UW and the community

April 13, 2011

Pharmacy’s Katterman Lecture gears up for an ‘Electronic Revolution’

In today’s quickly evolving world of health care, advances in communications and technology are making it easier for hospitals and clinics to electronically exchange patient health information with multiple care providers. The goal of these kinds of information exchanges is to provide patients with more efficient — and better — care.

With people’s medication regimens in particular, health information exchanges make it easier for pharmacists to prevent drug-drug interactions, drug-food interactions or other adverse reactions. Such dangerous and potentially costly risks can go unnoticed when a patient has multiple providers and her pharmacist can’t access all of her health information.

This year’s School of Pharmacy Don B. Katterman Memorial Lecture will discuss how pharmacists can keep ahead of the curve in this new world of communications and information. In “The Future of Pharmacy Communication: Preparing for an Electronic Revolution,” presenter Sue Merk will explain how new technologies will improve the pharmacy profession while improving the lives and health of patients. The event will take place Tuesday, May 10.^.

Merk is a pharmacist and vice president of product management and business development at OneHealthPort — an organization created by a coalition of area health plans, physicians and hospitals to build a community where business and clinical information can be securely shared. Merk has extensive knowledge of the new Statewide Health Information Exchange, a program funded by the Office of the National Coordinator to implement a shared health information technology infrastructure in Washington State.

In “The Future of Pharmacy Communication,” she will explain how pharmacists can use advanced communications in community, ambulatory and institutional settings. She will talk about e-prescribing and the medical home care model (a patient-centered, integrative approach to health care), among other things. Further, she will highlight how use of new technologies and communication channels can open the door for future innovations in pharmacy reimbursement models, treatment and patient care.

Sue Merk is at the forefront of business-development advances being used in health care. As a trained pharmacist herself, she seeks to ensure that others in her field have the knowledge required to thrive in their ever-changing profession and provide the best care possible to their patients. Merk has been a highly sought-after speaker at industry events in the past few years.

This is the School of Pharmacy’s 32^nd Annual Katterman Lecture. The late Don B. Katterman, ’48, former owner of Katterman’s Sand Point Pharmacy, was a mentor to many UW pharmacy students and a former president and member of the Washington State Pharmacy Association.

The lecture is open to all members of the community. It will start at 7 p.m. in  Foege Auditorium, Room S-060, UW William H. Foege Building, with an introduction by Dean Thomas A. Baillie. Continuing-education credits are available to qualified pharmacists through the Washington State Pharmacy Association. To register and find out more, please visit the Katterman Lecture website.