Happy Holidays! I hope you are all enjoying the Holiday season.

January is the time of year that we induct our new officers. This year we have several changes to the Board. Specifically, we have three new members that I would like you to get acquainted with, Brad Miller, secretary and Jodie Bakus and Vicki Sternhagen as Board members. We also welcome Jody Mehren back to the Board for a second term.

Brad Miller is Director of Inpatient Pharmacy Services at Pennock Health Services in Hastings. He received his Pharm.D. degree from Ferris State University. In 2003, he completed a pharmacy practice residency at Spectrum Health. Also, Brad is the designer and webmaster of the WMSHP website. He as done an outstanding job creating the website and maintaining it. Please check it out at www.wmshp.net.

Jodie Bakus is an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Ferris State University. She received her Pharm.D. degree from Ferris State University. Following graduation, she completed a community pharmacy practice residency sponsored by Meijer Pharmacy, Ferris State University and Pfizer. She has practiced community pharmacy in the chain and the independent setting where she participated in patient care activities including: diabetes education, immunizations, hyperlipidemia screening, and a pharmacy-based anticoagulation clinic.

Vicki Sternhagen is originally from Atlantic Mine, Michigan; a small copper mining town in the Upper Peninsula. She received her Pharm.D. degree at Ferris State University. After graduation, she moved to Madison, Wisconsin to complete a pharmacy practice residency at Meriter Hospital. Vicki is currently an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Ferris State University. Her practice site is located at Borgess Medical Center with a focus on internal medicine. Her main interests are in cardiology and nutrition.

On behalf of the WMSHP board, I would like to thank Jaci DeYoung for her service as president, and Tracey Mersfelder as Board member. Especially, I would like to thank Lisa DeVries for her eight years of service as secretary to WMSHP. Thanks for all your hard work and dedication.

I hope to see you at the January meeting where we will be inducting the new members. Please feel free to contact myself or any of the board members with ideas you may have for meetings, topics you would like discussed in the newsletter or current issues to be posted on the website. Thanks for the opportunity to serve as WMSHP President.

Elections – 2003
Thanks to all of you for taking the time to vote for our new Board Members – we had a great response! Congratulations to the following:

President-Elect:
Jean Lee, Saint Mary’s Mercy Medical Center, Grand Rapids

Board Members:
Jodi Bakus, Ferris State University, Kalamazoo
Mitzi McGinnis, KCMS – Ferris State University, Kalamazoo
Jody Mehren, Saint Mary’s Mercy Medical Center, Grand Rapids
Vicki Sternhagen, Ferris State University, Kalamazoo

Secretary:
Brad Miller, Pennock Hospital, Hastings

WMSHP's second annual residency showcase was a great success with 11 programs and institutions participating. There were many Ferris students in attendance and it was great to see such interest in residency training. There were even P1's asking about specialty residencies! It's never too early to investigate career opportunities and it was wonderful to see students so early in their education thinking so far ahead.

On behalf of the WMSHP board, I would like to congratulate Joan Rider, PharmD on her selection as honorary member. Joan currently serves as President of MPA and has a long history of involvement in professional organizations, including WMSHP. As honorary member, Joan will receive a lifetime of paid dues to WMSHP.

I would also like to congratulate the recently elected board and thank all of our members for voting. We will be formally inducting new officers at the January meeting.

The vote for the by-law revision limiting the associate member status to students was passed by a vote of 25 to 1. Thank you for taking the time to vote at the October meeting.

CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) had again changed the response date for their proposed re-classification of pharmacy residency programs to continuing education programs, thus not eligible for Medicare "pass-through" dollars. On Monday, the date for response was moved back to the original date, July 8, 2003. CMS justifies this policy change because not all pharmacists that work in hospitals are required to complete a residency program. CMS further argues that residency programs are "continuing education," comparable to seminars and workshops, since they do not lead to "specific certification in a specialty." Continuing education programs are treated as normal operating costs included in the prospective payment rate.

This change will go into effect on October 1, 2003 UNLESS YOU ACT by July 8. Residency preceptors, current, future and past pharmacy residents, administrators, physicians and patients should write CMS concerning the value of pharmacy residencies and their impact on direct patient care. For more information and a complete description of the issues, please go to the ASHP Residency and Accreditation Information webpage, http://ashp.org/rtp/index.cfm?cfid=20280037&CFToken=7632685 or directly to the information page describing the CMS action and what you can do: http://ashp.org/rtp/writecms.cfm?cfid=20280037&CFToken=7632685.

