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The Evolving Role of Hospital Pharmacy | Love Your Pharmacist Awards presented by Clinigen · Pharmacy Podcast Network

0:05
Speaker 1: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
0:09
Speaker 1: to the pharmacy profession.
0:10
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
0:22
Speaker 3: Welcome to the first episode of our special podcast series
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Speaker 3: celebrating hospital pharmacy in partnership with Clinigin's Love Your Pharmacist Awards.
0:31
Speaker 3: Clinigin works closely with hospital pharmacists around the world to
0:34
Speaker 3: help healthcare professionals access the medicines their patients need, particularly
0:39
Speaker 3: when treatment pathways are complex or access challenges arise. That's
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Speaker 3: one reason why the Love Your Pharmacist Awards were created.
0:46
Speaker 3: to recognize the expertise, dedication, and often unseen contribution hospital
0:52
Speaker 3: pharmacists make to patient care every day. Today, we're joined
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Speaker 3: by Dr. Varun Sethi, SVP, Asia Pacific and Japan region
1:00
Speaker 3: at Clinigen, and Allison Tennant, former chief pharmacist and recipient
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Speaker 3: of the 2025 Love Your Pharmacist Lifetime Achievement Award.
1:09
Speaker 4: Hey, welcome to.
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Speaker 5: Clinigin's Love Your Pharmacy Awards presentation. This is episode one
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Speaker 5: in our series. This is evolving role of hospital pharmacy.
1:24
Speaker 5: I'm so excited. We're talking international gathering of people in pharmacy,
1:30
Speaker 5: passionate people in pharmacy. I'd like to introduce our guest today.
1:36
Speaker 6: Dr.
1:36
Speaker 5: Viran Sethi is a senior vice president of Asian Pacific
1:41
Speaker 5: and Japan region at Clinigin. And Alison Tennant is former
1:46
Speaker 5: chief pharmacist and recipient of the 2025 Love Your Pharmacist
1:51
Speaker 5: Lifetime Achievement Award. Welcome, Alison and Varun. How are you
1:56
Speaker 5: this morning?
1:57
Speaker 1: I'm good this morning. Thank you.
1:59
Speaker 2: It's a nice wet day here in England. So we're
2:03
Speaker 2: enjoying a better rain.
2:05
Speaker 6: And likewise, so am I, Todd. It is a nice
2:08
Speaker 6: and balmy 33 degrees centigrade here in Singapore where I am.
2:12
Speaker 6: All right.
2:12
Speaker 5: Well, it's Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania weather, and it's all over the map.
2:17
Speaker 5: We start off in a cold mornings and we could
2:21
Speaker 5: get up to 80 Fahrenheit, 90 Fahrenheit. Who knows what's
2:25
Speaker 5: going to happen? We don't get enough sunshine, in my opinion,
2:29
Speaker 5: in the Pittsburgh area. But I'm so excited that you're
2:33
Speaker 5: both here. I want to say congratulations to Allison. It
2:36
Speaker 5: means a lot to me that you're sharing this time
2:38
Speaker 5: with me because I am a fan of of pharmacists
2:41
Speaker 5: and what pharmacists are doing to impact the lives of
2:45
Speaker 5: so many millions and millions of people every day, rely
2:48
Speaker 5: on their pharmacist to guide them and to keep them alive.
2:52
Speaker 5: And the honor that we're bestowing on pharmacists through this
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Speaker 5: special month and this special award, that means something special
3:00
Speaker 5: to me and I love being a part of it.
3:02
Speaker 4: So Allison, How did it feel?
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Speaker 5: I mean, it's kind of like it plays on your
3:07
Speaker 5: ego and pharmacists are not egotistical. They're always driven by
3:11
Speaker 5: their heart and their information in your mind to keep
3:14
Speaker 5: our people and patients alive and safe. But how did
3:17
Speaker 5: it feel when you found out that you won the
3:20
Speaker 5: Pharmacist Lifetime Achievement Award last year?
3:24
Speaker 1: It was incredibly special.
3:26
Speaker 2: And the most special part for me was it was
3:30
Speaker 2: one of my team that nominated me. So and in fact,
3:34
Speaker 2: one of my procurement staff, so one of the really
3:39
Speaker 2: back room of the back room team. And I'm not
3:44
Speaker 2: your typical pharmacist in that I do speak up.
3:49
Speaker 1: We also were very lucky as a team.
3:52
Speaker 2: A few years ago, we won the clinical team of
3:55
Speaker 2: the year for our trust. Outstanding clinical team of the year.
4:00
Speaker 2: And I sort of was saying to the team, fantastic,
4:02
Speaker 2: well done. And they said, thank you. But the trust
4:05
Speaker 2: only knows what we do because you've been out there
4:08
Speaker 2: shouting about us. So this felt, again, that recognition of
4:13
Speaker 2: a profession that, as you say, tends to sit quietly,
4:18
Speaker 2: making sure that people get the right medicines at the
4:21
Speaker 2: right time in the right way. and just quietly gets
4:25
Speaker 2: on with it and doesn't ask for recognition. So this
4:28
Speaker 2: was really special on a personal basis, but also on
4:31
Speaker 2: behalf of my profession.
4:32
Speaker 4: I love it.
4:36
Speaker 6: I love it.
4:36
Speaker 5: I love the fact that you are an ever learner,
4:40
Speaker 5: but you're supporting, you're there, and people need you.
4:44
Speaker 4: People need that guidance.
4:46
Speaker 5: And what I love also being part of this is
4:49
Speaker 5: that Clinogen has recognized these amazing healthcare providers. And Varun,
4:56
Speaker 5: Clinigin's Love Your Pharmacist Award is now in its fifth
4:59
Speaker 5: year and has expanded globally. Why do you think that's
5:03
Speaker 5: important to recognize our hospital system pharmacists?
5:07
Speaker 6: Listen, I've been fortunate, Todd. I mean, I started actually
5:11
Speaker 6: my career as a pharmacist and having been trained in
5:15
Speaker 6: India and then subsequently moving to the United States where
5:19
Speaker 6: I actually had a chance to work directly, you know,
5:22
Speaker 6: in the hospital pharmacy, in the, you know, kind of
5:26
Speaker 6: Chicago medical district, I've actually seen firsthand what difference, you know,
5:31
Speaker 6: hospital pharmacists actually make to patients every day. They're actually
5:35
Speaker 6: constantly solving complex treatment challenges, answering, you know, difficult medicine questions,
5:41
Speaker 6: finding practical ways by which they can ensure that the
5:45
Speaker 6: patients can actually get the access to the therapy that
5:48
Speaker 6: they really need. What's actually really striking, and this is,
5:52
Speaker 6: you know, many of us as pharmacists would be able
5:54
Speaker 6: to associate with this, that the work's always happening behind
5:57
Speaker 6: the scene. And the patient would know the doctor, the nurse,
6:01
Speaker 6: or even the caregivers for that matter, because they tend to,
6:03
Speaker 6: you know, interact with them. But they often don't even
6:07
Speaker 6: see the pharmacist who is behind the scene. It's their
6:10
Speaker 6: expertise behind. to a large extent that has actually helped
6:14
Speaker 6: make that treatment possible. I think it was fascinating for me.
