by Jennifer Anders, Manager of Data & Analytics

The Alliance recently hosted our 2023 Spring Member Meeting in Nashville. We were excited to spend time and listen to great music with about 85 of our members, of which about 12 were experiencing their first Alliance meeting. We were greatly appreciative to have received feedback from almost 62 members on our meeting surveys.

All presenters did a wonderful job and provided useful information and updates. We did receive helpful feedback that many of you enjoy hearing real world examples from HTCs, and we will continue to encourage these types of presentations in future meetings.

This was our first meeting that we were able to have smaller breakout sessions and get to hear from individuals on topics such as our Tool Box and Contract Pharmacy discussions. The majority of respondents agreed that the breakout sessions were useful and in future meetings the Alliance will solidify breakout session topics to be available for attendees to select when they register. We also received great suggestions for future break out session topics that we hope to have available for the Fall Member Meeting this year.

The Alliance values member engagement not only during these meetings but also after, to learn new ways to better support you! We continue to strive to make sure these meetings are aligned your expectations for things like networking and updates in the 340B community. We will also soon share the attendee lists along with contact information for this meeting and future meetings.

Mark your calendars for our upcoming meetings:

• Registration is now open for the New HTC Staff Meeting (in New York City, May 10th – 12th)
• Hill Day (Washington DC, June 12th – 13th)
• Fall Members Meeting (TBA, October 8th – 10th)

by Resham Sahijram, PharmD

Thank you to our sponsors Takeda and The Alliance Pharmacy for helping us organize the second annual Pharmacist CE Conference which took place from January 25th through January 27th in San Diego, California. There were a total of 30 pharmacists attending in-person and 12 who attended virtually. The conference offered pharmacists 12.5 continuing education credits through excellent presentations by practitioners from all over the nation. Topics discussed were Acquired Hemophilia, PK-Tailored Factor Concentrate Prophylaxis, Real World Experience with Emicizumab, Quality Improvement and Accreditation, Sterile Compounding, Genetics, Von Willebrand Disease, New and Emerging Therapies for Hemophilia, Inhibitors, Lab Values, Physical Therapy, and the Management of Chronic Pain. Each topic was well presented and the audience was very engaged.

This type of conference allowed us pharmacists in different practice settings to come together and share ideas on how we can better serve this small population. One pharmacist stated, “This conference gave me the opportunity to branch out and meet pharmacists from other regions. Throughout this experience I was able to connect and build professional relationships I can use to advance in ways I wouldn’t have individually. We all have different experiences unique to hemophilia. It was insightful to hear what other pharmacists are doing, leverage their support, and build on each other’s successes. We all hold a different piece to the puzzle and when we connect, we can bring these pieces together and achieve a common goal. I am appreciative of my newfound support system and the opportunity to collaborate with other experienced pharmacists.”

Another pharmacist stated, “The conference is a great way for pharmacists within the hemophilia treatment center network to stay up to date on topics affecting our community. It’s also a chance to meet and exchange ideas with our peers within pharmacy. I have attended this conference for the past 2 years and it’s been a great experience. I look forward to attending in the future.” It is quite clear that we all can benefit from such an opportunity.

When asking one of our physician speakers what he thought of this event, he stated “My experience with the conference was excellent. I received a lot of questions that made me realize that we do not take the time to fully educate the pharmacists who fill these medications regularly and appreciate the efforts of this group to fulfill that need. This was also a great opportunity for these pharmacists to network and get a better understanding of how different pharmacies work and how they can optimize their local pharmacy.” This was a great event appreciated by all, and we hope to continue to provide such a great networking event in the future.

Editors note: The Hemophilia Alliance now has over 25 credits of Pharmacist CE available for Home study available on the Hemophilia Alliance Website. Credits from the 1st Convention are certified through January 2025 and Credits from the 2nd Convention are certified through January 2026. Also, as of December 9th 2022, CPhT credential holders may submit a maximum of 5 pharmacist-specific(P-specific) hours from ACPE accredited providers and CPhT-Adv holders may submit 10 P-specific CE hours from ACPE accredited providers.