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Celebrating the Launch of American Pharmacists Month 2025 | TWIRx · Pharmacy Podcast Network

0:01
Speaker 1: Record setting twerks Today our biggest this Week in Pharmacy
0:05
Speaker 1: to date. I am on fire. I'm so excited to
0:09
Speaker 1: be part of the pharmacy profession.
0:12
Speaker 2: You're my heroes.
0:13
Speaker 1: It is American Pharmacist Month and we are going to
0:17
Speaker 1: be celebrating for the entire month. If you have something
0:21
Speaker 1: happening at your school of pharmacy, if something's happening at
0:24
Speaker 1: your company, if something's happening in artificial intelligence or specific
0:28
Speaker 1: win that you're experiencing, get on this Week in Pharmacy.
0:32
Speaker 1: I'm dedicating the whole October to the innovation of our
0:37
Speaker 1: pharmacists and our pharmacy leaders, in our technicians. But just
0:42
Speaker 1: hype to be here, Hype to be a part of
0:45
Speaker 1: today's show once again, biggest show we've ever had. We
0:49
Speaker 1: have Jesse McCullough kicking us off from Keystone Pharmacy Insights.
0:54
Speaker 1: We have doctor Devin Bustin and he's the founder of
0:57
Speaker 1: over at RX. He's bringing in Lacette Logan, Doctor Logan.
1:01
Speaker 2: We'll be talking to us.
1:02
Speaker 1: About over it RX and are over it and how
1:07
Speaker 1: important it is to have a system that pharmacists can
1:11
Speaker 1: track treatment and make money other than just a dispensing fee.
1:14
Speaker 1: Bill Schmidnick is on from the Patient Protector. Everybody knows
1:18
Speaker 1: Bill from his horrific story that he lost his son
1:22
Speaker 1: Cole because of a PBM policy and it was un inexcusable, unforgivable.
1:30
Speaker 1: Doctor Jill Closer, Dean of the College of Pharmacy the
1:34
Speaker 1: University of Iowa, is going to be here. This is
1:37
Speaker 1: going to be awesome. And then rounding out today's twerks
1:40
Speaker 1: is WE Logistics leader. WE Logistics just went public this year.
1:44
Speaker 1: They're a secondary, very creative wholesaler. They're doing things in
1:49
Speaker 1: artificial intelligence that's just out of this world. Doctor Jason
1:53
Speaker 1: Lang will be with US farm d celebrating Pharmacist Month,
1:57
Speaker 1: that is the theme all month this week in Pharmacy.
2:20
Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to this Week in Pharmacy.
2:22
Speaker 1: Kicking off the show, Today's partially standard by evidence based podcasting.
2:27
Speaker 1: The standard that we're trying to build out with a
2:30
Speaker 1: numerous number of pharmacy schools leaders in pharmacy who are
2:35
Speaker 1: deep into pharmacy education and how that a supplementary supplement
2:40
Speaker 1: to your primary education in the form of podcasting could
2:44
Speaker 1: bring you a lot of double up on information. Hearing
2:49
Speaker 1: it from peers it being reviewed by your peers, assuring
2:53
Speaker 1: its authenticity and its evidence based standard. Be on the
2:57
Speaker 1: lookout for evidence based podcasting. It is American Pharmacist Month October.
3:03
Speaker 2: We're so excited.
3:04
Speaker 1: So October the whole month, we're going to be celebrating
3:07
Speaker 1: pharmacists through social media as well as our technicians supporting
3:12
Speaker 1: those pharmacists. And I'm just excited. It's one of our
3:16
Speaker 1: most favorite months. And we're moving more into conference season
3:19
Speaker 1: than ever. I am going to also be jumping into
3:26
Speaker 1: additional conferences. So primar X, the Explore Conference is happening
3:31
Speaker 1: on October tenth, and then the twenty third of October
3:36
Speaker 1: is the super Bowl of Independent Community Pharmacy and that
3:40
Speaker 1: is the NCPA. If you're going, please reach out, let
3:43
Speaker 1: me know that you're going. Let's connect, get you on
3:46
Speaker 1: the show. We're going to cover each of those themes.
3:50
Speaker 1: And it's just been an honor to be a part
3:54
Speaker 1: of both of those organizations for years. Primary X known
3:57
Speaker 1: as micro Merchant back in the day. I actually competed
4:00
Speaker 1: with them back in the day for pharmacy software accounts,
4:04
Speaker 1: which is just shows you how long we've all been around.
4:07
Speaker 1: They evolved to Primary X and now they're having a
4:10
Speaker 1: user conference to dig down into the impact of artificial
4:14
Speaker 1: intelligence on our community. Pharmacy owners are long term care
4:17
Speaker 1: pharmacists and even the mixed pharmacies out there. They're doing
4:21
Speaker 1: a bunch of new things, including some specialty touch. Hey,
4:25
Speaker 1: it is time for works news and this is interesting.
4:32
Speaker 1: We have news coming out of Wichita. This is the
4:36
Speaker 1: Wichita Eagle and it says former Rep. Thai art benefit
4:41
Speaker 1: Manager pharmacy benefit manager bill could shut down the CBS
4:47
Speaker 1: in Kansas and this was just published this week. It
4:52
Speaker 1: goes through how with a frustration of money being spent
4:56
Speaker 1: from the government to care for government workers, government programs,
5:01
Speaker 1: government subsidies, and medicaid, how are the PBMs using that
5:07
Speaker 1: money to assure the safety of our patients, the effectiveness
5:11
Speaker 1: of the treatment, and digging down into the bigger issue
5:16
Speaker 1: in those chronic states. This is so important to put
5:19
Speaker 1: PBMs in the crosshairs of being a commodity driven entity
5:23
Speaker 1: at this stage, the three biggest ones just pushing prescriptions
5:27
Speaker 1: through to get that money and having nothing to do
5:30
Speaker 1: with treatment. And we've been tracking this for over fifteen
5:34
Speaker 1: years now, and so CBS Health one of the providers
5:37
Speaker 1: set to be the most impacted, was forced to announce
5:40
Speaker 1: plans to close twenty three pharmacy locations across Arkansas.
5:44
Speaker 2: Those closures will affect.
5:46
Speaker 1: More than three thousand, three hundred and forty thousand patients
5:51
Speaker 1: and eliminate over five hundred local health care jobs. All
5:55
Speaker 1: leave more than ten thousand patients without access to specialize
5:59
Speaker 1: fiarmacy care. This is the impact when you do not
6:04
Speaker 1: align your mission. And this is a mission of an individual.
6:08
Speaker 1: And everyone listen up. If you are in this business
6:12
Speaker 1: to just make money and that's it, and not to
6:15
Speaker 1: forward our profession, you really shouldn't be here. You can
6:19
Speaker 1: continue to do that, but that's not changing pharmacy. And
6:22
Speaker 1: this is the fault of the three biggest, most powerful
6:27
Speaker 1: PBMs in our industry right now. They have bent and
6:32
Speaker 1: partially broken our pharmacy profession and it was done out
6:36
Speaker 1: of grade and that's unfortunate. Look up this article from
6:40
Speaker 1: the Wichita Eagle. The link will be in the show notes. Hey,
6:45
Speaker 1: next up, Narawa lawsuit against CVS. What do you know
6:51
Speaker 1: CBS care mark can help save my Middletown pharmacy. It
6:55
Speaker 1: was written as a guest view from the New part
6:58
Speaker 1: our I Rhode Island dot com, newportri dot com. The
7:05
Speaker 1: Newport Daily News reports on the impact that has had
7:13
Speaker 1: on Middleton and how pharmacy benefit managers have forced them
7:19
Speaker 1: to other pharmacies other than their hometown pharmacy.
7:22
Speaker 2: Who they've known for years, who they.
7:24
Speaker 1: Trust, who knows their children, who knew their parents, who
7:28
Speaker 1: knew tendencies of family generational issues, and being able to
7:35
Speaker 1: pass this information from one generation pharmacy owner to the next.
7:40
Speaker 1: And now we have communities that trust these people to
7:43
Speaker 1: guide them in their healthcare. The number one provider being
7:47
Speaker 1: touched and connected with most often is, of course, our
7:51
Speaker 1: pharmacists and the pharmacist in the community are pharmacists and
7:55
Speaker 1: health systems and in hospitals and really understanding over and
7:58
Speaker 1: over again with these people are going going through. So
8:00
Speaker 1: once again please look out for this article. It will
8:03
Speaker 1: be in the show notes. It digs down into a
8:06
Speaker 1: patient's own experience and the impact of PBM reform, the
8:13
Speaker 1: impact of our current the current state of our three
8:17
Speaker 1: biggest PBMs. Take a look all right, good news out
8:22
Speaker 1: of pharmacy times. The FDA approves Lubra sentendin forgive me
8:30
Speaker 1: my pharmacists, and this digs into helping those with lung cancer,
8:37
Speaker 1: and it will go through the article of where they're at,
8:41
Speaker 1: how the trial showcase efficacy safety of lubrin sentient regimen,
8:51
Speaker 1: and it goes down through some of the information and
8:53
Speaker 1: also a shout out to the organizations that are supporting
8:58
Speaker 1: this research helping to come out with these new medications,
9:03
Speaker 1: Jazz Pharmaceuticals, and how they're able to now put that
9:08
Speaker 1: in the hands of pharmacist and physicians to really dial
9:11
Speaker 1: into the specifics of where the stage of that disease
9:14
Speaker 1: is at and what medications based on the continuing use
9:19
Speaker 1: of modification of staging and titration stage medications in the
9:24
Speaker 1: future of variations of a medication.
9:27
Speaker 2: This is amazing. Pharmacists are part of this.
9:29
Speaker 1: You're feeding the AI and the systems out there in
9:34
Speaker 1: medi span and Wilter's cluer to do more and.
9:38
Speaker 2: This is exciting.
9:40
Speaker 1: Also good news once again from the grandfather of all
9:45
Speaker 1: publications in pharmacy are Pharmacy Times, and they are talking
9:50
Speaker 1: about building an opioid stewardship program in cancer care, pharmacist roles,
9:56
Speaker 1: challenges and patient safety. And this is a story featuring
10:01
Speaker 1: doctor Matthew D. Clark farmde pharmacy specialist in palliative care
10:06
Speaker 1: and opiate stewardship at the University of Texas and Anderson
10:12
Speaker 1: Cancer Center, and there's a nice video in there of that.
10:17
Speaker 2: I'll have this in the show Notes featuring.
10:22
Speaker 1: Doctor Clark and just take a look at that, listen
10:27
Speaker 1: to some of his ideas specific to his experiences. I'm
10:32
Speaker 1: going to reach out to him and see if we
10:33
Speaker 1: can't do a follow up interview with him to kind
10:35
Speaker 1: of dig down into his research and how a pharmacist
10:39
Speaker 1: is really leading a health system within a specific disease
10:43
Speaker 1: state and what that means, what that means for the
10:49
Speaker 1: specialists out there in pharmacy, and what that means for
10:54
Speaker 1: our profession. So proud of the evolution of some of
10:57
Speaker 1: the specialists in different disease states in the experience that
11:01
Speaker 1: I had at the NESP, the National Association of Specialty Pharmacies.
11:04
Speaker 1: We're going to be releasing the three part series. I
11:07
Speaker 1: think it starts next week. And just got done talking
11:11
Speaker 1: and following up with Sheil Arkatt's CEO of the NESP
11:15
Speaker 1: and the News just to let you know it was
11:19
Speaker 1: an explosive growth here for specialty pharmacy. For pharmacy in
11:23
Speaker 1: general but specialty. They had over two one hundred and
11:28
Speaker 1: fifty attendees, people that were interested in meeting with vendors
11:34
Speaker 1: on the show floor in the presentations the importance of
11:38
Speaker 1: AI in specialty pharmacy as well under the control of
11:42
Speaker 1: those pharmacy teams and the workflow systems and the hubs.