6:16
Speaker 6: I had a chance to walk the floor with several
6:19
Speaker 6: physicians when I was at the University of Illinois Medical Center.
6:23
Speaker 6: And you would see the doctors immediately, even at the bedside,
6:26
Speaker 6: refer back to the pharmacist to check in if they
6:28
Speaker 6: were making the right decision. Probably at that time, the
6:31
Speaker 6: patients would notice it, but it's still, you know, you're
6:34
Speaker 6: dressed in a very similar manner. They wouldn't know if
6:36
Speaker 6: you're a pharmacist or you're another physician. So I think
6:38
Speaker 6: it's that power finding those real solutions within the complex
6:44
Speaker 6: problems that pharmacists are constantly trying to solve for. So
6:50
Speaker 6: I think when we think about from a Clinigen viewpoint,
6:53
Speaker 6: we work very closely with hospital pharmacists from all across
6:57
Speaker 6: the world. Now, whether it's helping these healthcare professionals access medicine.
7:01
Speaker 6: In fact, it's us as Clinigen that facilitate bringing the
7:04
Speaker 6: right medicine to the right patient at the right time.
7:07
Speaker 6: And nine out of 10 times, if not across all
7:11
Speaker 6: the board, it's the pharmacists that are basically our port
7:13
Speaker 6: of call. They are the ones that are supporting these
7:17
Speaker 6: treatment paradigms, these various optionalities, navigating supply chain challenges, which
7:22
Speaker 6: could be quite daunting in certain markets where pharmaceutical products
7:26
Speaker 6: may not be approved. So you're trying to figure out
7:28
Speaker 6: how do you get the right therapy. And that's what
7:31
Speaker 6: makes this purpose of Love Your Other Pharmacists Award so
7:34
Speaker 6: critical for us to recognize this particular community and the
7:38
Speaker 6: dedication and the impact that this profession actually has directly
7:43
Speaker 6: and create visibility at a broader context. And I think
7:47
Speaker 6: as you think about it as a pharmacist, they are
7:49
Speaker 6: part of this multidisciplinary healthcare team that's working to solve
7:54
Speaker 6: basically the clinical challenges that are presenting themselves for all
7:58
Speaker 6: the cases that they actually encounter. It's that expertise that
8:02
Speaker 6: they bring, plus truly keeping the patient advocacy, which is
8:06
Speaker 6: the central tenant of whatever they do, right? That's the
8:09
Speaker 6: one single thing that I think every pharmacist always strives
8:13
Speaker 6: to achieve. And that's why these awards are so important.
8:16
Speaker 6: It gives us the opportunity to celebrate the individuals who
8:20
Speaker 6: are changing people's lives, but never seeking the recognition for it.
8:23
Speaker 6: So they are behind the scene. And it's important that
8:26
Speaker 6: we as an organization or enterprise recognize these people. That's
8:30
Speaker 6: why it's so important for us.
8:33
Speaker 5: Oh my gosh, I've heard so many stories that pharmacists
8:38
Speaker 5: feel that they're not heard, that they're not recognized. And
8:42
Speaker 5: It bothers them because they're putting, this is their life's work.
8:45
Speaker 4: This is their career. This is what they went to
8:48
Speaker 4: school for. This is the university that they're proud of.
8:51
Speaker 5: And Allison, I think of you going back in time
8:55
Speaker 5: and remembering in your own career, that one example that
9:00
Speaker 5: demonstrates the difference hospital pharmacists are making behind the scenes
9:06
Speaker 5: that people just don't know what's going on.
9:08
Speaker 4: But share that with us. I'd love to hear a
9:11
Speaker 4: story from you.
9:13
Speaker 1: So I've got two. I'm going to be cheeky and
9:17
Speaker 1: try and push in two, but I'll be brief.
9:20
Speaker 4: Oh, no, I'm ready.
9:23
Speaker 1: Because I think they're both great examples.
9:25
Speaker 2: One is the ADHD drug shortage. So, you know, we
9:30
Speaker 2: hit a point at which there was a real shortage
9:33
Speaker 2: of the treatments for ADHD.
9:35
Speaker 1: Okay.
9:36
Speaker 2: And the pharmacy teams across the country in the UK
9:40
Speaker 2: took a grip of this. And the hospital pharmacy teams,
9:43
Speaker 2: my hospital pharmacy team, was communicating with the clinicians. So
9:48
Speaker 2: what was available? What could they prescribe? How much could
9:51
Speaker 2: they prescribe? But they were also liaising with the patients.
9:55
Speaker 2: So that we're reassuring the patients that we haven't forgotten them.
9:58
Speaker 2: We understand the in that the lack of these drugs
10:02
Speaker 2: makes on their lives so the element for us is
10:05
Speaker 2: that we really um and and this.
10:08
Speaker 1: Was work that isn't you know isn't officially.
10:11
Speaker 2: Part of the job description around communicating with the patients,
10:17
Speaker 2: communicating with clinicians, at times almost daily emails about what
10:23
Speaker 2: can you prescribe, if you can't prescribe, what you normally do,
10:27
Speaker 2: what do we put you on, and reassuring the patients
10:31
Speaker 2: and dealing with the anxiety that the lack of these.
10:34
Speaker 1: Drugs was raising.
10:36
Speaker 2: And that continued business as usual for quite a while.
10:41
Speaker 2: So we do that on a daily basis around medicine shortages.
10:45
Speaker 2: But the one that particularly also then demonstrates that when
10:50
Speaker 2: the acute need is there, the pharmacy pharmacists put their
10:55
Speaker 2: capes on and swing into action.
10:58
Speaker 1: We had a baby.
11:00
Speaker 2: So about once every five years in the UK, a
11:03
Speaker 2: baby develops botulinum poisoning.
11:07
Speaker 1: And we had to source botulinum.
11:09
Speaker 2: Infant botulinum antitoxin from California.
11:13
Speaker 1: The only place in the world.
11:14
Speaker 2: That holds it is the Californian Department of Public Health.
11:19
Speaker 1: So there was no protocols.
11:23
Speaker 2: We were able to contact somebody who'd done it five
11:25
Speaker 2: years previously, but we had to swing into action. And
11:29
Speaker 2: of course, It happens at 4 o'clock on a Friday afternoon.
11:34
Speaker 1: So the element is we're sat there.
11:37
Speaker 2: I can remember sitting with my procurement team, one of
11:42
Speaker 2: us on the phone because I'm trying to get hold
11:44
Speaker 2: of the regulatory authorities to ensure that we can get
11:47
Speaker 2: it into the country, expedite it coming through. I'm calling
11:51
Speaker 2: on my personal network to get to the right person.
