APhA 2017: Live Conference Coverage

The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) will kick off the 2017 Annual Meeting & Exposition (APhA2017) in San Francisco this weekend, March 24-27, 2017 and Pharmacy Times will be covering it live!

Check back here all weekend for the latest clinical data from the meeting, including coverage of the keynote topics on America's opioid epidemic as well as the importance of communciation between patients and providers. Also, Pharmacy Times Continuing Education will be on site hosting the continuing education event: Managing Diabetes with Insulin/ GLP-1 Receptor Agonist Combinations: A Clinical Discussion of Safety and Efficacy Data with Dhiren Patel, PharmD, and Jennifer Goldman, PharmD, both of MCPHS University School of Pharmacy. We'll be providing coverage of that discussion as well.

If you are one of the many pharmacists on site at the meeting, be sure to stop by the mobile blood drive. This year, APhA is partnering with the Blood Centers of the Pacific, which services all San Francisco hospitals and helps more than 50,000 patients each year to host its 8th Annual Blood Drive and Bone Marrow Registry. The community-based organization works closely with businesses, community groups, and non-profit organizations to schedule “on-site” mobile blood drives. Blood Centers of the Pacific processes over 200,000 blood components, and distributes about 145,000 pints of blood and almost 24,000 units of platelets to more than 50 hospitals annually.

APhA is also proud to partner with Be The Match Registry, which offers participants the unique opportunity to give a life-saving bone marrow transplant to someone in need. Thousands of patients with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases depend on Be The Match, the largest and most diverse registry in the world, to find a life-saving donor. For 70% of these patients who don't have a matching donor in their family, finding an unrelated match on the registry is their only chance at a life-saving cure.

“Sixty-eight units were collected and 24 new potential bone marrow donors were registered at the last blood drive and bone marrow registry,” said Todd McDonald, APhA Director, Meeting Services. “We’re hoping to surpass those numbers at this year’s drive.”

The Blood Drive and Bone Marrow Registry is geared toward annual meeting attendees but is also open to the public! Please consider making a donation and giving the gift of life!