Compounded glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists for weight loss: the direct-to-consumer market in Colorado.

Background: High prices and other access barriers have contributed to the rise of a market for compounded glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists for weight loss in the United States. This market has not been systematically studied. We conducted a pilot study to assess the prevalence, characteristics, and advertising content of direct-to-consumer providers of compounded glucagon-like peptide-1 products for weight loss in Colorado.

UPJE: Most pharmacy law educators have heard of it, but support remains divided.

Background: Most states require pharmacists to successfully pass the Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination (MPJE) required by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) to obtain licensure as a pharmacist, though pass rates for the MPJE have declined in recent years. Meanwhile, NABP is pursing efforts to standardize the exam with the emergent Uniform Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination (UPJE).

Objective: This study aimed to describe the current thinking of pharmacy law educators across the US on the UPJE.

Evaluating the Effect of COVID-19 on Outpatient Opioid Utilization Among Health First Colorado Members and a National Non-Medicaid Cohort: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis.

Objective: COVID-19, coinciding with the opioid epidemic in the United States, has had significant impacts on health-care utilization. While mixed, early analyses signaled a potential resurgence in opioid use following the pandemic. The primary study objective was to assess the association of the COVID-19 pandemic with opioid utilization among Health First Colorado (Colorado's Medicaid Program) members and a non-Medicaid managed care cohort who did not have a diagnosis of cancer or sickle cell disease.

Evaluation of an opioid pain teleconsultation service to address the opioid overdose epidemic in Colorado: A Health First Colorado demonstration project.

Background: Since the mid-1990s, more than 500,000 deaths have been attributed to the opioid overdose epidemic, which has created a serious national crisis affecting public health and social and economic welfare. To mitigate these opioid-related overdoses and deaths, interventions targeted at both the patient and community level are needed.

Objective: This demonstration project sought to determine whether implementation of a provider-to-provider opioid pain teleconsultation service with a pain specialist was correlated with a reduction in inappropriate opioid use and improve health outcomes.

The Report of the 2020-2021 Professional Affairs Standing Committee: Pharmacists' Unique Role and Integration in Healthcare Settings.

The 2020-21 Professional Affairs Committee was charged to (1) Read all six reports from the 2019-20 AACP standing committees to identify elements of these reports that are relevant to the committee's work this year; (2) Identify opportunities and models of integration of pharmacist care services in physician and other health provider practices beyond primary care; (3) Differentiate and make the case for the integration of pharmacist care services from that of other mid-level providers; and (4) From the work on the aforementioned charges, identify salient activities for the Center To Accelerate Pharmacy Practice Transformation and Academic Innovation (CTAP) for consideration by the AACP Strategic Planning Committee and AACP staff. This report provides information on the committee's process to address the committee charges, describes the rationale for and the results from a call to colleges and schools of pharmacy to provide information on their integrating pharmacist care services in physician and other health provider practices beyond primary care practice, and discusses how pharmacist-provided patient care services differ from those provided by other healthcare providers. The committee offers a revision to a current association policy statement, a proposed policy statement as well as recommendations to CTAP and AACP and suggestions to colleges and schools of pharmacy pertaining to the committee charges.

Pharmacists Are Not Mid-Level Providers.

Pharmacists should not be classified as "mid-level" providers. This classification implies that there are different levels or a hierarchy of providers when in fact each health care provider brings unique and essential knowledge and contributions to the health care team and to the care of patients. Pharmacists are no exception.

The Report of the 2019-2020 Professional Affairs Standing Committee: Pharmacist Integration with Primary Care Practices.

The 2019-2020 Professional Affairs Committee was charged to (1) Describe the leadership role of schools of pharmacy in advancing interprofessional practice, with an emphasis on physician-pharmacist collaborative relationships; (2) Establish an inventory of resources that can support school efforts to grow collaborative partnerships between pharmacists and physicians; (3) Determine gaps that exist in the resources required to support schools in efforts to facilitate expansion of interprofessional partnerships; and (4) Define strategies and draft an action plan for AACP's role in facilitating member school efforts to accelerate the development of interprofessional practices within their geography of influence. This report provides information on the committee's process to address the committee charges as well as background and resources pertaining to the charges, describes the rationale for and the results from the focus groups conducted at the 2020 AACP Interim Meeting, communicates the results of an initial inventory of models that integrate pharmacists with primary care practices, and provides an overview on issues to continue the work to integrate pharmacists with primary care practices. The committee offered several revisions to current association policy statements and provided a proposed policy statement and several recommendations to AACP pertaining to the committee charges.

Report of the 2017-2018 Strategic Engagement Standing Committee.

Student engagement is key to the success of schools and colleges of pharmacies in meeting their mission and programmatic needs. Student engagement in the pharmacy profession often occurs before acceptance to pharmacy school and is essential during students' formal period of study both for the student's professional growth and in meeting the mission of the school. Alumni engagement is vital to a school's continued success in regard to engaging with current students and support of their alma mater.

Expansion of clinical pharmacist positions through sustainable funding.

Purpose: Expansion of clinical pharmacist positions through sustainable funding is described.