11:55
Speaker 2: My procurement team are working actually with Clinigen to help
11:59
Speaker 2: us do the procurement. We're talking to California with the
12:03
Speaker 2: time difference and everything else. And then also communicating internally
12:08
Speaker 2: to our ITU team who are dealing with this baby
12:13
Speaker 2: that is deteriorating rapidly. I got introduced to Flight Radar 24,
12:19
Speaker 2: where you are tracking planes across the globe. to ensure
12:24
Speaker 2: that the drug was reaching the UK and then tracking
12:27
Speaker 2: it with the courier to get up to the hospital.
12:29
Speaker 2: And one of my pharmacists was sending me pictures of
12:32
Speaker 2: the drug arriving at the hospital and getting up onto
12:36
Speaker 2: the ward. So the element for us is sometimes we're
12:40
Speaker 2: dealing with that access to medicines on a regular basis,
12:45
Speaker 2: keeping people updated. And sometimes you have to pull all
12:49
Speaker 2: the stops out in an acute scenario. And pharmacists don't
12:54
Speaker 2: recognize the skill that's involved in that, the juggling, the logistics,
12:59
Speaker 2: the medicines information, the regulatory information.
13:03
Speaker 1: You have to know the legal elements of things.
13:07
Speaker 2: Medicine storage, what temperature was it being transferred at? And
13:12
Speaker 2: I think that's part of what I love about pharmacy
13:15
Speaker 2: is that puzzle solving. You have to take all that
13:18
Speaker 2: information to make sure that a medicine arrives at the
13:22
Speaker 2: patient's bedside. And the really special bit of that for me,
13:27
Speaker 2: for the botulinum antitoxin, was the pharmacist rang me one
13:31
Speaker 2: day and she happened to be at the bedside when
13:34
Speaker 2: the baby moved for the first time because the botulinum
13:38
Speaker 2: antitoxin was taking effect. So she saw the impact of
13:43
Speaker 2: what she'd done and that was so special for her.
13:46
Speaker 4: That is special.
13:48
Speaker 5: And once again, our physicians and nurses, and most important,
13:55
Speaker 5: the patient and their families may not understand the intricacy
13:59
Speaker 5: and the complexity of what's happening behind the scenes and
14:03
Speaker 5: how you're picking up on those things and saving lives.
14:06
Speaker 5: And that's happening every day, hundreds of times, if not
14:11
Speaker 5: thousands of times a day of what's happening with our
14:14
Speaker 5: hospital system pharmacists and That kind of brings me to
14:17
Speaker 5: that main topic of today, which is the evolution of
14:22
Speaker 5: health system and hospital pharmacy. Alison, you've spent decades in
14:26
Speaker 5: this profession.
14:28
Speaker 4: How do you see the role changing?
14:31
Speaker 2: So I think that bit about when I started, pharmacists
14:37
Speaker 2: were only just coming out onto wards. So the element
14:41
Speaker 2: for me is we were moving from the dispensary onto
14:44
Speaker 2: the wards. These days, we're not just in the wards,
14:48
Speaker 2: we're in the clinics. So you now have pharmacists running
14:51
Speaker 2: clinics themselves. People are being referred to see the pharmacist
14:56
Speaker 2: because it's their medication that needs reviewed. And alongside of that,
15:02
Speaker 2: we're seeing the development of the pharmacy technician workforce. So
15:06
Speaker 2: the element for me now is that actually pharmacy technicians
15:10
Speaker 2: are really coming to the fore, freeing up the pharmacist's
15:14
Speaker 2: time in terms actually often of that supply and procurement
15:19
Speaker 2: and that logistical element of the service. So they're doing the,
15:23
Speaker 2: but they're also great at talking to the patients. Patients
15:29
Speaker 2: will tell pharmacists and pharmacy technicians things that they won't
15:33
Speaker 2: tell doctors. So you can pick up a lot of
15:36
Speaker 2: information that you can then feed back into the clinical team.
15:41
Speaker 2: But I think that evolution of pharmacists being part of
15:45
Speaker 2: a multidisciplinary team, I once had an interesting conversation with
15:50
Speaker 2: a consultant who was saying to me, oh, we've had
15:53
Speaker 2: the MDT. And I went, no, you've had a multi-specialist
15:58
Speaker 2: meeting where you've had lots of different doctors from different
16:01
Speaker 2: specialties around this patient, but you haven't had a multidisciplinary team.
16:07
Speaker 2: with a view from a nurse, a pharmacist, a dietician,
16:11
Speaker 2: whoever else is needed to look after that patient. I
16:15
Speaker 2: think that's how healthcare is evolving, that actually that multi-professional
16:20
Speaker 2: input is now being seen as much more of a
16:23
Speaker 2: team around the patient. And the pharmacist and pharmacy technicians
16:30
Speaker 2: know the story of the journey of the medicine from development, research, supply, storage,
16:39
Speaker 2: getting it into the patient, right the way to how
16:42
Speaker 2: do we destroy these drugs safely when they're no longer needed.
16:45
Speaker 5: That's a really good point. Sometimes we overlook that. Varun,
16:51
Speaker 5: another thing that's changed is organizations like Clinigen are recognizing
16:57
Speaker 5: the vital importance of pharmacists and how it's saving lives,
17:03
Speaker 5: but also helping systems to understand medication management, expense of medications,
17:12
Speaker 5: keeping people adherent. What have you experienced, Varun, in just
17:17
Speaker 5: understanding the changes that are happening in hospital system pharmacy?
17:21
Speaker 4: Varun Karia, Ph.D.
17:23
Speaker 6: Listen, I think what we have seen, right? I mean,
17:24
Speaker 6: obviously there's a lot of tools, various specialized therapies. The
17:30
Speaker 6: healthcare But the systems look very different than they were
17:34
Speaker 6: probably just even five years ago, for that matter, or
17:37
Speaker 6: even a decade ago. But I think what's remaining consistent, actually,
17:42
Speaker 6: is the fundamental mission of what we are trying to
17:44
Speaker 6: solve for as pharmacists and the pharmacy community, which remains unchanged.
17:50
Speaker 6: And I've seen that evolve even from the days when
17:53
Speaker 6: I worked in the hospital pharmacies, right? And I've seen
17:56
Speaker 6: it throughout my career. The common thread has still been
17:59
Speaker 6: And I think what Alison just mentioned, right, if we
18:02
Speaker 6: really do keep that multidisciplinary concept together, rather than a
18:06
Speaker 6: multi-specialty concept. The role of each and every individual that
18:11
Speaker 6: comes around this multidisciplinary team is going to be super important.