11:45
Speaker 1: But I am so excited about what's happening at the NASP,
11:49
Speaker 1: including their educational division with the Certified Pharmacy Specialist certification
11:55
Speaker 1: and what that means, what that means to dig down
11:58
Speaker 1: into additional things that are that are impacting patients specifically,
12:05
Speaker 1: and and you pharmacists who are working in those environments,
12:11
Speaker 1: you're you're taking your time with your patients, uh, to understand.
12:19
Speaker 2: What they're going through.
12:20
Speaker 1: I mean, that's where your specialty care and that's where
12:25
Speaker 1: you really stand out is because you have specific understanding
12:30
Speaker 1: and specific knowledge of what your patient went through with
12:34
Speaker 1: that medication and maybe suggestions with supplements along the way
12:39
Speaker 1: or doing something to really dial in to the needs
12:45
Speaker 1: of your patient. I'm so impressed with our pediatric podcasts
12:50
Speaker 1: that have really taken fire, our Tamar Aruguls who are
12:55
Speaker 1: digging into a disease state management in our senior world.
13:00
Speaker 1: I just love the camaraderie that we're having, the excitement
13:06
Speaker 1: around where the profession's going and the next generation of
13:11
Speaker 1: pharmacist leaders. Hey a shout out to my friend and
13:16
Speaker 1: trusted colleague who helped me with the Veterans' Pharmacy Care Summit.
13:21
Speaker 1: He was a speaker there our very first. I'm going
13:24
Speaker 1: to grow that now on a national level, dialing into
13:27
Speaker 1: what veterans specifically need from pharmacists. It's very different, just
13:32
Speaker 1: like every specialty is different. But I want to give
13:35
Speaker 1: the floor to my friend Jesse McCullough with he's the
13:38
Speaker 1: founder of Keystone Pharmacy Insights.
13:43
Speaker 3: Hello everyone, and welcome to October. Welcome to American Pharmacist Month,
13:49
Speaker 3: the month where we celebrate this great profession and we
13:52
Speaker 3: shine a light on the impact pharmacists and pharmacy teams
13:56
Speaker 3: make every single day. This year's theme is caring for
14:00
Speaker 3: our Communities. Last night I was challenged.
14:04
Speaker 4: With a thought.
14:05
Speaker 3: I thought, what if throughout the month of October, What
14:08
Speaker 3: if throughout American Pharmacist Month, what if we undertook a challenge.
14:12
Speaker 3: What if we did one small thing every day to
14:16
Speaker 3: elevate ourselves or our colleagues or the communities that we serve.
14:21
Speaker 3: How would things look at the end of a challenge
14:23
Speaker 3: like that? So I sat down and I compiled a
14:26
Speaker 3: list of thirty one challenges, a list of thirty one
14:30
Speaker 3: small actions that may radically improve your pharmacy life. Here's
14:35
Speaker 3: how it works. Every day in October, you'll have one
14:39
Speaker 3: simple action you can take. These actions are designed to
14:43
Speaker 3: do one of three things. There to help you grow personally,
14:46
Speaker 3: advocate for the pharmacy profession, and to encourage others. None
14:51
Speaker 3: of the challenges that I have listed are complicated at all,
14:55
Speaker 3: but if we all do them every day, only imagine
15:00
Speaker 3: how things could be improved for each one of us.
15:04
Speaker 3: So let's start with day one. Your challenge today is
15:08
Speaker 3: to download the Oath of the Pharmacist and to post
15:12
Speaker 3: it somewhere where you will see it every day. That
15:15
Speaker 3: may be the office wall, that may be in your locker,
15:18
Speaker 3: that may be on a refrigerator, that may even be
15:21
Speaker 3: on the mirror in a restroom for example. I don't
15:25
Speaker 3: care if you have to have one copy or multiple copies.
15:28
Speaker 3: That doesn't matter to me. What I do care about
15:32
Speaker 3: is that you read the oath once a day for
15:35
Speaker 3: the month. This daily reminder of the promises we have
15:39
Speaker 3: made to ourselves and to our teams and to our
15:41
Speaker 3: communities will serve to keep our focus on caring for
15:46
Speaker 3: our communities. So are you up for the challenge? I
15:50
Speaker 3: certainly hope. So as you get started, let me encourage
15:54
Speaker 3: you to not take on the challenge alone. Find some
15:58
Speaker 3: friends to take the challenge with you. Invite a colleague,
16:01
Speaker 3: Invite a technician, Invite a student to invite them. All right,
16:05
Speaker 3: the more of us who participate, the bigger impact will
16:09
Speaker 3: be able to make.
16:09
Speaker 4: Together.
16:10
Speaker 3: None of us are in this profession alone, and our
16:13
Speaker 3: communities are counting on us to continue to serve them
16:17
Speaker 3: and to serve them at a high standard. So thank
16:20
Speaker 3: you for stepping up, thank you for caring for your community,
16:24
Speaker 3: and thank you for being part of this thirty one
16:26
Speaker 3: day journey. Let's get started. Day one begins right now.
16:31
Speaker 3: Download the Oath of the Pharmacist, post it where you'll
16:34
Speaker 3: see it, and read it every day this month. After
16:38
Speaker 3: you've downloaded the oath, simply write done in the comments
16:42
Speaker 3: and share this video with two friends and I'll be
16:45
Speaker 3: back tomorrow with your Day two challenge.
16:55
Speaker 5: As frontline healthcare providers. Pharmacists like you understand the importance
16:59
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17:03
Speaker 5: is dedicated to providing high quality, generic products tailored to
17:07
Speaker 5: meet your patient's needs. The company aims to serve a
17:10
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17:16
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17:20
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17:23
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17:26
Speaker 5: the ranks of pharmacists leading away in personalized care. To
17:30
Speaker 5: learn more about Euryl Pharma and its products, including full
17:34
Speaker 5: prescribing information, boxed warnings, and important safety information, visit Eurylpharma
17:40
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17:45
Speaker 5: with them on LinkedIn.
17:50
Speaker 1: Hey, and on this weekend pharmacy special guest who I'm
17:53
Speaker 1: not sure if you know this gentleman, but he's credit
17:56
Speaker 1: special to our ecosystem and the pharmacy land, and lots
18:00
Speaker 1: of pharmacy owners know him. Shout out to the Pharmacies
18:03
Speaker 1: United for Truth and Transparency and all the work that
18:06
Speaker 1: they do for patient advocacy.
18:08
Speaker 2: Mister Bill Schmidtnick one.
18:11
Speaker 1: Of the drivers of the Patient Protector. You can learn
18:15
Speaker 1: more by going to Patientprotector dot us.
18:18
Speaker 6: Bill.
18:18
Speaker 2: It's so good to see.
18:19
Speaker 6: You, hey, Thanks glad to be here.
18:22
Speaker 7: Simple as that.
18:24
Speaker 6: Your network's awesome and I love the work you do
18:26
Speaker 6: for the pharmacies out there and everybody in the industry.
18:30
Speaker 1: Absolutely, you have a special guest with you, another one
18:33
Speaker 1: that is a loudmouth in pharmacy that we desperately need
18:37
Speaker 1: more people like and introduced and to us.
18:40
Speaker 6: Yes and and Loandowski with the Healthcare Rebel Alliance. It
18:47
Speaker 6: is a great organization because it's formed by and plain
18:52
Speaker 6: and simple, as Todd says, the loud mouth, But I
18:59
Speaker 6: would say the voice of reckoning more.
19:05
Speaker 1: And give our listeners just an overview of your mission
19:08
Speaker 1: and what you've been doing in healthcare to make sure
19:12
Speaker 1: that the patient's voice is front and center.
19:18
Speaker 8: Thanks Todd for that. My name is a Lewandowski and
19:23
Speaker 8: some of your listeners may know that from Lewandowski versus
19:26
Speaker 8: Jane Jay, a lawsuit on fiduciary duty against my former employer,
19:33
Speaker 8: which of course I cannot discuss because it's ongoing litigation.
19:38
Speaker 8: With that, one of the things that I really took
19:40
Speaker 8: to the marketplace was a need for more transparency and
19:44
Speaker 8: understanding of the data for patients. Right, I remember needing
19:50
Speaker 8: to pay three hundred dollars for val cycle of your script.
19:54
Speaker 8: That's not a three hundred dollars medication, but simply because
19:58
Speaker 8: I want to a local for armasine picked it up.
20:01
Speaker 8: That was the cost because I was in a high
20:04
Speaker 8: deductibal health plan. So I'm a patient. I have two
20:07
Speaker 8: autoimmune conditions, and so I really see it from both sides.
20:12
Speaker 8: I see it from the payer side, and I certainly understand.
20:17
Speaker 8: You know what, I like to joke my pp M,
20:22
Speaker 8: you know, my peanut butter Bill to my pharma jelly here.
20:27
Speaker 8: So I think there's just some really great synergies that
20:30
Speaker 8: Bill and I have had of you know, I, as
20:33
Speaker 8: a patient have experienced challenges, nothing of course, like losing
20:38
Speaker 8: somebody or my son like Bill has.
20:43
Speaker 2: Bill.
20:44
Speaker 1: As reference to the listeners, off this is the first
20:46
Speaker 1: time listening. If you could give the quick summary to
20:51
Speaker 1: the mission that you're on and how that came to be.
20:55
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely well. Back in January of twenty twenty four,
20:58
Speaker 6: my son Cole went to a pharmacy, a chained pharmacy,
21:02
Speaker 6: to get his routine asthma medicine. That night changed the
21:07
Speaker 6: changed his life because he had to make a decision
21:11
Speaker 6: paid for adverdiscus which used to be about sixty six
21:15
Speaker 6: dollars and it was well over five hundred dollars. Coole
21:20
Speaker 6: walked out that night and I got a phone call
21:24
Speaker 6: later that he was in the ICU, and long and
21:27
Speaker 6: short of it, my wife and I spent the next
21:30
Speaker 6: eleven days in the ICU with Cole, and he passed
21:35
Speaker 6: away on January twenty first of twenty twenty four from
21:40
Speaker 6: an asthma attack. And simplicity of it, after we've learned
21:44
Speaker 6: a lot is there was a formulary change. He was
21:47
Speaker 6: not told of it, and that started the mission for
21:51
Speaker 6: patient protector Shannon and I that's my wife and fixing
21:57
Speaker 6: this healthcare system. Not saying it's broken. It's just this
22:01
Speaker 6: aligned very badly and it cost my son's life and
22:04
Speaker 6: my opinion, and I'm dedicating my life to getting justice
22:08
Speaker 6: for my son, Coal and everybody else.
22:11
Speaker 2: And we need that bill.
22:13
Speaker 1: That's the the power of a father, a power of
22:15
Speaker 1: a mother coming in in the afterlife and following up
22:21
Speaker 1: from Coal and his legacy, and you know your mission
22:25
Speaker 1: and combined and what that means when you're coupling with
22:27
Speaker 1: people like Ann and independent pharmacies and people in the
22:32
Speaker 1: health care industry that know it's broken and it's bent,
22:35
Speaker 1: and it's it's anything. Administrative should not be a deterior
22:42
Speaker 1: a blockade to getting us the care that we need
22:46
Speaker 1: to keep us healthy or to in this case, keep
22:49
Speaker 1: us alive. Nothing administration is more important than care, or
22:55
Speaker 1: like I said, having somebody you know lose their life
22:59
Speaker 1: over something from it administration perspective, that makes absolutely no sense,
23:03
Speaker 1: and it shows you how bent and misaligned that it is.
