2012 ANNUAL MEETING/EXHIBITION & INSTALLATION DINNER
FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012

HILTON EAST BRUNSWICK
3 TOWER CENTER BLVD.
EAST BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY
(732) 828-2000

PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

North and North Central Chapter
June 8, 2011
Topic:Pharmacy Resident Project Model: Part I & Part II
Location:The Medicines Company
Time:5:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Speaker:Panel of Presenters

Central Chapter
June 29, 2011
Topic: Immunization
Location: Colts Neck Inn
Time: 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Speaker: Mary Bridgeman, PharmD
Clinical Pharmacist, Internal Medicine & Nephrology
Capital Health
Trenton, NJ

Southern Chapter
June 21, 2011
Topic: Pediatric Medication Safety
Location: TBA
Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Speaker: Laura Bio, PharmD, BCPS
Assistant Professor Clinical Pharmacy
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy
University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
Philadelphia, PA 19102

Technician Seminars
June 15, 2011 Anaphalactic Shock and Allergies (2 Credits)
Jersey Shore University Medical Center
1945 Corlies Avenue & Rt. 33 East
Neptune, NJ
6:30PM – 8:30PM – 2nd Floor, Ackerman Building, Room 3
Speaker: Mary Bridgemen, PharmD, BCPS
Clinical Assistant Professor
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Piscataway, NJ &
Internal Medicine Clinical Pharmacist
Capital Health Regional Medical Center
Trenton, NJ

June 21, 2011 Pain Management (2 Credits)
Kimball Medical Center
River Road & Rt. 9 South
Lakewood, NJ
6:30PM – 8:30PM
Speaker: Diana-Lee Zisa, PharmD
Staff Pharmacist
Kimball Medical Center

Upcoming Events
E-board Transition Meeting, TBA
Current officers will meet to transfer duties, materials, and responsibilities over to the newly elected officers. Plans for the fall semester will also be discussed.

Recent Events
College Bowl, April 8th
It was an exciting competition against LIU. We’re proud of all the Rutgers students who participated. Special congratulations to the Rutgers winning team.
NJSHP Poster Presentation at the Annual Meeting, April 8th
NJSHP members presented at the Poster Presentation at the Annual Meeting. We had fun talking to everyone who stopped at the table.
Careers Post Residency Event, April 14th
We provided students with the information about what opportunities one can have after completing a residency. This was a collaboration event with ACCP.
Dining to Donate, April 14th
The Dining to Donate Day was arranged with TGI Fridays (1315 Centennial Avenue, Piscataway). 20% of each bill went to the March of Dimes cause.
Lexi-Comp Info Session, April 21st
A representative from Lexi-Comp provided information about clinical resources/technology and explained how to use them on different platforms.
Discounts on software will be offered to Rutgers students until May 31st.
Rutgers Day Booth, April 30th
NJSHP teamed up with APhA-ASP's Trooper Turtle committee and created a booth for the children visiting campus during Rutgers Day.
The booth focused on teaching children the danger associated with everyday poisons, such as household cleaning products, and what to do if they come into contact with a poison.
NJSHP members will perform the skit from the poison prevention activity.
March of Dimes, May 1st
It took place from 9AM - 12PM and start at the RAC on Livingston Campus. We will be walking about 6 miles around Rutgers University.
It was a very nice sunny day for the walk!
We teamed up with PDC for this event.

Visit our website www.njshprutgers.weebly.com gallery for pictures of our past events!

Please feel free to contact me via e-mail, laurenfaust@comcast.net or cell: 856-261-1128 with any questions or comments.
– Lauren Faust, NJSHP Rutgers Chapter President

Recruitment Form Click this link for the Membership Form.

Celebrate your hard work and dedication in your pharmacy career! Share your accomplishments with NJSHP! Our monthly Newsbriefs is an excellent opportunity to provide education and information about your contributions to the practice of pharmacy. Your story can be an inspiration to others! So don’t be shy. To submit your contribution, please contact Stella Williams at 609-936-2205 or email at swilliam@njha.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Get into the Society Spirit and order your state pin today. State pins can be ordered easily through the NJSHP website.

[June 1, 2011, AJHP News] Kate Traynor BETHESDA, MD 16 May 2011—Revised guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other experts seek to come as close as possible to making catheter-related bloodstream infections (CRBSIs) nonexistent in hospitals.

"Catheter-related bloodstream infections—like many infections in health care—are now seen as largely preventable," lead author Naomi O'Grady, a medical director at the National Institute of Health's Clinical Center, said in a statement. "Implementation of these critical infection control guidelines is an important benchmark of health care quality and patient safety."

The recommendations, "Guidelines for the Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-Related Infections," were published April 1, 2011, in Clinical Infectious Diseases and are also available online at www.cdc.gov/hicpac. The document was previously updated in 2002.

