job examples Clinical research, Drug Safety,
  Regulatory Affairs, Marketing and Sales

8
Managed Care

• Managed care an integration and delivery of
  health care to manage accessibility, cost, and
  quality anything involving health insurance
  program
• Areas of practice HMO, PBM, health plans,
  physician group practice
• Issues that managed care pharmacists deal with
  include
• medication therapy management (MTM), mail
  service, drug utilization review (DUR), research,
  publications, teaching, promotion of guidelines
  and standards of practice
• Working hours are usually 9am-5pm
• Average salary is 109,000
• Great career option for those that like the mix
  of clinical and business aspects of pharmacy

9
Nuclear Pharmacy

• Compound and dispense radiopharmaceuticals to
  hospitals and medical centers
• The meds are used for Diagnostic Nuclear Imaging
  as a safe, reliable and cost-effective
  alternative to invasive diagnostic procedures and
  surgery
• Need PharmD as well as specific nuclear training
  (200 hours classroom and 500 hours of handling)
• M-F 8am-4pm or 12am-8am
• Small team. No dealing with 3rd party or
  customers except via telephone.
• 99,024 avg starting salary throughout the US

10
Academia

• Work in dynamic social and cultural environment
  with other pharmacy faculty members and pharmacy
  students
• Opportunity to obtain tenure job security
• AACP has sponsored a 2-hour program at the
  Midyear Clinical Meeting of the American Society
  of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) every year
  since 2000. This symposium is designed to provide
  useful information to professional students,
  post-PharmD residents, and practicing pharmacists
  about careers in academia in order to battle
  faculty shortages.

11
Pharmacy Benefit Manager

• PBMs help administer and manage prescription drug
  benefit programs
• Consult employers, managed care administrators,
  third party administrators to make decisions on
  patient deductibles, prescription discounts,
  setting maximum coverage of a plan
• Access to patient files of all your clients
  find efficiencies in drug coverage
• Working hours usually 8 am 5pm
• Requires strong business management skills
• Practice in corporate office settings (PBM
  companies)
• Salary around 115,000 - 120,000