23:08
Speaker 6: Absolutely I mean, you know, my wife and I have
23:11
Speaker 6: coined a little phrase, breathing isn't an option, and that's
23:15
Speaker 6: just a proven fact by Cole's death.
23:19
Speaker 8: I want to just add a little bit of perspective
23:22
Speaker 8: here because it's easy to say that the incentives are misaligned,
23:27
Speaker 8: but in this case, the incentives were aligned right, and
23:32
Speaker 8: that is a real gut check that we all need
23:34
Speaker 8: to look at. So from the pharma perspective, of course,
23:39
Speaker 8: how that change that the formulaity change likely happened was
23:45
Speaker 8: because of bidding and rebates, So it's not necessarily that
23:50
Speaker 8: this was the cheapest medication, But what happens is pharma
23:55
Speaker 8: companies go to a PBM and they do close sealed
23:59
Speaker 8: bids on what the pharmaceutical company is willing to do
24:03
Speaker 8: for the PBM in order for that medication to be
24:07
Speaker 8: on formulary. So often this will be more administrative fees.
24:13
Speaker 8: It could be rebates, although rebates are kind of an
24:15
Speaker 8: old term now because a rebate has to be passed
24:19
Speaker 8: on to the end user, so typically the employer health plans,
24:22
Speaker 8: so a lot of those have shifted to administrative fees,
24:26
Speaker 8: specialty pharmacy fees, et cetera, et cetera. So in this case,
24:30
Speaker 8: the pharmacy benefit manager likely received more incentive or kickback
24:37
Speaker 8: because these are in fact covered under the anti kickback statute.
24:40
Speaker 8: They're just an exemption from that from being a kickback.
24:45
Speaker 8: So in this case they received something in order to
24:48
Speaker 8: shift advert off, so that incentive is perfectly aligned.
24:55
Speaker 6: Yeah, and that's truly what we've been discovering too, because
24:59
Speaker 6: the replacement, if you want to say, for the ADVERT
25:03
Speaker 6: was not the cheapest generic alternative. It was another name
25:07
Speaker 6: brand drug that needed a prior authorization quite honestly, and.
25:13
Speaker 8: That's while needing a PA for a first line inhaler like,
25:18
Speaker 8: that's insane.
25:21
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean this whole world that I and you know,
25:25
Speaker 6: this is why I align myself with people like Ann
25:28
Speaker 6: because I can have the voice of call through me
25:31
Speaker 6: and my anger but my determination out there and people
25:35
Speaker 6: like and bring to clarity that I'm speaking that I
25:38
Speaker 6: need for my what I'm saying. You know, I could
25:40
Speaker 6: be as educated as possible, but I don't have the
25:43
Speaker 6: years of experience in this and what and brings to
25:45
Speaker 6: the table. And as we work together, I you know,
25:50
Speaker 6: true disruption to the system is what I want to
25:53
Speaker 6: bring and at the ultimate end is a good solution
25:57
Speaker 6: for everybody.
26:00
Speaker 1: What's the suggestion's bill for for swell to swell up
26:08
Speaker 1: as many people's voices as possible, to gather our independent
26:12
Speaker 1: community pharmacies through organizations and founders like you and your wife.
26:18
Speaker 2: It's the patient protector.
26:20
Speaker 1: What are some suggested tips to to kind of accelerate
26:24
Speaker 1: the ability to get the attention of lawmakers to get
26:27
Speaker 1: things changed.
26:29
Speaker 6: Well, we've actually heard from lawmakers on that they want
26:32
Speaker 6: patient voices in Washington. I currently have a mission. It's
26:39
Speaker 6: called the March to a Million. It's on my website.
26:42
Speaker 6: It's pretty simple, actually, but what that is. That's voices
26:45
Speaker 6: to Washington, that's emails, that's phone calls, it's social media.
26:50
Speaker 6: If you can't go to Washington and go talk to
26:52
Speaker 6: your elected official, the next best option is making your
26:55
Speaker 6: voice heard. And that is one of the biggest things
26:58
Speaker 6: because there is been some strides over the last seventeen
27:04
Speaker 6: months in pharmacy Benefit Manager reform plan and simple, it's
27:09
Speaker 6: not where it needs to be, and overall healthcare reform
27:12
Speaker 6: is not where it needs to be. But with last year,
27:17
Speaker 6: things got kind of shuddered towards the end. We're not
27:20
Speaker 6: going to get into major, major details, but there was
27:23
Speaker 6: some very strong proposed Pharmacy Benefit Manager reform legislation HR
27:30
Speaker 6: ninety ninety six back in the day. The Pharmacist Fight
27:33
Speaker 6: Back Act was proportioned to that along with other bills
27:36
Speaker 6: that got just shut down over one basic social media post.
27:41
Speaker 6: And there's an overwhelming bipartisan support from Washington. We've got
27:49
Speaker 6: elected officials on the Democratic and the Republican side who
27:53
Speaker 6: you'd never think would work together, do work together. And
27:57
Speaker 6: they told me personally and other people at Protector and
28:00
Speaker 6: TUT we need your voices, plain and simple. You can
28:04
Speaker 6: simply go to patientprotector dot us. You click a little
28:06
Speaker 6: gold ticket, a little gold button. It takes you about
28:09
Speaker 6: two minutes and we'll pregenerate stuff, will make it easy.
28:12
Speaker 6: We'll give your phone numbers. But that's what needs to happen.
28:16
Speaker 6: We need to let Washington Joe, we are serious and
28:18
Speaker 6: we need to get this done.
28:22
Speaker 2: I love the initiative.
28:24
Speaker 1: I want to once again let our listeners know that
28:27
Speaker 1: they can go to the Patient Protector website patientprotector dot
28:31
Speaker 1: us and if you go to the button up at
28:34
Speaker 1: the top that says Wisconsin twenty twenty five and click
28:39
Speaker 1: on that, it'll kind of open up additional information.
28:42
Speaker 2: I'll give you the list of.
28:45
Speaker 1: Legislators that are involved, and your support to those legislators
28:50
Speaker 1: is very important, as well as reaching out to your
28:52
Speaker 1: own state representatives and letting them know that this is
28:56
Speaker 1: available and getting them in front of the content to
28:59
Speaker 1: simplify it. Because PBM reform is complex, it's designed that
29:03
Speaker 1: way on purpose to keep people in the dark so
29:06
Speaker 1: they don't know what's going on. It doesn't it doesn't
29:09
Speaker 1: even make sense the way that it works and how
29:11
Speaker 1: many times it changes, and organizations like the Patient Protector
29:16
Speaker 1: dot Us as well as Pharmacies United for Truth and Transparency,
29:20
Speaker 1: even the NCPA, the National Community Pharmacists Association all aligned
29:26
Speaker 1: to make these changes. And what other organizations can you
29:33
Speaker 1: reference so that our listeners could say, Okay, we want
29:36
Speaker 1: to couple this together because some of these people, some
29:39
Speaker 1: of these independent community pharmacies, are juggernauts and they're really
29:44
Speaker 1: slamming through some of the obstacles and I think your guidance.
29:47
Speaker 2: Could help them.
29:48
Speaker 7: Yeah.
29:48
Speaker 8: So one thing, just going back to how to engage
29:53
Speaker 8: Congress is not just in Washington, right. They work for us,
29:57
Speaker 8: they represent us, and there is a real opportunity when
30:01
Speaker 8: they're in district to have a meeting with them or
30:05
Speaker 8: their staff to educate them on why it's so important.
30:09
Speaker 8: So if you're a pharmacy and you're trying to get
30:13
Speaker 8: a bunch of patients, that's not really easy to take
30:17
Speaker 8: to Washington, right, But you could invite your legislator to
30:21
Speaker 8: come to your pharmacy and have your patients there with them.
30:25
Speaker 2: That's a great opportunity.
30:26
Speaker 7: I think.
30:27
Speaker 8: Secondly, there's a ton of patient organizations who are working
30:32
Speaker 8: on this. Can you can you all hear me?
30:34
Speaker 6: Yep?
30:35
Speaker 1: Yeah?
30:36
Speaker 8: And you know, whether it's the National MS Society, it
30:41
Speaker 8: could be a patient coalition. Oftentimes in a state, there's
30:46
Speaker 8: a patient coalition. Here in Wisconsin we have the Coalition
30:49
Speaker 8: on Aging and Health Groups, and in other states it
30:54
Speaker 8: might be led by the Cancer Coalition or the American
30:59
Speaker 8: Cancer Society, or sort of these endless iteration of patient groups.
31:04
Speaker 8: So I would say, find some of these patient groups
31:06
Speaker 8: and align with them. Often they're looking for patients in
31:10
Speaker 8: a specific area, and if you can be a conduit
31:14
Speaker 8: or somebody who can help those patients get involved, it's
31:17
Speaker 8: really a nice opportunity for those synergies that you're talking about.
31:21
Speaker 1: Todd, thank you, thank you for that. I know we
31:25
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of time left. I wanted on
31:28
Speaker 1: this week in Pharmacy to get Bill back into the
31:32
Speaker 1: pods and start interconnecting and networking with others. I do
31:36
Speaker 1: want to give a shout out to our listeners. Bill
31:38
Speaker 1: is going to be involved on a cyclical basis. We're
31:41
Speaker 1: going to get him involved in other shows. If you're
31:44
Speaker 1: a buying group, if you're a wholesaler, if you're a
31:47
Speaker 1: secondary supplier, if you're a technology company, and you know,
31:51
Speaker 1: I know, you know how important patient advocacy is. Bill
31:55
Speaker 1: does custom consultancy assignments where he can dial in and
32:00
Speaker 1: help you with these types of initiatives. I want you
32:03
Speaker 1: to reach out to Bill. I'm going to have in
32:05
Speaker 1: the show notes a way to get a hold of him.
32:07
Speaker 1: If you can't get a hold of him, reach out
32:09
Speaker 1: to the Pharmacy Podcast.
32:11
Speaker 2: Network and we will get you involved with Bill.
32:13
Speaker 4: Bill.
32:13
Speaker 1: This is exciting that you are being empowered by organizations
32:18
Speaker 1: out there who really take this personally and it's part
32:21
Speaker 1: of their strategy. So we want to get your voice
32:24
Speaker 1: out there.
32:25
Speaker 6: Yeah, no, thank you for that, Todd. And just very simply,
32:28
Speaker 6: I am one hundred percent engaged in this pharmacy benefit
32:31
Speaker 6: manager reform all the way through the overall healthcare reform.
32:34
Speaker 6: My heart is with independent pharmacy. As I know if
32:38
Speaker 6: my son would have been at an independent pharmacist versus
32:41
Speaker 6: the chain he was at, I wouldn't be here today.
32:44
Speaker 6: We'd be having a very different discussion. So as we
32:48
Speaker 6: get close to the end, as Todd was showing, you
32:50
Speaker 6: know our march to a million at the Washington level
32:54
Speaker 6: in Wisconsin, we have Cole's Fight. Both places make it
32:59
Speaker 6: really easy for you to just click a button make
33:01
Speaker 6: your voices heard. You know on the screen now is
33:04
Speaker 6: the March to a million. That's you know, we don't
33:07
Speaker 6: have the acts out yet, but it's getting closed. But
33:09
Speaker 6: read this, pick a solution, send an email, make a call,
33:14
Speaker 6: post on social media, make your voices heard at a
33:17
Speaker 6: national level, and also in Wisconsin. Keep the push going.