Summary: The University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences was awarded a 2-year program grant to establish an integrated clinical pharmacy program for underserved residents in family health centers in northeastern Colorado. The grant enabled the hiring of 2 bilingual, full-time, board-certified, postgraduate year 2-trained clinical pharmacists to initiate comprehensive clinical pharmacy services.

Encouraging comprehensive and consistent pharmacist education for provision of contraception.

Objectives: To initiate a call to action for community pharmacists and key stakeholders to encourage comprehensive and consistent education and certification for contraception services, especially in states where laws have been enacted for pharmacist prescribing of hormonal contraceptives.

Date Sources: Websites for several boards of pharmacy that have implemented pharmacist training for contraceptive prescribing.

Summary: From the authors' perspective of helping to implement laws that allow pharmacist prescribing of contraception in Oregon and Colorado, lessons learned have shown that it is better to have 1 consistent resource for pharmacist certification for the following reasons: 1) Boards of pharmacy are able to ensure patient safety because all pharmacists are providing the same level of care to every patient; 2) retail chain pharmacies and pharmacy managers are assured that all their pharmacists, regardless of state, are trained in a similar and appropriate manner; and 3) pharmacists can be reimbursed through medical insurance for the patient encounter because payers are able to identify and credential pharmacists who pass an approved and accredited certification program.

A quality improvement initiative for delayed umbilical cord clamping in very low-birthweight infants.

Background: Due to clinical benefits, delayed cord clamping (DCC) is recommended in infants born before 37 weeks gestational age. The objective was to institute a delayed cord clamping program and to evaluate clinical outcomes one year after initiation.

Methods: This study occured at Christiana Care Health System, a tertiary care facility with a 52 bed level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Preparing the Next Generation of Advanced Practice Nurses for Connected Care.

The health care delivery system in the United States is transforming at a rapid pace. Several trends, including the emergence of a Connected Health care system, will require advanced nurse practitioners to have new knowledge, skills and competencies to practice in the future. This paper describes the redesign of coursework and the development of a Connected Care Framework to guide the learning needs of nurse practitioners.

Risk Factors of Prescription Opioid Overdose Among Colorado Medicaid Beneficiaries.

Unlabelled: This study aims to determine risk factors of opioid overdose among the Colorado Medicaid population. A retrospective nested case-control study was undertaken. Medicaid beneficiaries who had ≥1 medical claim for an emergency department visit or a hospitalization associated with an opioid overdose from July 2009 to June 2014 were defined as cases.

Infusing informatics into interprofessional education: the iTEAM (Interprofessional Technology Enhanced Advanced practice Model) project.

The iTEAM goal is to prepare advanced practice nurses, physicians and pharmacists with the interprofessional (IP) core competencies (informatics, patient centric, quality-focused, evidence based care) to provide technology enhanced collaborative care by: offering technology enhanced learning opportunities through a required informatics course, advanced practice courses (team based experiences with both standardized and virtual patients) and team based clinical experiences including e-health experiences. The innovative features of iTEAM project will be achieved through use of social media strategies, a web accessible Electronic Health Records (EHRs) system, a Virtual Clinic/Hospital in Second Life, various e-health applications including traditional telehealth tools and consumer oriented tools such as patient portals, social media consumer groups and mobile health (m-health) applications for health and wellness functions. It builds upon the schools' rich history of IP education and includes clinical partners, such as the VA and other clinical sites focused on care for underserved patient populations.

An off-site clinical pharmacy service in family medicine: development and 1-year outcomes.

Background And Objectives: Clinical pharmacists are a part of integrated health care teams and provide clinical medication recommendations for family physicians. On-site clinical pharmacy services are common in family medicine. This model may not be the most effective or efficient way to provide clinical pharmacy services in a small practice or in a remote location.

Quality of drug information database research for clinical decision support.

This commentary identifies studies that have compared commercially available DI databases, and discusses improvements in study methodology that might better guide clinicians in selecting resources for their practice setting. We also provide suggestions for future direction of research in this area with an eye towards clinical decision support systems (CDSS). The body of comparative research of commercially available DI databases is small, and provides little value to the average clinician when making purchasing decisions.

Fospropofol: a new sedative-hypnotic agent for monitored anesthesia care.

Objective: To summarize the published clinical data on fospropofol, critically review the safety and efficacy information, and provide pertinent information for formulary review.

Data Sources: Data were collected from searches of MEDLINE (1966-June 30, 2009), EMBASE (1974-June 30, 2009), bibliographies of manuscripts, and www.fda.

Hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance in Wrn null mice fed a diabetogenic diet.

Werner syndrome (WS) is an autosomal recessive progeroid syndrome caused by mutations in the Werner (Wrn) gene. WS patients have increased incidence of a number of chronic conditions including insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Since ingestion of foods that are high in fat and sugar is associated with increased incidence of diabetes, we examined if Wrn mutations might affect metabolic response to a diabetogenic diet.

Expression of cholesterol-7alpha-hydroxylase in murine macrophages prevents cholesterol loading by acetyl-LDL.

Unlike macrophages, the hepatic parenchymal cells express cholesterol-7 alpha-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) which regulates the conversion of cholesterol into bile acids, the major quantitative pathway maintaining cholesterol homeostasis. We examined if CYP7A1 expression in RAW 264.7 macrophages could prevent the accumulation of cholesterol when they were incubated with acetyl-LDL.