Curtis E. Haas , PharmD, FCCP

Complex projects require the engagement of multiple stakeholders.

Working closely with the rest of the pharmacy team to achieve these learning objectives is also an opportunity for the importance of humility in leadership development.

This issue of Pharmacy Practice in Focus: Health Systems provides an overview of the considerations for the implementation of CRISPR and Cas9 cell-based gene therapies in sickle cell disease.

These employees build operational workflows, predictive analytical tools, implement and refine clinical decision support technologies, increase efficiency, and more.

This comprehensive approach is what all stakeholders, especially patients and families, need and deserve from their health care system.

Enhanced utilization of biosimilar products can have significant impact on reducing the overall cost of health care and potentially reducing out-of-pocket costs for patients.

We all have an interest in reducing harm and deaths from opiates and other controlled substances, but we should have evidence-based and patient-centered approaches that do not have unintended consequences on patient health and safety.

Health-system pharmacies should fight the well-orchestrated attempt to dismantle 340B drug pricing.

Embracing these new standards is the right thing to do for patient safety.

Double-digit inflation, low reimbursement rates, and staffing shortages present obstacles.

Predictably, patients in underserved rural, urban communities will face challenges gaining access to approved study sites.

Surprising turn of events is a strong message to the pharmaceutical industry about the acceptable developmental pathway for this drug class.

But pharmacists can implement medication use systems and collaborate with other health care professionals.

Staffing shortage hits technician ranks hardest, putting additional pressure on pharmacists.

Agency's interpretation may significantly affect how health systems and hospitals provide pharmaceuticals to patients.

The FDA's green light for the Alzheimer medication is worrisome, as clinical trials proved inconclusive.

Although the pharmaceutical and biopharma industries must maintain reasonable profitability, they have a moral duty to society.

High demands on the health care system from COVID-19 may mean a permanent shift in the landscape.

The pharmacy community has stepped up mightily to ensure this massive health care effort is successful.

Yet those directly involved in caring for the underserved and uninsured see its value firsthand.

Concerns abound because of an overreliance on foreign sources for active pharmaceutical ingredients, excipients, and finished dosage forms.

That is the message that pharmacy leaders must send to payers and pharmacy benefit managers.

I fully recognize that we want pharmacists who bring specialized knowledge and skills, such as critical care, infectious diseases, or oncology, to be involved as a patient progresses through the health care system, but it is obvious that we also fractionate care when it is not ideal or necessary.

If you are a clinical pharmacist who provides cutting-edge direct patient care as a member of an interprofessional patient care team or you are a pharmacy health-system leader enjoying the success of your highly regarded department, you should pause today and thank a pharmacy technician.

For the vast majority of Americans with chronic diseases, the medication-use system in the community is broken in many ways.

In general, there is a lack of adequate evidence from well-designed, controlled clinical trials demonstrating that the use of pharmacogenomic data to individualize drug therapy is directly related to improvements in clinical outcome in nononcology therapeutic areas.

In this issue of Pharmacy Times® Health-System Edition, Grayson K. Peek, PharmD, and Halena Leah Marcelin, PharmD, offer a brief discussion of optimizing wholesale acquisition cost exposure for organizations participating in the federal 340B drug discount program when the group purchasing organization prohibition requirement applies.

Health-system consolidation, both vertical and horizontal, is occurring at an unprecedented pace, with no indication of slowing in the near future.