We have an exciting meeting planned for February 10th at the Lacks Cancer Center on the campus of Saint Mary's in Grand Rapids. Jean Lee will be presenting on medication errors in HIV patients. Please plan on attending!

As in years past, WMSHP is offering a scholarship for a local third year pharmacy student. Please share this information with any eligible pharmacy students that you know.

MPA is hosting Legislative Day in Lansing on March 23rd. Legislative Day will offer 4 hours of continuing education on pain management, medical marijuana, and an important presentation on how pharmacists can protect their license. In addition, Lt. Governor Brian Calley will be speaking as well as several others from the state government. Attendees will also have an opportunity to meet with their state representative and discuss pertinent pharmacy issues. WMSHP has decided to sponsor two members and two board members to attend this meeting. More details regarding this exciting meeting can be found at http://www.michiganpharmacists.org/eventDetails.php?x=499. If you are interested in attending on behalf of WMSHP, please send me an email at adamdrzewicki@borgess.com. The board will draw names to determine who will be sponsored. In addition, there is still time to register for the MPA Annual Convention being held February 25 to 27. Please visit www.michiganpharmacists.org for more information.

The holidays are officially over, and WMSHP is back from our December break. Our January meeting will be on January 13th at Borgess Medical Center in the Lawrence Educational Center. The topic will be "Health Literacy: Making Information Understandable for Healthcare Consumers" presented by Marge Kars. This should be an interesting topic that is quite different than our usual monthly offerings. Please plan on trying to make it to Kalamazoo for this exciting topic.

You may have noticed that ballots for the WMSHP board were not sent out this year. We ended up with an extra board opening when Ben Mgboh stepped down to move to Ohio, and, therefore had an equal number of candidates to board positions. In order to save on printing and postage costs, the board elected to not send ballots out. Without further adieu, it is my pleasure to announce that Kali Shulz is the new president-elect. Andrea Goodrich, Angela Green, and Stacy Vaeth were all re-elected to new two-year terms. Dana Staat is returning to the board to finish out the final year of Ben’s term, and Becky Maynard has been newly elected to a board position. Please welcome the new and returning board members!

Finally, we have set a date for the 2011 WMSHP Spring Seminar. Mark your calendars for May 17th, and plan on joining us at the Prince Conference Center in Grand Rapids.

It is time for election season again! I am sure everyone has experienced the latest round of political ads on the radio, television, and in the newspaper. Luckily, there aren’t any campaigns for WMSHP offices, but you will be receiving an official WMSHP ballot very soon. As the process was last year, the ballot must be mailed back or brought to the November meeting. This official ballot is the only means by which you will be able to vote.

The MSHP Annual Meeting is being held on November 5th at the Crowne Plaza in Grand Rapids. There is still time to register to attend this great meeting so close to home!

This month's WMSHP meeting is being held in the Wege Room at St. Mary’s in Grand Rapids. The topic is “Diagnosis and Management of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension” presented by Allan Gutierrez. We hope to see you there!

Fall has officially arrived and WMSHP is back in full swing. There is still time to submit nominations for 2011-2012 WMSHP Board Members. Please talk with a current board member for more information. We are also always looking for brief articles on pharmacy related topics for the newsletter. This is a great opportunity for any pharmacists, technicians, residents, and students out there!

This month's meeting will be on October 14th at Bronson in the Gilmore Center. The topic this month is “Ischemic Stroke: New Opportunities for Treatment” presented by our very own WMSHP secretary, Brad Miller. Our RSVP slots for our monthly meetings have been filling up quickly, so be sure to check wmshp.net often; or better yet, follow WMSHP on Twitter and Facebook for additional information.

Unfortunately summer break is nearly over. Hopefully everyone has had time to enjoy the great weather that we have had over the past months. Our WMSHP meetings began their summer vacation back in May following the very successful 41st Annual WMSHP Spring Seminar. Cherie Woodhams put a lot of effort into the planning and coordination of this meeting, and deserves recognition for all her hard work. This year has been unique as far as the role of WMSHP president goes. Cherie had agreed to stay on as president for an additional 6 months, and, beginning with this newsletter, I am assuming those duties for the remainder of the year. On behalf of the WMSHP members, I would like to thank Cherie for everything she has done during her tenure as president.