18:15
Speaker 6: And I think that's continuing to gain a little bit
18:17
Speaker 6: of traction as we go along, right? Moving from multi-specialty
18:21
Speaker 6: to multidisciplinary. I think that's going to be critically important
18:24
Speaker 6: if everybody keeps the cohesive need for the patient at
18:29
Speaker 6: the center of everything that they do. And I think
18:31
Speaker 6: the central question over here is what's the best way
18:34
Speaker 6: to help the patient? There is a clinical element to it,
18:38
Speaker 6: but then there is also medication management. There is adherence.
18:42
Speaker 6: I think it's a great example of what Alison mentioned, right?
18:45
Speaker 6: Information that patients might share with the pharmacist or even
18:48
Speaker 6: with the pharmacy technician could be quite different from what
18:52
Speaker 6: they might tell their own physicians for that matter. And
18:54
Speaker 6: that's using maybe technology. And I think it's kind of
18:58
Speaker 6: the central tenet. Everybody talks about it today, the ghost
19:01
Speaker 6: in the room, which is AI. And we can probably
19:03
Speaker 6: talk about what that means and how that's going to
19:05
Speaker 6: influence and what's happening today. But I think technology needs
19:08
Speaker 6: to become an enabler. The processes and the healthcare models
19:12
Speaker 6: will need to evolve to meet that goal. And I
19:15
Speaker 6: think that's, to us as an organization, the support that
19:18
Speaker 6: we want to provide to the pharmacist and how can
19:21
Speaker 6: we enable it, right, across the different geographies that we
19:24
Speaker 6: work in, you know, as a condition. And I think
19:26
Speaker 6: that's our central goal is patient well-being and what can
19:30
Speaker 6: we do to help.
19:31
Speaker 5: Patient well-being. Varun, you hit the nail on the head,
19:35
Speaker 5: and we've talked about how much has changed. But what's
19:38
Speaker 5: one thing that has stayed the same, Allison, and you–
19:43
Speaker 5: we're talking about this and hitting on it with regards
19:45
Speaker 5: to like patient advocacy and talk to us about what
19:48
Speaker 5: do you think, what do you think has stayed the same?
19:52
Speaker 2: So I think that element about wanting to do the
19:55
Speaker 2: best for the patient in front of you.
19:57
Speaker 1: So the interesting bit, I once was.
20:00
Speaker 2: Doing a medication review with a patient and I'm always
20:04
Speaker 2: open with the, what do you want to get out
20:07
Speaker 2: of your medicines? So actually that's where we start the
20:11
Speaker 2: review from. And it was really interesting because the patient went,
20:14
Speaker 2: I want to be able.
20:15
Speaker 1: To walk my dog.
20:17
Speaker 2: And he went, he just had some surgery and he
20:20
Speaker 2: was kind of, I just want to be able to
20:22
Speaker 2: walk my dog. So he was on blood pressure medication,
20:26
Speaker 2: pain medication, et cetera. And actually, so we sat and
20:29
Speaker 2: went through things like the timing of his medication, what
20:35
Speaker 2: each medication was doing, And I think that pharmacist role
20:39
Speaker 2: of talking to the patients about what are they getting
20:44
Speaker 2: out of their medication and helping them understand how to
20:47
Speaker 2: do that medicines optimization.
20:49
Speaker 1: The one bit, and Varun's thrown the AI into the conversation.
20:54
Speaker 2: The bit that has changed is that where patients used
21:00
Speaker 2: to come with the, I've just read those horrible small
21:04
Speaker 2: print patient information leaflets with a load of questions. They
21:09
Speaker 2: now come with the, I've asked AI about this medicine,
21:13
Speaker 2: and they come with something they've pulled off the internet.
21:18
Speaker 1: So I think the element for us about.
21:20
Speaker 2: Talking to the patients, particularly about risk, patients read something
21:26
Speaker 2: that worries them. So they want a medicine that's going
21:31
Speaker 2: to work for them, but they have concerns. And the
21:35
Speaker 2: one thing, even in this busy day, busy world, that
21:41
Speaker 2: pharmacists try and do is make time to talk to people.
21:46
Speaker 1: AI will never replace.
21:49
Speaker 2: That ability to ask a question and put it into
21:54
Speaker 2: the context for your world. In my current hospital that
22:01
Speaker 2: I work in, we have some really highly educated, really
22:05
Speaker 2: professional people. We also have people who are living in
22:09
Speaker 2: a place where they don't have a fridge to store
22:11
Speaker 2: their insulin, where they are living in houses that are
22:15
Speaker 2: covered with mould. So how do we help patients use
22:19
Speaker 2: and store their medication safely?
22:22
Speaker 1: What questions have they got about their medicines?
22:25
Speaker 2: And I think one of the bits I love about
22:28
Speaker 2: the pharmacy profession is that you can be talking to
22:31
Speaker 2: a consultant one day where you're having to use really
22:34
Speaker 2: complex language, really challenging intellectual conversations. And then a different
22:42
Speaker 2: type of challenging intellectual conversation, which is how do I
22:45
Speaker 2: help this family with four kids, no fridge, moldy house, who.
22:50
Speaker 1: Are managing two of them with a rare disease?
22:53
Speaker 2: And that to me is part of the joys of
22:55
Speaker 2: my day is that opposite end of the spectrum.
23:00
Speaker 5: Alison, there's more to healthcare than the medicine or the
23:07
Speaker 5: procedure or setting a bone that's been broken in the
23:11
Speaker 5: specialist or researching the disease. There's the humanity part of this,
23:16
Speaker 5: the human element of it. And there's tools out there.
23:20
Speaker 5: When I entered pharmacy, my goodness, 2004, technology was just
23:26
Speaker 5: kind of peeking out of the closed system to an
23:30
Speaker 5: open system. There's a database out there called SQL, which
23:34
Speaker 5: gives you access to really everything. And that was a
23:36
Speaker 5: new thing back then. And it was still up to
23:38
Speaker 5: the pharmacist to discern all of that information and make changes.
23:43
Speaker 5: So Artificial intelligence is just incredible, mind-blowing of the capabilities,
23:48
Speaker 5: but it still comes down to the individual pharmacist with
23:52
Speaker 5: the individual patient with the individual situation and case where
23:58
Speaker 5: they're going to step in and be the end-all decision
24:03
Speaker 5: with the assistance of the general practitioner and the physicians.
24:08
Speaker 5: Those tools that are in place are just, like I said, amazing,
24:12
Speaker 5: and that's great, but One of the biggest changes that
24:16
Speaker 5: we've seen in the rise of our digital technologies is
24:19
Speaker 5: artificial intelligence. How do you think that's affected pharmacy, Varun?