33:22
Speaker 6: We're halfway there with the Senate Health and Aging Committee
33:28
Speaker 6: just passed calls to act on unanimously, so we're making
33:34
Speaker 6: some progress. So it was good. It was good. Now
33:36
Speaker 6: we got to keep the fight and I will be
33:39
Speaker 6: back and I'm not going anywhere.
33:42
Speaker 1: We're going to fix this wonderful Thank you, hey Bill,
33:46
Speaker 1: Thank you for making time for us on this Week
33:49
Speaker 1: in Pharmacy, and thank you so much for being our
33:51
Speaker 1: special guest. This is not the last time that you
33:54
Speaker 1: hear from either of them. We are committed to both
33:56
Speaker 1: of them and their mission. Once again, if you're a
33:59
Speaker 1: business organization that wants to take advantage of a Bill's
34:03
Speaker 1: personal knowledge and mission or work with and please reach
34:07
Speaker 1: out to them their contact informations in the show notes,
34:10
Speaker 1: or reach out to.
34:10
Speaker 2: The Pharmacy Podcast Network.
34:12
Speaker 1: Hey hold on, We'll be right back with more this
34:15
Speaker 1: Week in Pharmacy.
34:24
Speaker 5: This episode is sponsored by Independent Pharmacy Cooperative widely known
34:28
Speaker 5: as IPC. Established in nineteen eighty three, IPC is the
34:32
Speaker 5: nation's largest group purchasing organization owned by independent pharmacy with
34:37
Speaker 5: a mission of maximizing the success of community pharmacists. IPC
34:41
Speaker 5: works to provide members with access to effective programs and
34:44
Speaker 5: services designed to enhance profitability for independent pharmacy.
34:48
Speaker 2: Read more about our mission.
34:50
Speaker 5: By checking out our website at ipcurx dot com. That's
34:54
Speaker 5: ipcarx dot com.
35:07
Speaker 1: Hey, and on this weekend, pharmacy something special. We just
35:10
Speaker 1: started working with Overate, the team Mary and Dustin. There
35:16
Speaker 1: the creation of a platform called PRISM. You're going to
35:20
Speaker 1: be hearing a lot about that because it's really going
35:22
Speaker 1: to impact pharmacy consultancy. It's going to impact our independent
35:25
Speaker 1: community pharmacies that are looking for ways to build for
35:29
Speaker 1: treatment services, chronic treatment services tracking, also preparing it for
35:35
Speaker 1: integration with other EHR systems through PRISM. I'd like to
35:40
Speaker 1: welcome back doctor Devin Bustin, who is the CEO of
35:46
Speaker 1: over it and leading the PRISM charge.
35:49
Speaker 2: Welcome.
35:50
Speaker 9: Thank you for having us, Todd and I appreciate you
35:52
Speaker 9: having us on. I'm the chief medical officer. My wife,
35:54
Speaker 9: Mary Cusick is the CEO.
35:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely got it all flipped around as I all
36:03
Speaker 1: the in my head. Hey and introduce are my favorite
36:07
Speaker 1: providers or pharmacist. I'm sorry, Dustin, is it's not you,
36:11
Speaker 1: it's our guests.
36:12
Speaker 2: So and introduce our special guests.
36:14
Speaker 6: Yeah.
36:14
Speaker 9: So special guest today is doctor Lisette Logan. She's an
36:17
Speaker 9: amazing clinical pharmacist with a ton of experience, and she
36:20
Speaker 9: also serves as the chief operating officer of the Overate Foundation.
36:26
Speaker 1: Hi, give us a little background on yourself as a pharmacist.
36:31
Speaker 1: What do you what are you most passionate about about
36:33
Speaker 1: being a pharmacist?
36:35
Speaker 7: Well, I mean I would be lying if I don't
36:37
Speaker 7: say over It Foundation and just being able to help,
36:41
Speaker 7: you know, make women's care normal and normalize that, and
36:47
Speaker 7: just being a part of what we're building with PRISM
36:50
Speaker 7: and wanting to change what it is that the infrastructure
36:54
Speaker 7: looks like for pharmacists in general, and being part of
36:57
Speaker 7: that journey and seeing the difference that it does make
37:02
Speaker 7: makes like really brings joy to my heart and makes
37:05
Speaker 7: it all worth it, all the schooling and everything.
37:09
Speaker 1: Absolutely in all and all the debt too. It makes
37:11
Speaker 1: it less uh less back.
37:14
Speaker 9: Yeah, funny thing actually hope that. Yeah.
37:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're not going to talk about the on today's turques.
37:22
Speaker 1: What we are going to talk about is I can
37:25
Speaker 1: only imagine. I'm not a pharmacist, so I don't know
37:27
Speaker 1: what you guys go through. But in your hospital setting,
37:30
Speaker 1: in your specialty setting, long term care, when you're dealing
37:33
Speaker 1: with our seniors, maybe those seniors have dementia. But today
37:37
Speaker 1: I want to talk to our community pharmacists.
37:39
Speaker 2: They're in down deep inside.
37:41
Speaker 1: They're kind of my favorite in some ways because the
37:43
Speaker 1: independent community pharmacies are out there trying to build their businesses,
37:47
Speaker 1: trying to be sometimes the only healthcare provider in a community,
37:50
Speaker 1: and there may be pharmacies collapsing around them, and now
37:54
Speaker 1: instead of driving five miles away to a pharmacy, they
37:59
Speaker 1: might have to drive twenty thirty miles away to a pharmacy.
38:02
Speaker 1: So it's preserving and empowering pharmacies in our community.
38:06
Speaker 2: That's important. And when I think of the community setting.
38:09
Speaker 1: I think of a lot of the doctor googling that
38:13
Speaker 1: you all have to put up with. You hear from
38:16
Speaker 1: people that come in and said, but I read on
38:18
Speaker 1: this and this or on TikTok. I saw something something,
38:21
Speaker 1: and then poor pharmacists are standing there trying. You know,
38:24
Speaker 1: they have a long line of patients and they got
38:27
Speaker 1: to get to the next one, and they're dealing with
38:28
Speaker 1: something that just is like fugazi.
38:31
Speaker 2: Really forst sake, for lack of a better word.
38:34
Speaker 1: So today we're going to review There's an article that
38:37
Speaker 1: came out this week in pharmacy and it was News
38:39
Speaker 1: eighteen dot com and the title is seven myths about
38:43
Speaker 1: birth control you need to Know.
38:46
Speaker 2: And I thought and found it very interesting, and I.
38:51
Speaker 1: Thought of our team over at PRISM and over it
38:54
Speaker 1: because you're kind of knee deep into that whole sector
38:57
Speaker 1: of women's health. And so right out of the gate,
39:01
Speaker 1: what do you think of this? I mean you both
39:03
Speaker 1: have probably experienced the doctor googling effect, right yeah.
39:07
Speaker 9: I mean, so, for one, I think it's really great
39:10
Speaker 9: when patients advocate for themselves, right, So I'm never going to,
39:14
Speaker 9: I guess, diminish their concerns when it comes to things
39:17
Speaker 9: that they may have read online. Now, we also know
39:20
Speaker 9: that there happens to be a ton of misinformation out there,
39:23
Speaker 9: especially today, right uh, And so it's hard, right, Like,
39:27
Speaker 9: you know, they're there, it's coming from a good place,
39:30
Speaker 9: it's coming from a place of trying to self advocate,
39:34
Speaker 9: but maybe they're misinformed on something. And so it's very
39:38
Speaker 9: important to be informed yourself so that you can provide accurate,
39:42
Speaker 9: you know, evidence based guide you know, guideline based care.
39:46
Speaker 9: But it's also important not to disenfranchise and kind of gently,
39:52
Speaker 9: you know, provide that information without being a contrarian, because
39:56
Speaker 9: you can shut a patient down real quick and they
39:58
Speaker 9: just won't listen to anything you say. For that if
40:00
Speaker 9: if you're if you kind of approach it with the
40:02
Speaker 9: wrong attitude.
40:05
Speaker 2: What about you, doctor g Logan, what have you run
40:08
Speaker 2: into with all that?
40:10
Speaker 7: I mean put it simply, like pharmacists are. They can
40:14
Speaker 7: separate fact from fiction and they deal with that on
40:17
Speaker 7: a daily basis. And whether it's the internet or the
40:21
Speaker 7: telephone game, meaning they got information from one person then
40:26
Speaker 7: it changes something else. And just being able to, you know,
40:30
Speaker 7: like Devin said, allowing the patient to advocate for themselves,
40:35
Speaker 7: but ensuring that they understand, hey, this is what's factual
40:39
Speaker 7: in that statement, and let's focus on the facts. And
40:44
Speaker 7: sometimes it requires kind of that myth busting to say no,
40:48
Speaker 7: that's not that's not the case, or even understanding where
40:52
Speaker 7: it came from some of those myths, like in this article,
40:56
Speaker 7: understanding where some of that came from, and that underlying
41:00
Speaker 7: issue for center and patients that matters. So listening to
41:03
Speaker 7: the patient and just separating back from fiction.
41:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, I'm gonna let you both take it away.
41:12
Speaker 1: You guys can switch on and off between each of
41:15
Speaker 1: the each of the myths. We'll start with number one.
41:18
Speaker 1: I'm going to kick this over to Dustin. It says
41:21
Speaker 1: hormonal birth control makes you gain weight.
41:24
Speaker 9: Yeah, so this is one that you know, there's a
41:27
Speaker 9: lot of anecdotal reports, right, Like a lot of women
41:30
Speaker 9: have said this, and again not to take away anybody's
41:32
Speaker 9: personal experience, is it possible that someone did gain weight
41:36
Speaker 9: because of contraception? Absolutely, it's anything is possible, right, That's
41:40
Speaker 9: what I always say. But however, when it's looked at
41:43
Speaker 9: on a population health level, there's a really good Cochrane
41:47
Speaker 9: review that came out in twenty fourteen that really looked
41:50
Speaker 9: into this in depth and found that combined hormonal contraceptive
41:54
Speaker 9: pills did not have any causation with weight gain, you know,
41:59
Speaker 9: any meaningful weight gain at all. Now, it is interesting right, Like,
42:03
Speaker 9: this is a part myth, So I'm not going to
42:05
Speaker 9: say that this is a total myth. Right, Because where
42:09
Speaker 9: combined hormonal contraceptives did not have a causal relationship with
42:12
Speaker 9: any weight gain, progestin only pills do have a minor
42:17
Speaker 9: relationship with minimal weight gain less than five pounds. So
42:22
Speaker 9: that may not be quote unquote meaningful at a kind
42:25
Speaker 9: of population health level, but for some individual human five
42:29
Speaker 9: pounds or less than five pounds may be something they
42:32
Speaker 9: care about, right, So it is possible in that from
42:35
Speaker 9: an IUD perspective, intrauterine device, the copper, there's no causal
42:40
Speaker 9: relationship at all. But with the hormonal ones, again maybe
42:43
Speaker 9: minimal less than five pounds, it's possible. But here's where
42:46
Speaker 9: the myth becomes fact. Actually, when it comes to depot
42:50
Speaker 9: shots depot injections, there actually is a correlation with weight
42:55
Speaker 9: gain with an average of five pounds over the first year.
42:59
Speaker 9: So that's not nothing, right, an average of five pounds,
43:02
Speaker 9: not potentially less than five pounds. This is averaging five pounds,
43:06
Speaker 9: and that relationship continues, so it doesn't go away after
43:09
Speaker 9: the one year.
43:10
Speaker 4: Right.
43:11
Speaker 9: The longer you're on it, the more weight that you gain.
