RxA’s Trusted Partners in Health Fall Professional Development Conference

In this session, University of Calgary Associate Professor, Dr. Chad Bousman, will explain the rationale and evidence for using PGx-guided prescribing. Pharmacist and doctoral student Meagan Shields will highlight pharmacogenetic testing implementation considerations and best practices.

In this session, His Worship Mayor Tom Pickard, former Peace Officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) will reflect on his personal story of becoming an RCMP member and how his experiences as a first responder affected both him and his family. Through telling his story, he hopes to increase awareness of how occupational stress injuries impact first responders and decrease the stigma associated with mental health issues. He will focus on the cumulative impacts of repeated trauma and it affected his experience with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In this interactive session, Rick will explore how community pharmacists can utilize CGM technology to effectively identify glycemic issues and use initial prescribing authorization to intervene to provide safe and effective outcomes. He will outline how to use CGM reports to effectively communicate with other health care professionals the validity of need for intervention as well as monitoring the intervention for both efficacy and safety.

Participants will be provided with real life cases for which they will be asked to identify glycemic issues by reviewing CGM data. Rick will provide opportunities for pharmacists to provide their suggestions on how to intervene while reviewing actual interventions and the resulting change in CGM data. He will share strategies for communication with other health care professionals and provide tips on how to create an effective comprehensive care plan to properly reimburse the time for intervention.

The vaccine space can be a bit overwhelming. There is so much to keep track of to stay current: new vaccines and recommendations, changes in Alberta publicly funded programs, and outbreaks locally and across the country. In this session, pharmacist Betty Golightly will review immunization and vaccine updates (RSV, Covid, Tdap, pneumococcal) and will discuss some of the recent outbreaks (measles, pertussis, meningococcal). She will dive into the details, then look to weave some frequently asked questions into practical tips using a series of case studies.

The vaccine space can be a bit overwhelming. There is so much to keep track of to stay current: new vaccines and recommendations, changes in Alberta publicly funded programs, and outbreaks locally and across the country. In this session, pharmacist Betty Golightly will review immunization and vaccine updates (RSV, Covid, Tdap, pneumococcal) and will discuss some of the recent outbreaks (measles, pertussis, meningococcal). She will dive into the details, then look to weave some frequently asked questions into practical tips using a series of case studies.