24:26
Speaker 6: Yeah, listen, I think, see, there has been a lot
24:28
Speaker 6: of attention, right? AI is like the buzzword of the
24:32
Speaker 6: current decade, clearly. And to be fair, right, I mean,
24:37
Speaker 6: in reality, it is really starting to support pharmacy practice
24:42
Speaker 6: in a number of very practical ways. And it's not
24:46
Speaker 6: futuristic robots replacing pharmacists or helping to manage increasing levels
24:51
Speaker 6: of complexity or better informed decisions. I think it is
24:56
Speaker 6: effectively identifying data patterns right which is where ai comes
25:01
Speaker 6: in very very handy when you think about the large
25:04
Speaker 6: amount of patient volume you know around the data sets
25:07
Speaker 6: healthcare data that's actually available otherwise it's difficult for the
25:11
Speaker 6: innate um you know mind to kind of be able
25:14
Speaker 6: to spot all the kind of trends that might be
25:16
Speaker 6: available which ai can do pretty quickly whether you throw
25:18
Speaker 6: it into cloud or gpt or whatever your favorite ai
25:22
Speaker 6: engine is you'd be able to see patterns and i
25:25
Speaker 6: think that's where The patent recognition is really helping the
25:30
Speaker 6: healthcare teams identify risk. And it all comes down to
25:34
Speaker 6: managing patient risk. How can we mitigate readmission risk? How
25:38
Speaker 6: can we mitigate clinical deterioration? Challenges that might be there
25:43
Speaker 6: in treatment adherence. I think that's a very... you know,
25:47
Speaker 6: common challenge with patients, I think, in terms of medication
25:51
Speaker 6: management and medication adherence, right? And I think how do
25:54
Speaker 6: we intervene sooner? AI can actually enable a lot of that,
25:57
Speaker 6: you know, systems that can be built around that. So
26:00
Speaker 6: I think that's where we are seeing if AI used
26:03
Speaker 6: appropriately can really improve the operational side of, you know,
26:07
Speaker 6: the delivery of healthcare. And I think it can really
26:10
Speaker 6: help On the other end, which we are seeing from
26:12
Speaker 6: an organizational standpoint, is identify trends so that we can
26:17
Speaker 6: manage demands for medication. If you heard earlier, I mentioned
26:21
Speaker 6: about supply chain challenges. So this can really help manage
26:24
Speaker 6: demand supply challenges. any kind of abnormalities that might come
26:28
Speaker 6: in and deter any potential future supply issues that can
26:33
Speaker 6: create critical problems. I think looking at what Alison mentioned
26:35
Speaker 6: about the ADHD drug shortage a while back, to put
26:39
Speaker 6: it fast forward now from that example she was giving,
26:43
Speaker 6: it can really help abrogate some of those risks that
26:46
Speaker 6: we might see. So that's kind of one very clear
26:51
Speaker 6: mechanism of where we see an impact, and it's already
26:53
Speaker 6: starting to happen. The other element which I think is
26:56
Speaker 6: also well-recognized is I talked about the huge amount of
26:59
Speaker 6: data information that actually flows through. Think about the amount
27:02
Speaker 6: of notes and unstructured data that's sometimes going into patient records,
27:07
Speaker 6: for example. So if that can be collated, you know, historically,
27:11
Speaker 6: much of that insight was very difficult to access, right?
27:14
Speaker 6: So now AI can really enable extracting that meaningful data
27:18
Speaker 6: and it can overall support and enhance effectively patient care. That's,
27:23
Speaker 6: I'll tell you honestly, personally really excites me the most, right?
27:26
Speaker 6: It's not about will the role of the pharmacist change?
27:30
Speaker 6: I think the role of the pharmacist will evolve. clearly
27:32
Speaker 6: and how they leverage this data in the administration and
27:36
Speaker 6: streamlining some of the burden and data gathering that they
27:39
Speaker 6: actually have had historically, you know, been a bane of
27:42
Speaker 6: what they do. That can then further, you know, streamline clinical,
27:47
Speaker 6: you know, management, better judgment with, you know, the insights
27:51
Speaker 6: that they might be able to gather. And at the
27:53
Speaker 6: end of the day, it'll all focus back on one thing,
27:55
Speaker 6: which goes back to improving patient care. I think to me,
27:58
Speaker 6: this is the exciting part that's continuing to evolve.
28:03
Speaker 4: Alison, what about you?
28:04
Speaker 5: What have you seen in the realm of AI and
28:07
Speaker 5: how does that affect your position and your job there
28:12
Speaker 5: in the hospital system?
28:14
Speaker 2: So I think, as Varun has mentioned, some of it's
28:17
Speaker 2: about summarizing stuff. I think that analysis, the element for
28:23
Speaker 2: us is we have more data than we know what
28:26
Speaker 2: to do with at the minute.
28:28
Speaker 1: What we have is very little information.
28:31
Speaker 2: So the element that we are looking to AI towards,
28:36
Speaker 2: particularly in my field of pediatrics and women's health, is gathering,
28:42
Speaker 2: using those big data sets to do that analysis.
28:46
Speaker 1: So actually, if we.
28:47
Speaker 2: Were talking about, so when I work with other pediatric
28:50
Speaker 2: centers across the UK, and I might have three patients
28:54
Speaker 2: on a drug for a particular indication, and Grey Ormond
28:57
Speaker 2: Street's got four, and Liverpool's got two, and you know,
29:02
Speaker 2: somewhere up north got one.
29:04
Speaker 1: We can pull all.
29:05
Speaker 2: Of those together because we can get the AI to
29:08
Speaker 2: go into our systems and go find this patient with
29:11
Speaker 2: this criteria, tell us what treatment was given, what were
29:14
Speaker 2: the outcomes for it. And AI speeds a lot of
29:17
Speaker 2: that up for us then to go in and know
29:21
Speaker 2: where to look. So the bit for me at the moment,
29:23
Speaker 2: as I think of AI in our field is slightly
29:26
Speaker 2: a bit like a meerkat. It's telling us what's coming
29:29
Speaker 2: over the hill. telling us where we need to be
29:34
Speaker 2: looking and where we need to be going into things
29:37
Speaker 2: in more depth. I mean, AI has a lot of
29:39
Speaker 2: problems issues as well on the patient front. So AI
29:44
Speaker 2: can help us translate into patients' own languages, context, etc.
29:50
Speaker 1: Again, slight, a bit of a health warning there.
29:53
Speaker 2: You've got to be careful you're using the right AI tools,
29:56
Speaker 2: the right context, et cetera. So I think this bit
29:59
Speaker 2: about AI working with humans is the bit that I
30:04
Speaker 2: see the hope for. Where can I get AI to
30:07
Speaker 2: summarize a meeting for me? So we've just had a
30:09
Speaker 2: discussion of all the pediatric centers and AI can do
30:13
Speaker 2: the notes for me rather than me trying to go
30:15
Speaker 2: back and remember. So I can chair a meeting and
30:18
Speaker 2: AI can tell me what we talked about in the
30:20
Speaker 2: meeting and particularly.
