Implementing a specialty pharmacy course within a professional pharmacy curriculum.

Background And Purpose: Specialty pharmacy is an important area of pharmacy practice where patients who are prescribed a growing number of specialty drugs receive specialized care, including: benefits investigation, financial support, side effect management, and adherence assessment. As these specialty medications continue to emerge, it is important for pharmacy students to have knowledge of this specialized practice and awareness of the opportunities that exist in this area. The objective is to describe the development of a specialty pharmacy elective course to meet this educational need.

Volume and outcome relationship in bariatric surgery in the laparoscopic era.

Background: The relationship between volume and outcomes in bariatric surgery is well established in the literature. However, the analyses were performed primarily in the open surgery era and in the absence of national accreditation. The recent Metabolic Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program proposed an annual threshold volume of 50 stapling cases.