43:13
Speaker 9: So I'm gonna go ahead and say this is apartment.
43:18
Speaker 1: Very good, good pick out all Right, withdraw is effective
43:23
Speaker 1: birth control. I had to read that a couple times.
43:27
Speaker 1: Let's said, I wasn't even sure what that meant.
43:29
Speaker 7: But so let's talk to draw method, or it's better
43:33
Speaker 7: known as pulling out. Right. So this one drives me
43:37
Speaker 7: crazy because a lot of people think that it's a
43:40
Speaker 7: reliable form of birth control, but that's false. So the
43:46
Speaker 7: truth is that it's only somewhat effected. If it's works
43:54
Speaker 7: reliably when used perfectly, let me what does that even mean? Right?
43:58
Speaker 7: So let me make that make sense. If you have
44:02
Speaker 7: to consider a perfect use and typical use, perfect use,
44:07
Speaker 7: think clinical trial. Think that everything is followed to the t,
44:14
Speaker 7: every single instruction exactly, every single time for a year.
44:20
Speaker 7: And in that scenario, right withdraw is going to prevent
44:25
Speaker 7: pregnancy ninety six percent of the time. So that means
44:29
Speaker 7: that four out of one hundred couples would get pregnant
44:34
Speaker 7: in that year. But life isn't a clinical trial, right
44:37
Speaker 7: like life is realistic typical use, meaning you're gonna have distractions,
44:43
Speaker 7: you're gonna have human error, you're gonna have mistakes. So
44:47
Speaker 7: when considering pulling out withdraw, that effectiveness it's going to
44:52
Speaker 7: drop from ninety six percent to a seventy eight percent.
44:56
Speaker 7: So one in five couples are that are relying on
45:01
Speaker 7: this method will experience a pregnancy in that year. So
45:06
Speaker 7: that's pretty big. Why does it fail? The reality is
45:10
Speaker 7: it's there's pre ejaculate fluid that contains sperm. Sperm gets
45:14
Speaker 7: you pregnant. You know, it's it's pretty I think straightforward.
45:19
Speaker 7: I think that the way draw method requires perfect timing
45:24
Speaker 7: and control and you need to be realistic about it
45:28
Speaker 7: and so and sometimes you're in the heat of the
45:30
Speaker 7: moment and you know that doesn't work out. So people
45:35
Speaker 7: do use this method and they're planning on using that
45:39
Speaker 7: as a form of birth control to prevent pregnancy, they
45:43
Speaker 7: have to be realistic on the you know, how is
45:48
Speaker 7: it really going to work?
45:50
Speaker 9: But I will say that you know, it can be
45:53
Speaker 9: part of a good plan, right, Like in and of itself,
45:56
Speaker 9: probably not the greatest. But if you're using other are
46:00
Speaker 9: your methods for example, you know, like a kaya diaphragm
46:04
Speaker 9: or something like that, Like it can be part of
46:07
Speaker 9: a really good overall plan, but it's probably not a
46:10
Speaker 9: good solo plan.
46:12
Speaker 2: Correct, excellent.
46:14
Speaker 1: All right, this kind of ties into myth number three,
46:17
Speaker 1: and that is birth control prevents STIs. And I definitely
46:22
Speaker 1: understood this one just from from terminology. So this one's
46:27
Speaker 1: for you destined.
46:29
Speaker 9: Yeah, so obviously most the answer is no, not all,
46:34
Speaker 9: not all birth control prevents STIs, and in fact, the
46:36
Speaker 9: hormonal birth controls don't prevent STIs at all. Right, the
46:39
Speaker 9: only thing that prevents STIs are barriers. Right, So condoms. Now,
46:43
Speaker 9: most people think of condoms, they think of male condoms,
46:46
Speaker 9: and those are by far the most popular. But female
46:48
Speaker 9: condoms actually do exist, and by the way, it can
46:50
Speaker 9: be paid for by insurance, which few people know and
46:55
Speaker 9: not most people don't prefer them, but they're there, they're
46:57
Speaker 9: they're an option. But even with condoms, you know, some
47:03
Speaker 9: STI sexually transmitted infections are spread through skin to skin contact,
47:08
Speaker 9: and oftentimes condoms don't cover the entire genitalium, so you
47:12
Speaker 9: can still contract things like HPD or herpes through skin
47:16
Speaker 9: to skin contact while wearing condoms. Obviously, condoms also break,
47:22
Speaker 9: so they're not perfect. And there's the kind of like
47:25
Speaker 9: typical versus perfect use that list had talked about. So
47:29
Speaker 9: it's still not perfect, so abstinence obviously is the only
47:32
Speaker 9: surefire way to not get an STI, but condoms help
47:36
Speaker 9: a lot. The other thing that would be really interesting
47:39
Speaker 9: here to know that very few people probably are aware of,
47:42
Speaker 9: is that some actually, like some contraception actually makes STIs
47:47
Speaker 9: more likely to spread. And there's one in particular, and
47:50
Speaker 9: it's spermicides with an innoximal nine compound. It can cause
47:55
Speaker 9: mucosal irritation, which can increase the transmission of h So
48:01
Speaker 9: that's kind of the like kind of fun fact, I
48:04
Speaker 9: guess so it's uh, I guess again, kind of like
48:08
Speaker 9: a part myth complicated thing. But yeah, in general, hormonal
48:14
Speaker 9: contraceptives do not. Condoms can help, but they're not perfect,
48:17
Speaker 9: and certain spermicides can actually increase HIV transmission.
48:21
Speaker 1: All right, we are on the number four. Birth control
48:24
Speaker 1: damages fertility.
48:28
Speaker 7: Uh So, this is one of the most common fears
48:31
Speaker 7: that patients do bring up. The idea that birth control
48:35
Speaker 7: damage's fertility is just simply not true, so it's not
48:39
Speaker 7: supported by science. In fact, there are studies that show
48:43
Speaker 7: that fertility usually returns quickly after you stop a hormonal contraceptive,
48:49
Speaker 7: So hormonal contraceptive whether it's the pill, the patch, the ring, implant, IUD,
48:54
Speaker 7: it doesn't damage fertility. Once you stop your natural hormones,
48:58
Speaker 7: they take over and fertility usually returns quickly. You know,
49:03
Speaker 7: for most methods, ovulation is going to resume within a
49:06
Speaker 7: couple months. There is the exception of the depot shot,
49:10
Speaker 7: you know, in the way that it works by suppressing
49:15
Speaker 7: ovulation for months at a time. So for some people
49:18
Speaker 7: they can experience delays in getting their period and returning
49:22
Speaker 7: to normal fertility. Some for some it could last it
49:26
Speaker 7: could take up to eight twelve to eighteen months to
49:30
Speaker 7: return to regular fertility. But even then that's not considered
49:34
Speaker 7: a permanent infertility. It's just a delay. So if someone
49:39
Speaker 7: is having trouble conceding after they stop birth control, it's
49:43
Speaker 7: usually because there's an underlying issue there, right, and so
49:47
Speaker 7: you have to think PCOS and now matilsis it wasn't
49:51
Speaker 7: the contraceptive itself that caused it. In fact, there's actually studies,
49:57
Speaker 7: more than one study out there that has has shown
50:00
Speaker 7: that over eighty percent of people who discontinue contraceptive conceive
50:06
Speaker 7: within a year, which is the same rate that we
50:09
Speaker 7: see in the general population of people. Not on birth control.
50:13
Speaker 4: Yep.
50:13
Speaker 7: So the I think the key takeaway there is we
50:16
Speaker 7: should be paying attention to things like age, overall health
50:20
Speaker 7: and pre existing conditions, not whether a person has been
50:24
Speaker 7: on birth control or not.
50:25
Speaker 9: Yeah, and let's not forget the male's part of the infertility,
50:28
Speaker 9: because I think we always think of infertility equal as
50:30
Speaker 9: a female problem, but we know that a lot of
50:33
Speaker 9: infertility is male driven as well.
50:34
Speaker 1: So excellent, excellent, All right, what about myth number five?
50:40
Speaker 1: It's only for pregnancy prevention.
50:43
Speaker 9: Yeah, so obviously that is the number one reason that
50:48
Speaker 9: exists on the market and what it's you know, labeled
50:51
Speaker 9: under for FDA use and everything. But there's a lot
50:56
Speaker 9: of non non contraceptive benefits of hormonal contraceptive, right, so,
51:02
Speaker 9: you know, to name a few, lighter, more predictable, more controlled,
51:06
Speaker 9: less painful periods. You can skip periods. That's a benefit
51:10
Speaker 9: to many. Not everyone wants to do that, but for
51:12
Speaker 9: those who want to, that's very nice. It's also effective
51:16
Speaker 9: in the treatment of diseases, right, so we dysmenorrhea, for example,
51:20
Speaker 9: is painful periods that are abnormally painful. It can greatly
51:25
Speaker 9: help that. It can also help greatly help menoraja, which
51:28
Speaker 9: means too much bleeding during your period. There's plenty of
51:32
Speaker 9: studies to show that the volume of blood loss decreases
51:36
Speaker 9: when you're on a hormonal contraceptive and you're in the
51:39
Speaker 9: withdrawal period. You know, in addition, right, like you think
51:43
Speaker 9: of bleeding, well, what does that lead to in a
51:46
Speaker 9: lot of women of reproductive age, iron deficiency anemia. So
51:50
Speaker 9: it can help by decreasing that blood volume. It can
51:53
Speaker 9: help prevent and or help you kind of regain normal
51:57
Speaker 9: blood counts in someone who has iron deficiency in the
52:00
Speaker 9: as part of an overall plant. And then you know,
52:03
Speaker 9: there's a lot of other kind of menstrually mediated medical
52:07
Speaker 9: problems like PMS. We you know a lot of people
52:10
Speaker 9: know that, but there's also premensional dysphoric disorder or PMDD,
52:15
Speaker 9: and so using extended or continuous cycle hormonal contraceptives has
52:19
Speaker 9: been proven to really help with those conditions. And then
52:23
Speaker 9: there's the really annoying stuff right that like women really
52:27
Speaker 9: care about, right, like having good skin. You know you
52:29
Speaker 9: don't want acne, right, you don't want to grow hair
52:32
Speaker 9: in places that you know is unattractive in your in
52:37
Speaker 9: your mind, right, or losing hair alopecia. Right, So these
52:41
Speaker 9: a lot of those conditions are mediated by kind of
52:45
Speaker 9: too much androgenicity, too much kind of like male driven
52:48
Speaker 9: hormone stuff, and that can be modulated through hormonal contraceptives.
52:54
Speaker 9: And then actually there's a decreased risk in ovarian and
52:56
Speaker 9: endometrial cancer with hormonal contraceptives as well.
53:01
Speaker 1: Excellent, thank you. Myth Number six is IUDs are only
53:07
Speaker 1: for women who've had children.
53:11
Speaker 2: What's said? What do you say about this one?
53:14
Speaker 7: So this myth goes back a few decades and it
53:18
Speaker 7: has to deal with the older versions of the IUD
53:22
Speaker 7: when they were larger and they were really harder to place.
53:25
Speaker 7: It goes back to like nineteen seventies, right, there was
53:29
Speaker 7: an IUD at the time called the Dalcin Shield, and
53:33
Speaker 7: it caused severe infections and infertility because it was a
53:38
Speaker 7: flawed design, and it was pulled from the market, but
53:42
Speaker 7: the stigma stuck. So fast forward here we have now
53:47
Speaker 7: modern IUDs that are completely different and they've been redesigned.