30:21
Speaker 1: Tell us what actions we need to do out of
30:23
Speaker 1: the end of it. That's brilliant. AI can analyze the
30:27
Speaker 1: data for us.
30:29
Speaker 2: AI can help us summarize something in a patient context.
30:32
Speaker 1: In easy language to understand.
30:34
Speaker 2: But you need that human element alongside of it to
30:39
Speaker 2: make it meaningful and to ensure that what you're getting
30:42
Speaker 2: is real and relevant.
30:47
Speaker 5: In 2016, I learned a word and its meaning and
30:51
Speaker 5: I dug into the science and it's called pharmacogenomics. And
30:55
Speaker 5: I did mention that just in our intro as we
30:59
Speaker 5: were starting today's program. And now we jettison ahead 2026
31:05
Speaker 5: and how PGX pharmacogenomics is really becoming a major tool
31:13
Speaker 5: in making sure that our patient is able to metabolize
31:17
Speaker 5: and digest and use and and making sure that your
31:22
Speaker 5: genes are reacting to a medication as intended, and the
31:27
Speaker 5: development of pharmacogenomics. Varun, when did you see the shift begin,
31:32
Speaker 5: and why is that becoming such an important part of
31:35
Speaker 5: pharmacy care?
31:37
Speaker 6: That's an excellent question, Todd. I mean, listen, the foundation
31:42
Speaker 6: of pharmacogenomics or quote unquote personalized medicines has been out
31:47
Speaker 6: there for decades, right? So it started pretty much back
31:49
Speaker 6: in 2003 at the completion of the Human Genome Project,
31:53
Speaker 6: which was a major milestone, right? Because it gives us
31:56
Speaker 6: a much deeper understanding of the true nuances of the
31:59
Speaker 6: genetic differences that can influence disease and how patients respond
32:03
Speaker 6: to the variety of different treatments. So in terms of,
32:06
Speaker 6: you know, for us to really deeply understand, it's not
32:09
Speaker 6: a one size that fits all. I think that's the
32:11
Speaker 6: most important element. And for many years, the healthcare community
32:16
Speaker 6: has been evolving around these to understand the variety of
32:20
Speaker 6: different factors, whether it's genetics, whether it's the disease biology,
32:23
Speaker 6: whether it's individual patients and how they react, what are
32:26
Speaker 6: the different characteristics around it, and how does all that
32:29
Speaker 6: actually influence the effectiveness and efficacy and tolerability of the
32:35
Speaker 6: various products that they actually get. So I think to me,
32:37
Speaker 6: the importance of pharmacogenomics is continuing to become a pretty
32:42
Speaker 6: central tenant of now understanding, in many cases, even the
32:47
Speaker 6: variety of biomarkers that people have, that there are differences.
32:50
Speaker 6: If you look at certain disease progressions of how one
32:53
Speaker 6: patient could become so different in the treatment paradigms that
32:57
Speaker 6: need to be followed, And actually, it all is in
33:00
Speaker 6: the pursuit of reducing a risk to other adverse reactions,
33:06
Speaker 6: avoid any kind of true trial and error in the
33:09
Speaker 6: prescription patterns that we need to follow. I think these
33:12
Speaker 6: become very important at the end. We want the best
33:15
Speaker 6: efficacy for the patient, right? So I think this is
33:17
Speaker 6: where the excitement of, you know, personalized medicine or pharmacogenomics
33:22
Speaker 6: will continue to kind of expand. And now we've got...
33:27
Speaker 6: variety of these consortia that are coming together, right, that
33:29
Speaker 6: have developed prescription guidelines for various drug gene pairs. And
33:35
Speaker 6: they've all come through the various clinical decision-making support processes,
33:39
Speaker 6: including what the FDA has done with the pharmacogenomics biomarkers
33:43
Speaker 6: that they've actually put out there through their guidelines. I
33:46
Speaker 6: think the scale of this opportunity as it continues to
33:49
Speaker 6: evolve is significant. And I think if you think about it,
33:53
Speaker 6: 95% of the people, based on data that we know
33:55
Speaker 6: at this point in time, carry some kind of genetic variant.
33:59
Speaker 6: that could influence on how they react or how they
34:02
Speaker 6: metabolize certain medications. And I think this is going to
34:07
Speaker 6: be critically important as we continue to look at large U.S.
34:10
Speaker 6: data that's available where a population has been studied, like,
34:14
Speaker 6: for example, of veterans, where there is even a higher
34:17
Speaker 6: level of variability that's prevalent. It's been published, actually, in
34:22
Speaker 6: a JAMA journal article that was published on pharmacogenomics. I
34:26
Speaker 6: think the impact of pharmacogenomics on the pharmacy, it's going
34:31
Speaker 6: to lead to more and more of a profound shift, right,
34:34
Speaker 6: as we become more catered towards prescribing medicines that are
34:39
Speaker 6: very tailor-made to individuals. And I think with the focus
34:43
Speaker 6: that we see in certain areas, whether it's in rheumatology,
34:46
Speaker 6: whether it's in oncology, and in those spaces, you actually
34:49
Speaker 6: see more and more specialization being targeted in that particular space.
34:54
Speaker 6: And I think the role of the pharmacist in terms
34:57
Speaker 6: of chaperoning this process and ensuring the right medicine reaches
35:00
Speaker 6: the right patient is going to be a very profound
35:03
Speaker 6: one as time goes on.
35:06
Speaker 5: Allison, it's fascinating to me to think that we can
35:09
Speaker 5: start tailoring a compound, a specific medication, and even vitamin
35:16
Speaker 5: and OTC products, over-the-counter products, to teach are people out
35:23
Speaker 5: there that, hey, your genes are just slightly different than
35:26
Speaker 5: someone else's and you're going to react to medications a
35:29
Speaker 5: little bit differently. But where do you think pharmacists belong
35:34
Speaker 5: in all of this in the health system pharmacist role
35:37
Speaker 5: to become more involved in that personalized treatment and decision-making
35:41
Speaker 5: in the future?
35:43
Speaker 2: So we actually ran a project in mental health prescribing
35:49
Speaker 2: where we did pharmacogenomic testing.
35:52
Speaker 1: And that was quite fascinating. We've got a specialist mental
35:56
Speaker 1: health service.
35:58
Speaker 2: And the interesting bit for us is that we, so
36:01
Speaker 2: first of all, pharmacogenomics is just another piece of the puzzle.
36:06
Speaker 2: We've already talked about the complexity of patients' lives, about
36:10
Speaker 2: medication usage, et cetera, and you still have to take
36:14
Speaker 2: all of that into account. So this was a little
36:17
Speaker 2: bit more of a piece of information which leads to
36:20
Speaker 2: some interesting discussions with patients. Because the one thing we
36:25
Speaker 2: talked about was this is about how you metabolize this drug.
