ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The American Pharmacists Association (APhA), the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and seven other national pharmacy organizations have launched the Pharmacy e-Health Information Technology Collaborative.
NCPA said Wednesday that the collaborative will focus on the pharmacy profession’s technology needs to ensure they are addressed and integrated into the framework of the U.S. Health Information Technology (HIT) infrastructure. Tom Menighan, APhA chief executive officer and executive vice president, will chair the collaborative.
Also behind the formation of the group is a goal to establish a comprehensive, unified approach to HIT for the pharmacy industry, which would foster optimal integration of pharmacy’s requirements and contributions into electronic health records (EHRs).
"In order for patients to receive optimal care, pharmacists need to have the ability to access and contribute to relevant, patient-specific information from the EHR. The work of the collaborative will focus on achieving this goal," Menighan said in a statement.
The collaborative was formed by the APhA, NCPA, Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP), Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP), American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP), American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA).
The group announced that Rachelle "Shelly" Spiro, president of Spiro Consulting Inc., has been retained to serve as director of the collaborative. Spiro will be responsible for developing and implementing strategies for meeting targeted goals and objectives of the collaborative and further refining the organizational structure.
Spiro’s consultancy specializes in long-term and post acute care pharmacy services and HIT. Before launching the firm, she worked in various pharmacy settings, including hospital, long-term care and home health care. Spiro is active in national pharmacy associations, standards development organizations and is a leader in pharmacy HIT.