53:52
Speaker 7: They're smaller, they're safer, and they're on the market for
53:58
Speaker 7: and recommended for all women, including women who have not
54:02
Speaker 7: had children. So, because we are you know, debunking myths,
54:07
Speaker 7: let me share some facts on IUDs. So typically you
54:12
Speaker 7: have two types of IUDs. You're going to have hormono
54:15
Speaker 7: IUDs that could be your Marina Kylina Skyla, or you
54:19
Speaker 7: can have your copper IUD which is non hormonal like pearreguard.
54:25
Speaker 7: And both of these types are going to be highly effective,
54:28
Speaker 7: like success rates ninety nine percent, and they can last
54:33
Speaker 7: anywhere from three to twelve years really depending on the type.
54:37
Speaker 7: So the longevity of that IUD means how long is
54:40
Speaker 7: that device going to keep effectively working to protect you
54:45
Speaker 7: against pregnancy as birth control. So hormono IUDs they can
54:50
Speaker 7: last anywhere from three to eight years, Copper iud can
54:53
Speaker 7: last anywhere like up to twelve years, and hormonaliuds they
54:59
Speaker 7: help like Devin was saying, they can help with heavy
55:02
Speaker 7: periods or painful periods. Copper IUDs are actually used also
55:07
Speaker 7: as emergency contraceptive if they're placed within five days of
55:11
Speaker 7: unprotected sex and a COG. You know. American College of
55:17
Speaker 7: Centrics and Gynecologists they recommend IUDs as a first line
55:22
Speaker 7: option for women of all reproductive regardless of their age
55:26
Speaker 7: or have they even given birth. The reality is IUDs
55:29
Speaker 7: are safe they're reversible, and it's a convenient choice if
55:33
Speaker 7: your insurance covers it and the patient has the time.
55:37
Speaker 7: I think that if we continue to correct these outdated myths,
55:41
Speaker 7: will make sure that you know women have access to
55:44
Speaker 7: effective options that fit their lifestyle and their health needs.
55:50
Speaker 2: I love it. Thank you.
55:52
Speaker 1: Our last one myth number seven is breastfeeding means you
55:55
Speaker 1: don't need birth control. Listening of just chime in as
55:59
Speaker 1: the consumer on the podcast, I know that one is
56:03
Speaker 1: absolutely a myth.
56:05
Speaker 2: Goodness gracious.
56:06
Speaker 1: I can only imagine you know, your your your mind
56:11
Speaker 1: around that and being like, oh, yeah, I'm breastfeeding, I
56:13
Speaker 1: don't need birth control.
56:14
Speaker 2: I'm like, what are you kidding me?
56:16
Speaker 9: Like, I'm about to blow your mind, Todd. I'm going
56:19
Speaker 9: to go ahead and say this is not a myth,
56:21
Speaker 9: but it has to be incredibly done to the team.
56:26
Speaker 2: Okay.
56:26
Speaker 9: So what I mean by that is this is called
56:28
Speaker 9: lactational a menoria method. Okay, and it actually is ninety
56:32
Speaker 9: eight percent effective.
56:34
Speaker 7: Wow.
56:35
Speaker 9: But these three criteria need to be met.
56:38
Speaker 4: Okay.
56:38
Speaker 9: So the baby has to be exclusively best breastfed, no
56:42
Speaker 9: bottle supplementation. If there's bottle supplementation, it decreases an effectiveness significantly,
56:48
Speaker 9: and I would state that at that point it's no
56:50
Speaker 9: longer an effective choice. There cannot have been a period
56:55
Speaker 9: since the delivery of the baby, right, So if you've
56:58
Speaker 9: started ovulating again, it's not going to work, right, And
57:03
Speaker 9: then the baby has to be less than six months old.
57:06
Speaker 9: It doesn't continue to work forever, right, Like you know,
57:08
Speaker 9: some women breastfeed past six months totally great, but it's
57:12
Speaker 9: not an effective form of birth control past six months.
57:15
Speaker 9: So if you meet all three of those criteria, it's
57:18
Speaker 9: actually pretty effective. So I would I would mythbust this,
57:22
Speaker 9: but with the strict criteria. And then I would also
57:26
Speaker 9: say that because we know it stops working after six months,
57:29
Speaker 9: and any of those three criteria may end at any point, right,
57:33
Speaker 9: Like you know, sometimes women have to introduce formula that
57:38
Speaker 9: they weren't planning on introducing, right, So having a plan
57:40
Speaker 9: in place to transition from lactational a menoraham method to
57:46
Speaker 9: either hormonal or non hormonal contraceptive option is really good
57:50
Speaker 9: thing to talk about before they need it, right, Because
57:54
Speaker 9: the second that we'll call it LAMB like lactational and
57:59
Speaker 9: men are ream method LAMB, the minute that LAMB stops
58:02
Speaker 9: being effective like you can get pregnant again, right, and
58:05
Speaker 9: if you've just had a baby like that is quite
58:08
Speaker 9: a big deal to many. So when we talk about
58:12
Speaker 9: what contraceptives that you can qualify for while breastfeeding, you
58:17
Speaker 9: got to think of forty two days. Okay, this is
58:20
Speaker 9: just an oversimplification, but I like oversimplifying things. There's the
58:24
Speaker 9: u SMEC guidelines. If you want more criteria, you can
58:26
Speaker 9: look on that. But if it's within forty two days
58:31
Speaker 9: of postpartum, then then you know you can't use a
58:36
Speaker 9: combined hormonal contraceptive pill or actually combine hormonal contraceptives period, right,
58:42
Speaker 9: So a vaginal ring or patch, and the reason is
58:45
Speaker 9: it decreases the milk production. That's one of the problems.
58:50
Speaker 9: There's also the increased risk of DVT thrombosis as well,
58:54
Speaker 9: So you want to avoid the estrogen containing hormonal contraceptives
58:59
Speaker 9: before for two days. But they can have a progestin
59:02
Speaker 9: only pill, they can have an implant, et cetera, so
59:08
Speaker 9: depot shot, so pretty much everything other than but after
59:12
Speaker 9: forty two days, everything's fair game.
59:15
Speaker 1: Excellent, excellent updates. Wow, this was this was fun. Appreciate
59:22
Speaker 1: the insights for both of you. I do want to
59:24
Speaker 1: give a shout out to our listeners. There's a system
59:27
Speaker 1: out there. I'd like you to take a look at.
59:29
Speaker 1: It's get prismrx dot com. Once again the word get
59:33
Speaker 1: prism rx dot com. And this is a workflow system,
59:38
Speaker 1: evidence based technologies to empower pharmacists like I was saying
59:42
Speaker 1: that dig down into treatment and follow up with treatment
59:46
Speaker 1: and treatment management. Devin, you and I are going to
59:51
Speaker 1: be spending some time on this system for our listeners
59:54
Speaker 1: and really digging into a three part series. However, I
59:58
Speaker 1: do want to have you back, and doctor Logan promise
1:00:02
Speaker 1: you'll come back because I'd like to apply this system
1:00:04
Speaker 1: specifically to fertility or birth control, or diabetes or something
1:00:11
Speaker 1: where we can start making kind of some examples of this.
1:00:15
Speaker 9: Absolutely happy, happy to do that.
1:00:18
Speaker 7: Yes, yes, and thank you again Todd for the work
1:00:21
Speaker 7: that you do for pharmacists and just the pharmacy world.
1:00:25
Speaker 7: We need more champions like you.
1:00:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's my pleasure, my favorite providers, amplifying your voices,
1:00:31
Speaker 1: getting your information out there the other pharmacies and pharmacists,
1:00:35
Speaker 1: and I can't wait to hear from organizations that begin
1:00:39
Speaker 1: using the PRISM system to just become more of a
1:00:43
Speaker 1: provider of a holistic, more encompassing three hundred and sixty
1:00:47
Speaker 1: degrees of healthcare services for the community that are desperately needed.
1:00:51
Speaker 1: But I thank you both for being on torks this week.
1:00:54
Speaker 9: Thank you, Thank you.
1:00:56
Speaker 2: Hey, hang on, we'll.
1:00:59
Speaker 5: Fueling lost with the complexities of pharmacy, accounting.
1:01:02
Speaker 10: And in pharmacy today, there's so many different variables and
1:01:06
Speaker 10: issues that impact the pharmacy, books, records, accounting, the profitabilities,
1:01:11
Speaker 10: so or so forth. There's different components of pharmacy that
1:01:14
Speaker 10: have its own nuances from an accounting standpoint, and so
1:01:17
Speaker 10: it's it's tricky, there's no doubt about it.
1:01:19
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1:01:22
Speaker 5: don't know where to start. Psychs and Company is here
1:01:25
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1:01:29
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1:01:33
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1:01:36
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1:01:38
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1:01:40
Speaker 10: If you're interested in, you know, working with a team
1:01:43
Speaker 10: who understands the industry and how the accounting and tax
1:01:47
Speaker 10: should really be in a pharmacy. This is this is
1:01:50
Speaker 10: your chance to get under the hood check of what's
1:01:53
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1:01:56
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1:01:58
Speaker 5: With get the financial check up your pharmacy needs and
1:02:01
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1:02:05
Speaker 5: five to two four eight two seven six four four.
1:02:21
Speaker 2: Hey our special feature.
1:02:23
Speaker 1: I love reaching out to the markets, and I love
1:02:26
Speaker 1: reaching out to academia and the profession associations and really
1:02:31
Speaker 1: making them part of this because This Week in Pharmacy
1:02:34
Speaker 1: loves to feature people organizations changing the industry. And there
1:02:38
Speaker 1: was a story back on August twentieth, twenty twenty five
1:02:43
Speaker 1: from Radio Iowa and the headline of this story and
1:02:48
Speaker 1: I've already talked about this on twerus before, but it
1:02:50
Speaker 1: says Iowa pharmacists are in demand as they try to
1:02:54
Speaker 1: fill healthcare provider gap. And we see doctor Joel Cloleser,
1:03:00
Speaker 1: the dean of Iowa Pharmacy, University of Pharmacy in Iowa
1:03:06
Speaker 1: and the College of Pharmacy and her leadership. So she
1:03:10
Speaker 1: goes out into the community and starts meeting with community
1:03:14
Speaker 1: pharmacies and involving the students, and I was blown away
1:03:17
Speaker 1: by it. I want to welcome to twerks our Dean
1:03:23
Speaker 1: of Iowa College of Pharmacy, doctor Joe Colzar Well, Hello,
1:03:31
Speaker 1: hey there, it was so good to meet you.
1:03:34
Speaker 11: Yeah, it's great to meet you too, and thank you
1:03:36
Speaker 11: so much for having me on the show.
1:03:39
Speaker 1: All right, I'm getting right into this story. So this
1:03:42
Speaker 1: is special because I talked to pharmacy students throughout the year.
1:03:47
Speaker 1: Shout out to WU School of Pharmacy. They have me
1:03:49
Speaker 1: in every year with the P three d's and I
1:03:51
Speaker 1: kind of do a tough love presentation onto kind of
1:03:55
Speaker 1: the state of the nation, but then I fill it
1:03:58
Speaker 1: before I leave with a tremendous amount of hope and
1:04:01
Speaker 1: joy because of the future of what's happening in our
1:04:03
Speaker 1: profession I think is nothing less than dynamic. So part
1:04:07
Speaker 1: of that is being able to reach out into the
1:04:09
Speaker 1: community and connect with pharmacy owners or pharmacists in the community.
1:04:13
Speaker 2: I was like, you need.
1:04:15
Speaker 1: To write the playbooks you'll on like inserting this into
1:04:18
Speaker 1: an annual exercise for every dean in.
1:04:23
Speaker 2: At leading a school of pharmacy.