36:30
Speaker 2: So where you used to sit there and say to
36:32
Speaker 2: a patient, let's try this drug and see how you
36:36
Speaker 2: get on with it. We could shift that conversation. And
36:40
Speaker 2: I think the pharmacist's role, so when we were doing
36:43
Speaker 2: our project, the pharmacist's role became the patient was diagnosed
36:49
Speaker 2: and then sent to the pharmacist for a conversation about
36:52
Speaker 2: what's the best medication for you.
36:57
Speaker 1: So it brought us into that real prescribing area.
37:01
Speaker 2: And I think the element for us is working with
37:04
Speaker 2: the medics and specialist nurses around saying, you need to
37:09
Speaker 2: take this into account. Are they a fast metabolizer, slow metabolizer, etc.?
37:15
Speaker 2: The interesting bit for us is kind of where along
37:18
Speaker 2: the journey that needs to happen, because actually what we
37:21
Speaker 2: discovered through our project was you either have to do
37:23
Speaker 2: it at the treatment naive stage, so before they started
37:28
Speaker 2: the medication, or at.
37:30
Speaker 1: The really complex stage. That was where it really added
37:33
Speaker 1: the value.
37:34
Speaker 2: And the pharmacist, again, helps at both ends of those spectrums. A,
37:39
Speaker 2: explaining to the patient, what do we mean?
37:41
Speaker 1: When we say fast metabolizer, what do we mean?
37:46
Speaker 2: And the element about giving the clinicians that extra piece
37:50
Speaker 2: of the jigsaw that we can have that MDT discussion on.
37:53
Speaker 1: What's the best for the patient.
37:56
Speaker 2: I think the other interesting element for us is, again,
37:59
Speaker 2: that patient advocacy. We dealt with a lot of questions
38:02
Speaker 2: from patients who were quite concerned about what was happening
38:05
Speaker 2: with this data.
38:07
Speaker 1: So that pharmacogenomics, if you were to say to somebody.
38:10
Speaker 2: We're testing your DNA, We immediately, the one thing we
38:14
Speaker 2: learned was never ask a paranoid patient whether you're okay
38:16
Speaker 2: if they test you to test their DNA or not,
38:19
Speaker 2: because we got some really bad reactions. But the element
38:24
Speaker 2: patients want to know what's happening. So that's the other
38:27
Speaker 2: factor is patients want to know what's happening with this data.
38:30
Speaker 2: This is data about them. So actually, you know, we
38:34
Speaker 2: talk about pharmacogenomics, a huge field, huge databases, huge increase
38:39
Speaker 2: in knowledge.
38:41
Speaker 1: Patients want to know what it means for them individually.
38:44
Speaker 2: And again, the pharmacist is often able to explain, no,
38:47
Speaker 2: this is about you. This is this true personalized medicine
38:52
Speaker 2: where we're saying you metabolize this drug slower.
38:57
Speaker 1: So we're going to give you a lower dose to
38:58
Speaker 1: start with. You might still have.
39:00
Speaker 2: The side effects. It's not a magic bullet. It's not
39:04
Speaker 2: going to, you know, it's not going to mean that
39:05
Speaker 2: you're not going to get side effects, but we can
39:07
Speaker 2: minimize them. We can explain what's going to happen. And
39:12
Speaker 2: I think that element, and again, it brings us closer
39:15
Speaker 2: into that clinical team. It binds that team around the
39:19
Speaker 2: patient much more better. And pharmacists are using their skill
39:23
Speaker 2: of talking to a clinician, talking to a patient, analyzing
39:26
Speaker 2: and interpreting data.
39:29
Speaker 5: Verona, I think of what this means for drug development
39:33
Speaker 5: and what it means for the data. Once again, we
39:36
Speaker 5: have all this data. We've been collecting PGX. Pharmacogenomics has
39:40
Speaker 5: been around for 20, 30 years in concept. And like
39:44
Speaker 5: you said, 2003, the Human Genome Project started pouring out
39:49
Speaker 5: all of these answers. So talk to me about the
39:52
Speaker 5: innovation of these global trends in manufacturing and in advancing
40:00
Speaker 5: medication development and what could be next in the pharmaceutical
40:06
Speaker 5: life cycle and ecosystems.
40:09
Speaker 6: I think it's a fascinating area, right? Because effectively what's
40:12
Speaker 6: going to happen as we start becoming more and more customizable,
40:17
Speaker 6: one can't ignore the potential of 3D printing products in
40:23
Speaker 6: the future, as an example, right? We talk about personalized
40:27
Speaker 6: medicines in terms of selecting the right treatment for the
40:30
Speaker 6: right patient. And I think technology is evolving. And 3D
40:33
Speaker 6: printing could actually take that a step further by allowing
40:36
Speaker 6: medicines themselves to be tailored for individual needs. And you
40:39
Speaker 6: can just visualize or imagine a future where a particular dose,
40:44
Speaker 6: a formulation, a release profile could be actually adapted for
40:48
Speaker 6: a specific patient's needs to receive that exact product. It
40:52
Speaker 6: goes back to what Alison was just saying in terms
40:54
Speaker 6: of a fast or a slow metabolizer. And what else
40:57
Speaker 6: could be actually maybe even inherently dictated by some of
41:01
Speaker 6: the biomarkers are the complex conditions that the patient presents,
41:05
Speaker 6: or even a pediatric population where And I remember back
41:08
Speaker 6: in the day when I was moonlighting in the hospital basement,
41:12
Speaker 6: compounding products that would go up to the hospital floor,
41:15
Speaker 6: whether it's for oncology or any others. I mean, it
41:17
Speaker 6: was all pharmacists doing that customization that basically enabled it.
41:23
Speaker 6: In the future, as scale continues to evolve, I think
41:26
Speaker 6: that could easily be something that can be done from
41:30
Speaker 6: a commercial scale standpoint. I think that's really exciting because
41:33
Speaker 6: at the end of the day, this could expand truly
41:36
Speaker 6: the role of the hospital pharmacist. As technology matures, pharmacists
41:40
Speaker 6: could actually become more closely involved in overseeing these personalized
41:43
Speaker 6: medicine productions. Because 3D printing could even come to an
41:47
Speaker 6: area closer to you, you know, a centralized area where
41:50
Speaker 6: that could be done potentially for specific patients at the
41:52
Speaker 6: end of the day. it will actually help determine what
41:55
Speaker 6: these individual patients need. And the highest safety and quality
41:59
Speaker 6: standards could be under the supervision of the hospital pharmacist.
42:03
Speaker 6: So to me, this is an increasingly higher skill set
42:07
Speaker 6: and expertise aided by digital technology and advanced manufacturing, which
42:13
Speaker 6: will then enable, again, the customization, as we talked about,
42:17
Speaker 6: influence of pharmacogenomics, influence of customized medication. I think this
42:22
Speaker 6: is just a Very, very positive evolution in terms of
42:27
Speaker 6: not only the personalized care, but also for the pharmacist
42:29
Speaker 6: playing a central role in helping turn this innovation into
42:33
Speaker 6: better outcomes for the patient.
