Hemophilia Alliance 3rd Annual Pharmacist Conference – January 25-26, 2024
by Resham Sahijram, PharmD, Hemophilia of Georgia and Member of the CE Pharmacists Committee

Over the course of 2 days, pharmacists gathered from different treatment centers across the US to network and further their education in Charleston, South Carolina. The 3rd Annual Hemophilia Alliance Pharmacist Continuing Education Conference had a great turnout with over 40 pharmacists attending in-person, along with 22 others attending virtually. The conference opened with an evening reception where everyone could meet and interact casually with one another.

Thursday, January 25th, began with lectures titled PK-Tailored Factor Concentrate Prophylaxis followed by Practical Approach to Hemophilia Pharmacokinetics. Other interesting topics on Day 1 included the challenges of VWD diagnosis and treatment, regulations in sterile and hazardous compounding, and the burden of adherence in our patients. We enjoyed a nice dinner provided by The Alliance Pharmacy to close out the evening.

Friday January 26th opened with the discussion of new and emerging treatments in Hemophilia. This was very informative and put things into perspective when seeing how far treatments have advanced over the years. We also learned about recognizing and managing muscle bleeds since the launch of non-factor therapies. This knowledge is beneficial when educating our patients as they start new non-factor therapies. We ended Day 2 learning all about rare factor disorders and sickle cell disease (SCD). This was very interesting and helpful as SCD is a disorder we don’t commonly deal with. An added bonus of the conference was the discussion between presenters and the audience. Each treatment center is unique in how it operates, and I can say that most pharmacists felt it was very beneficial to meet and learn how others manage their program. We all enjoyed the conference tremendously and benefited from this opportunity. We look forward to the 4th conference.

Mark Plencner, Director of Member and Community Relations and Chair of the CE Pharmacists Committee added, “We at the Hemophilia Alliance wish to express our gratitude to Takeda Pharmaceuticals and The Alliance Pharmacy for their generous support of our 3rd Annual Pharmacists CE Conference. We also extend our thanks to our knowledgeable faculty who provided the best, most interesting and up to date information available for treating bleeding and clotting disorders. This year, the Indiana Pharmacy Association accredited the CE for our pharmacists. Thank you to Stacy and the IPA team for their efforts to get all 12 hours of lectures approved for ACPE credits for pharmacists and 6 credits approved for pharmacy technicians. Thanks are also due to our CE Pharmacists Committee, Angela Kellum, Resham Sahijram, and Stevan Mizimakoski for their ongoing participation in building these conferences. We are already working on the 4th annual conference.”