I recently received a videotape from ASHP entitled "Translating National Goals into Local Action". The videotape is narrated by Debra S. Devereaux, MBA, FASHP, President of ASHP. The 10 minute video describes ASHP's progress on the 6 planks of the Society's 2002-03 Leadership Agenda. Although ASHP's intent is to play the video during one of our meetings, I felt that this would be difficult due to the availability of equipment and time constraints. Therefore, I have summarized the main points below.

The 2002-2003 Leadership Agenda formally communicates ASHP's organizational priorities and serves as a framework for future activities. The six major planks of the Agenda are listed below with the progress to date indicated as indented bullet points.

Foster fail-safe medication use in health systems.

• Center for Patient Safety provides CE, comprehensive website, strategic alliances, and supports barcoding.
• Medication safety officer job description available on ASHP's website.
• Expand access to the patient-care services of health-system pharmacists.

Support Medicare and Medicaid provider status for pharmacists. 

• Public relations initiative with pharmacy directors to convey pharmacists' unique roles to the public (publicinfo@ashp.org).
• Collaborative Drug Therapy Management authority in 34 states

Help health-system pharmacists deal with the affordability and accessibility of pharmaceuticals.

• "Drug-cost technique" checklist being developed.

Foster an adequate supply of practitioners and practice leaders in health-system pharmacy.

• New section of Pharmacy Practice Managers
• Advocated federal support for pharmacy training and education
• Foster expansion of residency training
• New virtual mentoring program instituted

Close the gaps in health-system pharmacy emergency preparedness.

• Advocate that pharmacists be involved at all levels of emergency preparedness planning
• Close drug supply chain gaps
• Counterterrorism website and CE
• Assist Public Health Services
• Recruit pharmacist volunteers to participate in chemoprophylaxis and mass vaccination if needed

Accelerate efforts to help health-system pharmacists prepare for advances in science and technology.

• Section of Clinical Specialists and Researchers to provide input.
• Establish genetics resource center
• Provide CE in the areas of genome project, nanotechnology, genomics, and immunomodulation

For more information, please visit www.ashp.org

Although it may be difficult to believe with the continued cold weather, spring is just around the corner. WMSHP Past-President, Stacy Brownell, is busy planning the program for the Annual Spring Seminar. The Spring Seminar will be held on Thursday, May 1 at the Crowne Plaza in Grand Rapids. Technician, internal medicine, and infectious disease tracks will be available. Topics for the technician track include technology and law updates and an overview of small pox vaccination programs. The internal medicine track will offer presentations about diabetes, psychiatric issues, and a pediatric topic. Nosocomial infections, community acquired pneumonia and tuberculosis will be covered in the infectious disease track. A program announcement will be sent out in the near future with more details.

Our April meeting will occur on the 3rd of the month and two pharmacy practice residents have been selected to present their residency projects at the meeting. All pharmacy practice residents are required to complete a project during their residency program. The project may be in the form of original research, a problem-solving exercise, or development, enhancement or evaluation of some aspect of pharmacy operations or patient care services. Residents from our area present their projects at the Great Lakes Pharmacy Residents Conference. This year's conference will occur in April at Purdue University. Approximately 160 residents and 150 preceptors from Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin participate in this conference. It is the "capstone" event for residents and also provides the residents and preceptors an opportunity to network and learn about other resident projects and programs. The two residents who will present at WMSHP in April are Brian Berryhill, PharmD, Pharmacy Practice Resident at Spectrum Health and Sheila Kasten, PharmD, Managed Care Pharmacy Resident with Pfizer, Ferris State University, Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Brian will be presenting "Development and Implementation of an Inpatient Heart Failure Protocol" and Sheila will discuss the "Impact of Pharmacist Intervention on LDL-C Goal Attainment in Diabetics".

Brad Miller, Pharm.D., Pharmacy Practice Resident at Spectrum Health, has graciously volunteered to serve as WMSHP's webmaster in designing and maintaining a website for us. I'll keep you posted about the progress and let you know when it's available.

I'd also like to extend WMSHP's congratulations to Joan Rider, PharmD, BCPS, CDE, Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Experiential Coordinator at Ferris State University, on her installation as President of the Michigan Pharmacists Association. Joan is past-president and board member of WMSHP and was installed as MPA's president on February 22 during the 2003 MPA Annual Convention and Exposition.