And so it begins, the ASHP Summer Meeting 2011 (#ashpsm)

As you read this the ASHP Summer Meeting is taking place in Denver, Colorado. While the ceremonial start isn’t until after the Opening Session and Keynote tomorrow (Monday, June 13) things have been in full swing since Saturday.

I landed at the Denver airport this morning about 9:00AM and immediately began following the Twitter stream (#ashpsm) coming from the Summer Meeting. The most active session appeared to be Planning for a New Health-System Pharmacy Practice Model. I’m not surprised as developing a new pharmacy practice model is on everyone’s mind following the PPMI Summit in November 2010. I must admit to feeling a bit cheated at not being able to attend the session. But there are still plenty of great sessions to attend over the next several days.

My first official session of the day was the Talyst Advisory Board meeting. The Talyst Advisory Board consists of pharmacists from several well know and influential healthcare systems across the country. They meet several times each year to discuss ongoing projects, technology wants and desires, and to try to determine what the pharmacy world is going to do next. It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around the amount of information that’s generated from gatherings like this. These people are intelligent, engaging, thoughtful and highly dedicated to the pharmacy profession. In addition they’re all gathered together for the sole purpose of thinking of ways to improve pharmacy through automation and technology

Following the advisory board meeting I checked into the hotel and headed over to the Denver convention Center. The Summer Meeting certainly isn’t as large as the ASHP Midyear in December, but I was informed by an ASHP insider that it is well attended this year; better than the last couple of years anyway. ASHP did a great job of promoting the Summer Meeting this year, and it appears to have paid off.

It’s unfortunate that I can’t be in two or even three places at once as I would have certainly liked to have attended many more sessions. Instead I settled for a session “for pharmacists who are interested in informatics, automation, clinical information systems and med-use cycle technologies” and another on “validating sterile compounding of IV robotic technology using USP <797> QA programs”. Both sessions were great.

The Grand Opening Reception was the final official gathering for Sunday and it went off without a hitch. All attendees were invited into the exhibit hall for a look at the vendor booths along with some light refreshments and some tasty snacks. The exhibit is smaller than the one for ASHP Midyear to be sure, but it’s still pretty slick. I ran into some old friends, talked technology with a couple of vendors and even got some ideas for a couple of new products. What more can a pharmacist ask for? Not much.

Follow the Twitter stream for the ASHP Summer Meeting by using #ashpsm

Follow the ASHP Summer Meeting Twitter list started by @Brent_Fox