1:04:27
Speaker 11: Well, it was really fun. So I would encourage people
1:04:29
Speaker 11: to do that, but I, you know, don't want to
1:04:32
Speaker 11: and we're definitely We're definitely doing it every year from
1:04:35
Speaker 11: now on. We learned so much and we made so
1:04:37
Speaker 11: many connections. It was just a really priceless opportunity to
1:04:41
Speaker 11: get to know our graduates and our alumni even better
1:04:44
Speaker 11: than we do already.
1:04:46
Speaker 2: I love it.
1:04:47
Speaker 1: So give us some examples of you know, if you
1:04:50
Speaker 1: don't want to name names, it's okay, but kind of
1:04:52
Speaker 1: like some things that have refreshed your mind of wow,
1:04:57
Speaker 1: what's really happening out there? Were there any things in
1:04:59
Speaker 1: the community that you were like this, This is surprising
1:05:02
Speaker 1: to me, and this is going to be beneficial to
1:05:04
Speaker 1: bringing this news back to our students and faculty.
1:05:09
Speaker 11: Well, one of the things that I was really critical
1:05:13
Speaker 11: is you may have heard Iowa is a third state
1:05:17
Speaker 11: pack to pass standard of practice acts, and so now
1:05:22
Speaker 11: in Iowa, instead of having laws that have a list
1:05:25
Speaker 11: of things and clinical services that pharmacists can provide in
1:05:29
Speaker 11: the community setting, we now have all pharmacists can practice
1:05:34
Speaker 11: independently at their level of experience and qualifications. And so
1:05:40
Speaker 11: that change was put into place in twenty twenty four,
1:05:43
Speaker 11: signed into the law this July in twenty twenty five.
1:05:46
Speaker 11: So this really represents both a huge change, but a
1:05:50
Speaker 11: huge opportunity for our community pharmacists in Iowa, and we
1:05:54
Speaker 11: just really wanted to make sure that we are seeing
1:05:57
Speaker 11: what people are doing in the community and making sure
1:06:00
Speaker 11: we're training our students to meet those needs. And I
1:06:04
Speaker 11: was just really blown a why way by lots of
1:06:06
Speaker 11: different things, you know, community pharmacies and very small towns.
1:06:11
Speaker 11: They're providing immunizations, they're providing treatment tests, they're providing chronic
1:06:17
Speaker 11: disease state management, and so I just impressed with the
1:06:21
Speaker 11: level of clinical services that are provided. But I was
1:06:26
Speaker 11: also really impressed by the relationships that people had in
1:06:31
Speaker 11: the community with the pharmacy, with the pharmacists. So we
1:06:35
Speaker 11: were in Kingsley, and I think we were with Connor
1:06:39
Speaker 11: and his partner, his partner in the pharmacy, and it
1:06:44
Speaker 11: was just really a joy to see them interact with
1:06:47
Speaker 11: their patients, people coming in asking them questions. It was fun.
1:06:51
Speaker 11: They kind of asked us some questions too, so we
1:06:54
Speaker 11: really enjoyed that.
1:06:57
Speaker 2: I love it.
1:06:58
Speaker 11: Connor and Porter, both these guys are Porter is well.
1:07:04
Speaker 11: I don't want to get it mixed up. Whe's a
1:07:05
Speaker 11: new graduate and one graduated two years ago, and they
1:07:09
Speaker 11: bought a community pharmacy and actually, you know, so that
1:07:15
Speaker 11: is some major adulting at age twenty four and twenty six.
1:07:18
Speaker 11: So I was just so impressed with their energy and
1:07:21
Speaker 11: how you know, again how much how well the whole
1:07:25
Speaker 11: community spoke about.
1:07:26
Speaker 2: Them, Jill, I love this.
1:07:29
Speaker 1: Another part that I love of this is I want
1:07:33
Speaker 1: to shout out to your faculty and the creativity of
1:07:38
Speaker 1: the marketing team and the creativity of Iowa College of Pharmacy,
1:07:43
Speaker 1: and just it takes everyone to get something to truly change.
1:07:48
Speaker 2: And we can talk about change, but.
1:07:50
Speaker 1: It's but when you see it actually taking place and
1:07:53
Speaker 1: the ingredients that are necessary to really make this happen.
1:07:56
Speaker 2: This is part of it.
1:07:57
Speaker 1: Bringing true stories back in and real experiences is back from
1:08:00
Speaker 1: your perspective with the trust that you already have as
1:08:04
Speaker 1: the dean of the pharmacy, and you start sharing that
1:08:07
Speaker 1: with faculty and teachers and.
1:08:10
Speaker 2: The students, and you're like, I know that we need.
1:08:14
Speaker 1: Community pharmacists because community pharmacy has gotten beat up over
1:08:19
Speaker 1: the last two three four years, especially within the last
1:08:23
Speaker 1: six months with closings in the retail community chain space.
1:08:27
Speaker 1: And it's like, sometimes there's parts of our industry that
1:08:32
Speaker 1: we're like oh, I'm starting to lose hope based on
1:08:34
Speaker 1: what's happening. But then on the other side, I see
1:08:38
Speaker 1: a transformation and you mentioned it. I see disease state
1:08:41
Speaker 1: management happening at the community pharmacy level. And you would think, oh,
1:08:46
Speaker 1: that's something that has to be from a specialist or
1:08:48
Speaker 1: from the hospital system. It's happening at the community space.
1:08:52
Speaker 1: Share with us kind of that part of it in
1:08:55
Speaker 1: what you're seeing happening in community pharmacy.
1:08:59
Speaker 11: Yeah, well, we're seeing happen in community pharmacy is right now.
1:09:03
Speaker 11: I think kind of the base setting is most places
1:09:06
Speaker 11: offer vaccines, some types of chronic disease state management, and
1:09:11
Speaker 11: medication reconciliation programs. But in Iowa, we're really gearing up
1:09:16
Speaker 11: to become the primary care providers in these small rural communities.
1:09:22
Speaker 11: There are just there's a huge shortage of primary care
1:09:25
Speaker 11: physicians and it's primarily hard hit in the rural areas.
1:09:31
Speaker 11: And so what we feel like is, in collaboration with
1:09:34
Speaker 11: Family Medicine at the University of Iowa, what we really
1:09:37
Speaker 11: want to do is upscale all these pharmacists to be
1:09:40
Speaker 11: able to provide chronic disease state management. And we actually
1:09:45
Speaker 11: just got another study funded. We are kicking off a
1:09:49
Speaker 11: pilot to do lung cancer screening in community pharmacies.
1:09:53
Speaker 2: That is awesome. That is awesome.
1:09:57
Speaker 1: I want to give a shout out to your team.
1:10:00
Speaker 1: I can never say it. Exponential learning has that how
1:10:03
Speaker 1: to say it? Experiential learning anyway. See that's why I'm
1:10:07
Speaker 1: not a pharmacist, Jill, so I can't pronounce stuff. So
1:10:10
Speaker 1: I'm going to give a shout out to them too.
1:10:13
Speaker 1: When you're ready with that study, we want to bring
1:10:15
Speaker 1: it onto twerks and I want to dig into the study,
1:10:18
Speaker 1: kind of give a shout out to the Iowa College
1:10:20
Speaker 1: of Pharmacy, but then just give our listeners some of
1:10:23
Speaker 1: this new information.
1:10:25
Speaker 2: I think that would be would be great. You're going
1:10:27
Speaker 2: to come back and.
1:10:28
Speaker 1: Do that happy too, all right. I want to give
1:10:32
Speaker 1: a shout out to your whole organization. So excited to
1:10:35
Speaker 1: have found this story. That is the Iowa College of Pharmacy.
1:10:40
Speaker 1: Go to Pharmacy dot Uiowa dot edu or just google
1:10:45
Speaker 1: Iowa College of Pharmacy.
1:10:47
Speaker 2: You'll find it. Jill, this was special.
1:10:50
Speaker 1: Congratulations and just kind of like kicking this off and
1:10:53
Speaker 1: getting this going and being out there, Like I said,
1:10:55
Speaker 1: I was impressed by it because I just I just
1:10:58
Speaker 1: think that our pharmacy future leaders are students are they're
1:11:02
Speaker 1: stressed out right now. They're like, you know how am
1:11:04
Speaker 1: I paying for this? And I got to study my
1:11:07
Speaker 1: ass off and all of them went through stress. But
1:11:10
Speaker 1: now they can look at the story like this and
1:11:11
Speaker 1: be like, Okay, I see a pathway to impacting healthcare
1:11:16
Speaker 1: in my community. And that's literally what I want these
1:11:20
Speaker 1: young future pharmacists to be passionate about.
1:11:25
Speaker 11: That's great.
1:11:27
Speaker 1: All right, well, thank you for being on twerks. We
1:11:30
Speaker 1: will talk to you soon.
1:11:32
Speaker 2: All right, thank you, thank you.
1:11:46
Speaker 1: Hey, welcome back to this weekend pharmacy. Hey, we have
1:11:50
Speaker 1: the World of the conference seasons coming up. Not sure
1:11:54
Speaker 1: if you are going to the National Community Pharmacists Association,
1:11:58
Speaker 1: Like we've talked with other people on the show, just
1:12:02
Speaker 1: today's Twerks, we were talking to Nicole McClure going to
1:12:06
Speaker 1: be showing up with.
1:12:08
Speaker 2: There's gonna be thousands of people there.
1:12:09
Speaker 1: It's kind of like the super Bowl of our independent
1:12:12
Speaker 1: community pharmacies. There's another show called HLTCH known as Health
1:12:17
Speaker 1: and it's more tech involved. I'm very split because I
1:12:22
Speaker 1: can't go to both. Can't be in two places at once.
1:12:25
Speaker 1: But if you are going to that very technology oriented
1:12:28
Speaker 1: dialing into the future, how we're going to leverage AI.
1:12:32
Speaker 1: But today there's a special announcement. Just this week in pharmacy,
1:12:38
Speaker 1: we had a announcement come out on the Morning Star.
1:12:42
Speaker 1: It says Wegistics Health and Theraco's bio partner to expand
1:12:48
Speaker 1: nationwide PBM free access to burn Zavi and FDA approved
1:12:53
Speaker 1: diabetes therapy through six thousand, five hundred plus different pharmacies.
1:12:59
Speaker 1: This is big news and I'd like to welcome my
1:13:02
Speaker 1: guest with we Logistics to the show and to give
1:13:07
Speaker 1: us more information on how this is going to impact
1:13:10
Speaker 1: pharmacies out there in the opportunity.
1:13:13
Speaker 2: So welcome to the show, doctor Jason.
1:13:16
Speaker 4: Lying, Thanks Tod, happy to be here.
1:13:19
Speaker 1: Hey, you bring a lot of clout to this discussion
1:13:22
Speaker 1: because you were a pharmacy operator and owner yourself for
1:13:25
Speaker 1: years and now you're joining forces with Wegistics and just
1:13:30
Speaker 1: went public earlier this year too, So congratulations to you
1:13:34
Speaker 1: and the team. But talk to us about your role
1:13:36
Speaker 1: at Logistics. I think this is fascinating.
1:13:39
Speaker 4: Ah yeah, so thank you very much for that.
1:13:42
Speaker 12: It has been a wild ride becoming public and being
1:13:45
Speaker 12: on that going through.
1:13:46
Speaker 4: The IPO process.
1:13:48
Speaker 12: But so I currently serve as the president of Distribution
1:13:51
Speaker 12: at Wellgistics. Wegistics Health is the parent company. We kind
1:13:55
Speaker 12: of have three entities under that Wellgistics Health umbrella. We
1:14:00
Speaker 12: have a technology hub piece, a specialty pharmacy piece license
1:14:05
Speaker 12: in all fifty states, and then we have our distribution
1:14:08
Speaker 12: three pl NABP accredited all fifty states there as well.
