Pharmacy is the clinical health science that links medical science with chemistry and it is charged with the discovery, production, control, disposal, safe and effective use of medications and drugs. The practice of pharmacy requires excellent knowledge of drugs, their mechanism of action, side effects, interactions, mobility and toxicity. At the same time, it requires knowledge of treatment and understanding of the pathological process. Some specialties of pharmacists, such as that of clinical pharmacists, require other skills, e.g. knowledge about the acquisition and evaluation of physical and laboratory data.
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is a cancer research and treatment center and a New York State public-benefit corporation located in Buffalo, New York and founded by Roswell Park. Candace S. Johnson is President & Chief Executive Officer of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 2019, Roswell Park ranked #14 on U.S. News & World Report's list of the best cancer hospitals in the country, an increase from position #30 in 2018. Roswell Park was the first dedicated medical facility for cancer treatment and research in the United States, and is the only upstate New York facility to hold the National Cancer Institute designation of "comprehensive cancer center." Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, which conducts clinical research on cancer as well as developing new drugs, provides advanced treatment for all forms of adult and pediatric cancer and serves as a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.
Chandler Park is an American physician, medical journalist, and clinical researcher. Park contributes regularly as an expert physician for popular newspapers and magazines such as Newsweek, Reader's Digest, U.S. News & World Report, The Exponent-Telegram, College of St. Scholastica, and Medscape. In 2020, Dr. Park was selected as the President of the Kentucky Society of Clinical Oncology. The Kentucky Society of Clinical Oncology is the state affiliate of American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Society of Hematology, and National Cancer Institute.
The Union for International Cancer Control or UICC is a membership based, non-governmental organization that exists to help the global health community accelerate the fight against cancer.
Health information exchange (HIE) is the mobilization of health care information electronically across organizations within a region, community or hospital system. Participants in data exchange are called in the aggregate Health Information Networks (HIN). In practice the term HIE may also refer to the health information organization (HIO) that facilitates the exchange.
URAC is a Washington DC-based non-profit organization that helps promote health care quality through the accreditation of organizations involved in medical care services, as well as by offering education and measurement programs. Founded under the name Utilization Review Accreditation Commission in 1990, the name "was shortened to the acronym URAC in 1996 when it began accrediting other types of organizations such as health plans, pharmacies, and provider organizations".
Avera Health is a regional health system based in Sioux Falls, S.D., comprising more than 300 locations in 100 communities throughout South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and North Dakota. Avera serves a geographical footprint of more than 72,000 square miles and 86 counties, and a population of nearly 1 million.
Health advocacy or health activism encompasses direct service to the individual or family as well as activities that promote health and access to health care in communities and the larger public. Advocates support and promote the rights of the patient in the health care arena, help build capacity to improve community health and enhance health policy initiatives focused on available, safe and quality care. Health advocates are best suited to address the challenge of patient-centered care in our complex healthcare system. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) defines patient-centered care as: Health care that establishes a partnership among practitioners, patients, and their families to ensure that decisions respect patients’ wants, needs, and preferences and that patients have the education and support they need to make decisions and participate in their own care. Patient-centered care is also one of the overreaching goals of health advocacy, in addition to safer medical systems, and greater patient involvement in healthcare delivery and design.
Patient advocacy is an area of specialization in health care concerned with advocacy for patients, survivors, and caregivers. The patient advocate may be an individual or an organization, often, though not always, concerned with one specific group of disorders. The terms patient advocate and patient advocacy can refer both to individual advocates providing services that organizations also provide, and to organizations whose functions extend to individual patients. Some patient advocates work for the institutions that are directly responsible for the patient's care.
Pharmacy residency is education a pharmacist can pursue beyond the degree required for licensing as a pharmacist.
Established in 1964, Riverside Medical Center serves the south suburban counties of Chicago, United States, as a not-for-profit medical facility. Riverside has three medical campuses serving Kankakee, Bourbonnais, Coal City, Frankfort, and Watseka, IL as well as nine Community Health Centers serving areas within Kankakee, Will, Iroquois and Grundy Counties.
The Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) is a nonprofit membership organization of more than 35,000 members committed to promoting excellence in oncology nursing and the transformation of cancer care.
Texas Oncology is a network of 460+ physicians and oncology specialists who provide advanced treatment options to cancer patients in underserved rural and urban communities throughout Texas, with one office in New Mexico and one in Oklahoma. More than 68,000 patients are treated within the Texas Oncology network annually.
The Binaytara Foundation (BTF) was established in 2007 by Dr. Binay Shah and wife Tara Shah with the goal of promoting health and education in underprivileged societies. The BTF is a Washington State nonprofit organization exempt from taxation pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. At the 37th plenary meeting held July 18, 2013, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) decided to grant special consultative status to the BTF. The ECOSOC grants special consultative status to NGOs that are concerned specifically with only a few of the fields of activity covered in ECOSOC and bears special competence in that field. BTF has founded multiple programs in underdeveloped and developing countries to improve access to healthcare. Recent accomplishments include developing home hospice and palliative care in India and Nepal, and the first bone marrow transplant center in Nepal.
Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) is a cancer treatment and research center in Seattle, Washington. Established in 1998, this nonprofit provides clinical oncology care for patients treated at its three partner organizations: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle Children's and UW Medicine. Together, these four institutions form the Fred Hutch/University of Washington Cancer Consortium.
Specialty drugs or specialty pharmaceuticals are a recent designation of pharmaceuticals that are classified as high-cost, high complexity and/or high touch. Specialty drugs are often biologics—"drugs derived from living cells" that are injectable or infused. They are used to treat complex or rare chronic conditions such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, H.I.V. psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease and hepatitis C. In 1990 there were 10 specialty drugs on the market, in the mid-1990s there were fewer than 30, by 2008 there were 200, and by 2015 there were 300. Drugs are often defined as specialty because their price is much higher than that of non-specialty drugs. Medicare defines any drug for which the negotiated price is $670 per month or more, as a specialty drug which is placed in a specialty tier that requires a higher patient cost sharing. Drugs are also identified as specialty when there is a special handling requirement or the drug is only available via a limited distributions network. By 2015 "specialty medications accounted for one-third of all spending on drugs in the United States, up from 19 percent in 2004 and heading toward 50 percent in the next 10 years", according to IMS Health, which tracks prescriptions. According to a 2010 article in Forbes, specialty drugs for rare diseases became more expensive "than anyone imagined" and their success came "at a time when the traditional drug business of selling medicines to the masses" was "in decline". In 2015 analysis by The Wall Street Journal suggested the large premium was due to the perceived value of rare disease treatments which usually are very expensive when compared to treatments for more common diseases.
Inspire is an Arlington, Virginia-based healthcare social network. It builds and manages online support groups for patients and caregivers, and connects patients to life science companies for the purpose of research.
The Oncology Care Model (OCM) is an episode-based payment system developed by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. The multipayer model is designed for discrete instances of care, especially those involving chemotherapy, which triggers the six-month episode. The program combines fee-for-service (FFS) payments for established services, monthly payments for additional care under a structured guideline, and performance-based payments weighed against quality metrics and benchmarks.
The College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP) is a professional organization representing pharmacists and other healthcare professionals in the specialty areas of psychiatric and neurologic pharmacy practice within the United States. It is the only such organization representing the interests of neuropsychiatric pharmacists in the United States. In an effort to help connect patients with psychiatric pharmacists, CPNP maintains "The Mental Health Pharmacy Directory," an online search engine that includes more than 850 mental health pharmacies. As of December 2015, CPNP is a member of the Coalition on Psychiatric Emergencies (COPE) and is the only professional pharmacy organization represented on the coalition. In January 2017, CPNP was elected to membership status on the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners (JCPP). CPNP is the only Board of Pharmacy Specialties accredited provider of BCPP recertification products.
A collaborative practice agreement (CPA) is a legal document in the United States that establishes a legal relationship between clinical pharmacists and collaborating physicians that allows for pharmacists to participate in collaborative drug therapy management (CDTM).