As summer comes to a close, we are resuming our monthly meetings beginning with the meeting on September 9th at St. Mary’s Hospital on the topic of “Radiation Countermeasures, What’s the Buzz” presented by Greg Pratt.

Nominations for board positions are open for any interested members. Contact a current board member via email or at the next meeting if you are interested in being nominated for a position. Also be sure to check out www.wmshp.net and see how you can find WMSHP on Twitter and Facebook.

Welcome to Spring!  We are excited about a new venue this year for our Great Lakes Residency Presentations!  We will be meeting just before a Grand Rapids Griffins Game at a different time - from 5:30-6:30PM for our CE presentation.  After that, we'll all enjoy the final game of the season together!  Please join us!

All hockey tickets will be distributed prior to the presentation.  Any tickets not claimed by the completion of the presentation at 6:30 PM will be placed for pick-up at the box office will-call.

Also, mark your calendars for Tuesday, May 18th, 2010.  This is the date of our Annual Spring Seminar.  Topics to be discussed include a Legislative Review, Cultural Competency in our AM session, Preceptor Development, Pharmaceutical Waste, and a 2009 H1N1 review will be discussed in our afternoon Administrative section.  In the PM clinical section, Antiplatelet medications, Pain management, and Emergency Room pearls will be reviewed.

Happy Spring!

Please join us on March 11th in Grand Rapids at the St. Mary’s Lacks Conference Center when we discuss "Current Treatment Options for Gout.” Tracy Mersfelder, PharmD, will be our speaker for the evening.

Due to the PhRMA Standards that are now in place, it has become more challenging to obtain funding for our monthly meetings. This is why you may have seen an increase in the amount of times we have had our meetings on hospital premises in their conference rooms. When you see this venue, it most likely means that support was not received for the event and WMSHP is paying for the event from their general fund. Also, if the event is being held at a restaurant, we have a budget based on grant funding that we must adhere to. In light of this information, the WMSHP Board is respectfully asking that if you RSVP and then find out you are unable to attend, please contact us by the Monday preceding the meeting to let us know so that we can minimize waste.

Mark your calendar for Friday, April 9th! We will be hosting our meeting on this day in conjunction with a Grand Rapids Griffin’s Hockey game as they play the Lake Erie Monster’s. Because of this alternative venue, our CE presentation will begin at 5:30PM so that we will be ready for game time of 7:00PM. Friends and family will have the opportunity to join you for the game as well. More details to follow!

Please join us on February 11th in Kalamazoo when we discuss "Current Treatment Options for Bipolar Disorder. Kevin Furmaga, Pharm.D., BCPP will be our speaker for the evening. This year’s Annual Convention and Expo (ACE) meeting will be held the weekend of Feb. 26-28, 2010 and MSHP will be offering three sessions. Be sure to look for these sessions when deciding what programs to attend at the convention! If you register for the Annual Convention prior to Feb. 4 at 4:30 p.m. to receive member discounts. Visit the MPA Website to register and to obtain the most up to date information! Mark your calendars for Friday, April 9th in which we will have having our monthly meeting with the Grand Rapids Griffins. Our Continuing education will be held at 5:30PM with the game to follow. There will be an opportunity to invite your friends and family, too

Welcome 2010! The election results for 2010 have been completed and I would like to welcome the following new as well as returning board members to the WMSHP Board:

• Adam Drzewicki, President-Elect
  
• Kim Melgarejo, Treasurer
  
• Ben Mgboh, Kym Moline, Sarah Paulson, Kristina Rowley as Board Members
  
• Aaron Britton Technician Representative
  

Please join us on January 14^th at the Lacks Grand Room at the Lacks Cancer Center at Saint Mary’s in Grand Rapids. Dr. Colleen Tallen will be discussing Pain and symptom management: a clinician's perspective.

See you then!

Submit Your Newsletter Articles!
We are always looking for original newsletter articles for the WMSHP Newsletter. This is a great opportunity if you or one of your students or residents have an article that you’d like to see published in this newsletter and online at WMSHP.net.

Please send all submissions to me. The email address is webmaster@wmshp.net.

Holiday Break:
Please note that there will be no general meeting or newsletter for the month of December. Have a happy holiday season, and we’ll see you again in 2010