Read More

[June 1, 2011, AJHP News] Kate Traynor BETHESDA, MD 16 May 2011—Participants at the Sixth Annual Symposium on Advances in Pain Research in Bethesda, Maryland, are looking for ways to better understand and manage pain both at the basic scientific level and at the bedside.

The Pain Consortium, which hosted the April 14 symposium, was established by the National Institutes of Health to enhance federal research on pain and promote collaborations between federal and outside scientists.

For patients with cancer, said Charles Cleeland, pain researcher and professor at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, bone pain, neuropathy, and arthralgia are common complications of the disease.

"More than 67% of patients with metastatic cancer . . . will have bone pain," Cleeland said.

Bone pain may be caused by the malignancy but is also associated with cancer treatments and adjunctive therapy, such as colony-stimulating factors. Cleeland said such treatment-related pain should be of special concern for scientists and clinicians.

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Cheryl A. Thompson BETHESDA, MD 13 May 2011—Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited, whose sterile products facility in California ceased production a year ago, revealed earlier this week that the FDA Drug Shortages Team is telling the company which injectables to resume manufacturing.

"We're shipping what the agency Drug Shortages [Team] is asking us to ship first, and that's why we're bringing up the lines the way we are," William S. Marth, chief executive officer of Teva Americas, said May 11 during a conference call about earnings.

He said the California facility had recently started shipping vincristine sulfate injection and has plans to ship streptozocin powder for solution "sometime over the weekend."

Although FDA does not list vincristine and streptozocin among the drugs in short supply, the Drug Information Service at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City has reported shortages of both antineoplastics.

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The ASHP Foundation's Center for Health-System Pharmacy Leadership and online educational services company, GlobalHealth Education, have launched an advanced e-learning program that allows participants to earn credit towards a master's degree. The program is an extension of an initiative launched in 2008, when the center held its first Pharmacy Leadership Academy (PLA) class. Students in the PLA program are required to complete nine different Internet-based courses over 15 months. Each course lasts approximately six weeks and may be completed before, during, or after a master's program. In addition to master's credit, students also receive a Leadership Certificate and 135 Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education–accredited continuing education credits. Each course is taught by an ASHP pharmacy practice leader and includes topics such as such as building presence with executive leadership, leading for results, and leadership for safety and quality. Philip E. Johnson, MS, RPh, who teaches the “Leading People” module, believes that the PLA provides pharmacists with “leadership tools and experience to more effectively apply what they already know, [to gain] broader insights into leadership opportunities in the increasingly complex and collaborative environment we work in." Mr. Johnson, who is the founding director of pharmacy at the H. Lee Moffit Cancer Center and Research Institute, added that students say the PLA program is "'life altering in how they approach their job." A rolling application process is under way for the PLA class of 2012. Applicants are encouraged to have at least five years of post-degree pharmacy practice experience. Registration fees for the program are $7,500 for ASHP members and slightly more for non-members or for those whose applications are received after June 30. Additional information can be found at www.ashpfoundation.org.

The FDA announced that it will require the manufacturers of long-acting and extended-release opioids including oxycodone (Oxycontin), morphine, and methadone to produce educational materials to prevent prescription abuse. These educational materials include medication guides and physician training, all of which will need to be approved by the FDA and accredited by professional physician-education providers. Manufacturers will have 120 days to submit their educational materials. The physician-training aspect of the requirements will need to be approved by Congress in order to make them mandatory, but Michele Leonhart, administrator for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said: "I believe you'll see great interest from members of Congress." Until that approval comes through, the FDA says it will offer continuing education credits.

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) recently reaccredited the Meniscus Educational Institute (MEI) for six more years- the longest term permitted. The ACPE's decision was based on a report submitted by MEI on all of its pharmacy continuing education activities, from planning through delivery and outcomes assessment. The report is based on ACPE Standards and Policies, covering procedures, activity content, methods of delivery, assessment, and evaluation. In their report, the ACPE reviewers comment on MEI’s “excellent needs assessment,” “outstanding” CE assessment and faculty selection, “exceptional” educational materials, “superb” participant feedback, and “remarkable” postactivity evaluations. When asked to comment on the reaccreditation, MEI’s Acting Pharmacy Education Director, Carol Balmer, PharmD, BCOP, said "Receiving full-term status reflects not only ACPE’s acknowledgment that MEI meets or exceeds its high performance standards, but also peer recognition of MEI’s respected standing within the continuing pharmacy education community. With this prestigious full-term approval, Meniscus Educational Institute continues its long tradition of excellence as a CPE provider.”

The University of Hawai?i at Hilo has successfully completed the design phase of a facility for its College of Pharmacy. The new college will be the only school of pharmacy in the Pacific region. The permanent facility is being built in order to address concerns raised by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) during an April site visit. “We cannot overstate the importance of this building to Hawai?i’s future as the hub of health care and discovery,” said Dean John Pezzuto. “It will also allow us to give our students the best possible professional pharmacy education and move forward with accreditation." The design for the $66 million building was done by WCIT Architecture of Honolulu, which says it blended environment, place, and architecture to meet the College of Pharmacy's needs while fitting in with other campus buildings.