1:14:11
Speaker 12: So I spend most of my time in distribution and
1:14:15
Speaker 12: interacting with manufacturers on a daily basis.
1:14:20
Speaker 1: Jason, this is some big news that just came out
1:14:22
Speaker 1: this week, So talk to us more about why this
1:14:25
Speaker 1: is a you know what picked up my attention. I
1:14:27
Speaker 1: don't want to always have to talk about the big,
1:14:30
Speaker 1: ugly elephant in the room. But when you said PBM
1:14:33
Speaker 1: free access, like I need to hear about this.
1:14:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I'll tell you a little bit about it.
1:14:38
Speaker 12: We're constantly looking for a ways that we can support
1:14:41
Speaker 12: our independent pharmacies. We have about sixty five hundred independent
1:14:44
Speaker 12: pharmacies and our network that we sell to regularly, and
1:14:48
Speaker 12: we're looking for ways to pay pharmacists to kind of
1:14:53
Speaker 12: operate at the top of their license and not just
1:14:56
Speaker 12: you know, the typical race to the bottom price and
1:15:00
Speaker 12: generic game and just you know, making pennies on the
1:15:04
Speaker 12: dollar like I did for you know, twelve years owning
1:15:07
Speaker 12: and operating my own pharmacies. So where we partnered up
1:15:11
Speaker 12: with a company called Theracos Bio. They have an SGLT
1:15:14
Speaker 12: two product called bren Zobie and it competes with the
1:15:19
Speaker 12: likes of some big names out there, Jardiance, in Volcana
1:15:23
Speaker 12: and Farsiga, and we it's this is a cash product,
1:15:29
Speaker 12: so typically much less expensive than those those brand names
1:15:34
Speaker 12: that everybody knows. And we'd like to pay pharmacists for
1:15:38
Speaker 12: an adherence program where if they if they find a
1:15:42
Speaker 12: patient that would benefit from the cost savings of switching
1:15:46
Speaker 12: to bren Zobie over one of the other three alternatives,
1:15:50
Speaker 12: we're going to pay them for that interchange that we
1:15:53
Speaker 12: call in here at a sorry, an adherence program. So
1:15:58
Speaker 12: we're going to pay pharmacists to to operate that program.
1:16:01
Speaker 12: It'll be a one time fee that they get paid
1:16:04
Speaker 12: for doing the interchange, and then they'll have that prescription
1:16:08
Speaker 12: that is just as profitable as any of the other
1:16:11
Speaker 12: brand name medications that they're dispensing. But obviously I'm beneficial
1:16:17
Speaker 12: for the patient, and it's not as high cost for
1:16:20
Speaker 12: the pharmacy to bring in and keep on their books
1:16:22
Speaker 12: and hope they don't get audited and all of those
1:16:26
Speaker 12: other things that we deal with as independent pharmacists.
1:16:30
Speaker 1: Okayson, I can't help but to tap into my creativity
1:16:34
Speaker 1: when I hear programs like this, And that's kind of
1:16:37
Speaker 1: a key word. If I'm a pharmacy owner and I
1:16:40
Speaker 1: have an opportunity to build an adherence program for my
1:16:45
Speaker 1: patient who now is on this medication, I may be
1:16:48
Speaker 1: able to take the time to do something ancillary in
1:16:52
Speaker 1: encompassing of this entire program, in the form of education,
1:16:56
Speaker 1: in the form of a supplement opportunity, in the form
1:17:00
Speaker 1: of whatever I can do to get the whole community,
1:17:05
Speaker 1: not just the individual patient, to really understand that this
1:17:08
Speaker 1: is an option for them in being that trusted source
1:17:13
Speaker 1: of medicines and of drugs in my community, because pharmacists
1:17:17
Speaker 1: are they're the leading source of validity and trust in
1:17:22
Speaker 1: being providers. And what do you think of building a
1:17:25
Speaker 1: campaign around this as an independent community pharmacy to use
1:17:30
Speaker 1: that as an educational driven marketing plan.
1:17:34
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm right with you.
1:17:36
Speaker 12: I'm hoping that that is what our independent pharmacy partners
1:17:39
Speaker 12: will do, and we're going to support them.
1:17:40
Speaker 4: In that as well.
1:17:44
Speaker 12: I think at Logistics we hope this is the first
1:17:46
Speaker 12: of many of these types of programs. I mean, throughout
1:17:50
Speaker 12: my career I've kind of seen I was in the
1:17:54
Speaker 12: space when Walmart introduced the four dollar generic plan and
1:17:58
Speaker 12: I felt like that was the the fastest decline kind
1:18:01
Speaker 12: of in the generic dispensing space and kind of devaluing
1:18:06
Speaker 12: what pharmacists do because if our time is only worth
1:18:11
Speaker 12: four dollars and that includes the medication, our time was
1:18:14
Speaker 12: essentially being valued at zero dollars, and we really do
1:18:19
Speaker 12: provide so much value for patients and our independent pharmacies
1:18:23
Speaker 12: all across the country. So I've always wanted to come
1:18:26
Speaker 12: up with programs that allow that pay pharmacists to operate
1:18:30
Speaker 12: at the tops of their licenses and just continue that
1:18:33
Speaker 12: relationship with patients that knowing that they're looking out for
1:18:36
Speaker 12: their best interests, they're trying to save the money, and
1:18:40
Speaker 12: they're not just playing the same game that we've always
1:18:42
Speaker 12: played with the with the PBMs.
1:18:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great news and the great options for the
1:18:48
Speaker 1: creative aggressive pharmacies out there who do things like that
1:18:51
Speaker 1: and building programs and using using an opportunity to reach
1:18:55
Speaker 1: out to their community. When you're in this as a
1:18:59
Speaker 1: pharmacy owner, when you're in this as a technician or
1:19:01
Speaker 1: a pharmacist, you're living it every day. It's not a
1:19:04
Speaker 1: big deal to you. But if you took time to
1:19:05
Speaker 1: tell the community that you're in of different technologies that
1:19:09
Speaker 1: are coming, different medications that are coming, something that may
1:19:13
Speaker 1: be new that maybe they see a commercial on TV
1:19:16
Speaker 1: and they have questions about it. I see that as
1:19:19
Speaker 1: an education opportunity, and to me, education is also a
1:19:22
Speaker 1: way to market additional services that we bring value through
1:19:26
Speaker 1: our independent community pharmacies. So I absolutely love when organizations
1:19:30
Speaker 1: like Logistics invest in building these like adherence programs like
1:19:34
Speaker 1: you said, And then I could take that and run
1:19:37
Speaker 1: run with the ball and make it a program for
1:19:40
Speaker 1: the community.
1:19:41
Speaker 12: Yeah, And I think I mean patients and pharmacy owners
1:19:45
Speaker 12: alike just kind of see the decline of prescription coverage.
1:19:49
Speaker 12: It just seems to do less and less for people,
1:19:52
Speaker 12: and everybody's looking for a cash option, or they're deductibles
1:19:55
Speaker 12: getting bigger, or the coverage is getting worse. So drug
1:20:00
Speaker 12: like brend Zombie that are a cash prescription really kind
1:20:04
Speaker 12: of fill that need, and I hope that a lot
1:20:06
Speaker 12: of other manufacturers are going to kind of follow Theracos
1:20:09
Speaker 12: Bios lead and introduce more of these type of products
1:20:12
Speaker 12: into the market, and then we can do these types
1:20:15
Speaker 12: of programs where we pay pharmacists to switch.
1:20:19
Speaker 1: Jason, you have two teams headed out this fall. At
1:20:22
Speaker 1: the end of October, you have two people headed out
1:20:26
Speaker 1: to New Orleans, they say New Orleans to meet up
1:20:31
Speaker 1: with the NCPA, and then you're headed to Vegas, which
1:20:33
Speaker 1: I'm very jealous to go to the HLTH, the Health conference.
1:20:38
Speaker 1: So tell us a little bit about what you're excited
1:20:40
Speaker 1: about in the upcoming HLTCH environment.
1:20:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm super excited.
1:20:45
Speaker 12: It'll be my first time visiting Vegas for the HLTH conference.
1:20:51
Speaker 12: I've been there for a CMBIA a number of times,
1:20:53
Speaker 12: but this one will be a new, fun experience. We
1:20:55
Speaker 12: love our partnership with NCPA, we love our seeing our
1:20:58
Speaker 12: pharmacies there. Definitely wanted to have a presence there. We
1:21:02
Speaker 12: have a great partnership with NCPA and we're one of
1:21:05
Speaker 12: their title sponsors. But I don't even know what to expect.
1:21:11
Speaker 12: You told me a little bit before the show that
1:21:12
Speaker 12: it's going to be a fantastic experience at HLTCH, and
1:21:16
Speaker 12: Vegas is always fun and it's an easy trip for
1:21:19
Speaker 12: me coming out of Salt Lake City, so I'm really
1:21:21
Speaker 12: excited to see what I can learn there, and honestly
1:21:25
Speaker 12: that the attendees list is pretty massive. There's a lot
1:21:30
Speaker 12: of people attending HLTCH there.
1:21:33
Speaker 1: Is That's where I met Best by Health, That's where
1:21:36
Speaker 1: I met a strategic team at weight Watchers, and all
1:21:40
Speaker 1: of these organizations gravitated towards the presence that was independent
1:21:45
Speaker 1: community pharmacy. There very little presence, So shout out to
1:21:49
Speaker 1: our independent community pharmacies. You may have to divide up
1:21:52
Speaker 1: your crews in order to go to the super Bowl
1:21:56
Speaker 1: of Independent Community Pharmacy, which is NCPA twenty twenty five,
1:22:00
Speaker 1: But if you have an opportunity to send a tech
1:22:02
Speaker 1: or someone that's teche and understands the leverage of technology,
1:22:07
Speaker 1: HLTCH is, in my opinion, probably one of the best
1:22:10
Speaker 1: conferences in how technology is impacting healthcare and how the
1:22:15
Speaker 1: combination of passionate people with technology can really.
1:22:18
Speaker 2: Change things for people in need.
1:22:21
Speaker 1: And so, yeah, I think you're going to have a
1:22:23
Speaker 1: wonderful time it's definitely a different experience. So take a
1:22:28
Speaker 1: lot of notes and you're going to meet a ton
1:22:30
Speaker 1: of people. I guarantee it.
1:22:32
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm really excited.
1:22:33
Speaker 12: I mean, I think that the technology side of our
1:22:36
Speaker 12: industry is really going to need to advance quickly because
1:22:40
Speaker 12: we're in some ways stuck in the dark ages of
1:22:42
Speaker 12: fax machines, and so I'm excited to see all the
1:22:45
Speaker 12: different technology that's coming.
1:22:48
Speaker 1: Jason, this has been wonderful. Appreciate your time on TRUS today.
1:22:52
Speaker 1: A shout out to Wegistics Health.
1:22:54
Speaker 2: You guys have come a long long way.
1:22:56
Speaker 1: I remember your organization ten twelve years ago, so it's
1:23:00
Speaker 1: definitely become a massive influencer and it's bringing a lot
1:23:06
Speaker 1: of creative options to our independent community pharmacies and I
1:23:09
Speaker 1: absolutely love that.
1:23:10
Speaker 2: So thanks for being here. Promise you'll come back.
1:23:13
Speaker 4: I promise I will anytime you invite me.
1:23:16
Speaker 2: All Right, hang on, guys, We'll be right back with
1:23:18
Speaker 2: more twerks.