42:37
Speaker 5: This has been a special interview. We really appreciate this.
42:40
Speaker 5: I want to come back to the awards. Love your
42:43
Speaker 5: pharmacist awards. We've been discussing innovation and technology and the
42:48
Speaker 5: role of the pharmacist in patient advocacy. But at the
42:51
Speaker 5: heart of it all, it comes back to the people.
42:55
Speaker 5: It comes back to that patient. It comes back to
42:58
Speaker 5: the bedside and the customization of just caring, holding somebody's hand,
43:02
Speaker 5: looking them in the eye and saying, listen, we're doing
43:05
Speaker 5: everything in our power to make sure that you're okay.
43:09
Speaker 5: And then the care people that are there, the people
43:10
Speaker 5: that are in the lives of that patient to calm
43:13
Speaker 5: them down and say, listen, you are in good hands.
43:17
Speaker 4: You are in good care.
43:19
Speaker 5: Alison, what would you say to someone considering nominating another
43:25
Speaker 5: fellow pharmacist this year for Love Your Pharmacist Awards?
43:29
Speaker 1: Oh, I would say get writing. You know, those nominations.
43:35
Speaker 2: I think the lovely thing about the nominations is, yes,
43:38
Speaker 2: it brings joy and recognition to the person you nominate it.
43:42
Speaker 2: And as we we've talked about, I love my profession dearly,
43:45
Speaker 2: but Jeepers.
43:48
Speaker 1: At times we can.
43:48
Speaker 2: Be martyrs to ourselves in terms of actually, you know,
43:52
Speaker 2: we sort of, we step back in the spotlight and
43:55
Speaker 2: there's a bit, look around to a colleague that you
43:59
Speaker 2: really appreciate or a team that you see, that you
44:02
Speaker 2: think really should be recognized because actually the, let's go intellectual,
44:10
Speaker 2: the dopamine rush you get, even just from a nomination,
44:14
Speaker 2: means that you get recognition it means that you continue
44:18
Speaker 2: that work but the other lovely bit and there's there's
44:21
Speaker 2: a really lovely thing our trust um does which is
44:23
Speaker 2: called learning from excellence which is nominate when something goes
44:27
Speaker 2: right because actually the other thing they found through that
44:30
Speaker 2: research is the person you nominate gets that positive feedback
44:36
Speaker 2: you get a benefit Because.
44:38
Speaker 1: The element that you having done something for somebody else
44:42
Speaker 1: actually gives you that.
44:43
Speaker 2: Good feeling as well. And that's the bit in these
44:46
Speaker 2: days of really challenging times and the days when it
44:49
Speaker 2: feels like all you ever do is look at how
44:51
Speaker 2: hard it is that, you know, everybody's asking to save
44:53
Speaker 2: money and everything's going wrong. Particularly as pharmacists, we focus
44:58
Speaker 2: on the what went wrong far too much. So actually
45:01
Speaker 2: the bit about bringing that appreciation in works not just
45:06
Speaker 2: for the person.
45:07
Speaker 1: You've nominated or the team you've nominated. It's good for
45:10
Speaker 1: you as well.
45:11
Speaker 2: And as a recipient, actually the lovely bit for me
45:15
Speaker 2: was looking at the colleague who nominated me.
45:17
Speaker 1: And seeing his joy at me being awarded.
45:20
Speaker 2: Actually was also part of that reward from the nomination.
45:26
Speaker 2: I'm very proud and humbled by the fact that I
45:30
Speaker 2: received it last year. And the impact that people have
45:35
Speaker 2: shared with me that I had on other people that
45:37
Speaker 2: I don't even remember doing.
45:40
Speaker 1: But but, you know, people said to me, you did this.
45:43
Speaker 1: And I go, did I? OK, thank you. And that
45:47
Speaker 1: that was so lovely.
45:49
Speaker 2: That that brought me, you know, the.
45:51
Speaker 1: Element of, yes, I am doing OK. I have made
45:54
Speaker 1: a positive impact on my colleagues and my patients. And
45:58
Speaker 1: that's really valuable to take home at night.
46:03
Speaker 5: Ron, this has been very special. I want to thank
46:05
Speaker 5: you and Clinogen for establishing and honoring pharmacists throughout the globe.
46:14
Speaker 4: So what's this mean to you?
46:16
Speaker 5: Because you were a practicing pharmacist at one time, too.
46:21
Speaker 6: Indeed, Todd, and I think we are really honored to
46:23
Speaker 6: be able to really exemplify this behavior that our pharmacists
46:29
Speaker 6: actually do, kind of lead by example. I think the
46:33
Speaker 6: one thing I've learned throughout my career, and you said
46:36
Speaker 6: it right, I've had a chance to be in their
46:39
Speaker 6: shoes on the front lines, is that there are so
46:42
Speaker 6: many moments that actually shape things that the pharmacist does,
46:47
Speaker 6: and they often go unnoticed. So I think it's exactly
46:49
Speaker 6: what Alison said. She may not even recall all the
46:52
Speaker 6: things that she's done, which people are thanking her for.
46:55
Speaker 6: But I think it's that conversation, that piece of advice,
46:59
Speaker 6: the problem that has been solved at that right time.
47:03
Speaker 6: It's the people that are responsible that really seek that recognition.
47:07
Speaker 6: I think Alison is a great example. She just mentioned that.
47:10
Speaker 6: But that doesn't mean that they don't deserve to be recognized.
47:12
Speaker 6: And I think that's a very small way for us
47:15
Speaker 6: as an organization, Clinigen, where we work with so many
47:17
Speaker 6: pharmacists to recognize that. And really the simple message over
47:21
Speaker 6: here is to thank them and let them know that
47:24
Speaker 6: their work really mattered. It made a huge difference. And
47:28
Speaker 6: I think that's a powerful thing to say and for
47:30
Speaker 6: them to hear. And we want to thank them for it.
47:34
Speaker 4: Thank you. Thank you to Clinogen. Thank you to Allison.
47:38
Speaker 5: This has been so special for you to spend time
47:40
Speaker 5: with us and really describing the evolving role of our
47:44
Speaker 5: pharmacists in our health systems and how important it is
47:48
Speaker 5: to be a champion of the people and to be
47:50
Speaker 5: an advocate for the people. And once again, Varun, thank
47:54
Speaker 5: you so much for being here with us and a
47:56
Speaker 5: shout out to Clinogen for really helping to amplify the
48:01
Speaker 5: voice of our pharmacists. My name's Todd Ury with the
48:04
Speaker 5: Pharmacy Podcast Network, and stay tuned for we'll be doing
48:08
Speaker 5: episode two upcoming.
48:11
Speaker 4: We thank you. Hope you guys have a great day.