A recent study found that patients who had a myocardial infarction were 45 percent more likely to die or to have another myocardial infarction if they took nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) within one week of treatment. Current guidelines already reflect a potential association between NSAIDs and an increased risk of cardiovascular concerns, contraindicating the use of these medications in patients with cardiovascular disease unless absolutely necessary. However, this study indicates that even short-term use of NSAIDs may present unacceptable risks for some patients. "Our results indicate that there is no apparent safe therapeutic window for NSAIDs in patients with prior heart attack,” says researcher Anne-Marie Schjerning Olsen, MB, research fellow at Copenhagen University in Hellerup, Denmark. The researchers results were based on a study of 83,675 Danish adults who had their first myocardial infarction between 1997 and 2006. The most commonly prescribed NSAIDs in the study were ibuprofen, diclofenac (Voltaren), rofecoxib (Vioxx), and celecoxib (Celebrex). The highest risk was found to be associated with diclofenac, while naproxen was not associated with an increased risk of death or heart attack.

A recent study conducted by Northwestern University Prof. Michael Wolf and colleagues found that many Americans remain unaware of the potential adverse events associated with the active ingredients in over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceuticals. Of the adults surveyed by researchers, only 31 percent knew that Tylenol contains acetaminophen, 75 percent knew Bayer contains aspirin, 47 percent knew that Motrin contains ibuprofen, 19 percent knew that Aleve's active ingredient is naproxen sodium, and 19 percent knew that Advil contains ibuprofen. Wolf calls this lack of awareness particularly "alarming" in reference to acetaminophen, pointing out that "people may unintentionally misuse these medicines to a point where they cause severe liver damage." He noted that it is easy "to exceed the safe limit if people don't realize how much acetaminophen they are taking." Study co-author Jennifer King, MPH, also of Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine, agreed, saying that people are not concerned about exceeding the maximum dose of acetaminophen because they believe that it "can't be harmful" if they can purchase it without a prescription. The full results of the research are published in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Ambulatory Anesthesia Nationwide of Milwaukie, Ore., launched its mobile anesthesia service in January, and demand for in-office procedures has kept both the service's van and its clinicians busy. Dr. Shawn DeRemer and Gregg White founded the service and are partners in the anesthesia and staffing firm Anesthesia Associates Northwest. Ambulatory anesthesia, they say, helps fill a growing need for conducting less-invasive procedures in healthcare offices, rather than in a hospital or outpatient center. The mobile service has been called to dental surgeries, endometrial ablations, and pain management for lengthy MRI scans. The van is staffed with one of 56 anesthesia providers, including certified registered nurse anesthetists, and carries portable monitors, IV stands, an anesthetics cart, and a mini-pharmacy. The $150,000 customized Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van is the first in Oregon to offer such services.

The Health and Human Services inspector general reports that in 2007, more than 300,000 nursing home residents received anti-psychotic medications. The report also found that 90 percent of the time, those prescriptions were for patients with dementia, despite FDA findings that indicate anti-psychotics can increase the risk of death in these populations.

The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have found a likely source of the Serratia marcescens bacteremia found in 12 hospitalized individuals who received total parenteral nutrition (TPN). The bacteremia has the same genetic fingerprint as an organism isolated from a container and stirrer used to mix the powdered amino acids, from a spigot used for rinsing the container, and from the TPN. Investigators have found that a bag of compounded amino acids used to produce the TPN has also grown Serratia marcescens, but genetic fingerprint results are pending on this. ADPH knows of 19 cases of Serratia marcescens in patients in six Alabama hospitals, of which 12 were matched with the bacterium found at Meds IV Pharmacy in Birmingham. The contamination likely came from a failure in a step of the sterilization process in the compounding of TPN. About 35 percent of patients who received TPN from Meds IV in the month of March became ill with Serratia marcescens, ranging in age from 38 to 94 years. Meds IV was notified and has informed customers of possible contamination. The ADPH will continue its investigation of the outbreak in collaboration with the CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Alabama Hospital Association, and the State Board of Pharmacy.

The FDA says that an increased number of new medications are ready for approval. Thus far in 2011, the agency has approved 12 novel drugs, but it expects that more than 21 medications will reach the market before the end of the year, thus bypassing the approval figures for 2010. "What we think we are seeing is the nadir has been reached and we're coming up the other side," said Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) head, Dr. Janet Woodcock, who said that one of the reasons for slower approvals is that it can be difficult to find objective experts to serve on advisory panels. While the agency wants "people with expertise in doing clinical trials who understand all the issues involved" to serve on the panels, many of those experts are already working for drugmakers as paid speakers and consultants; under restrictions added in 2007 those kinds of industry ties prevent someone from serving on an advisory panel. Woodcock said she would prefer an alternative to the current process, where panels discuss general policy issues such as standards for a specific area rather than a specific drug.