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Pharmacists ranked as the second most trusted profession for the third consecutive year, according to the results of an annual Gallup Poll that asks consumers to rate 21 professions according to their honesty and ethical standards. Pharmacists were ranked as very high or high in this category by 70% of those surveyed in the 2013 poll. Nurses ranked first at 82%, and grade school teachers tied with pharmacists at 70%. Additional information on the results of the 2013 poll and comparisons with previous years are available on the Gallup Web site.

The Kansas Board of Pharmacy has four inspectors that are currently employed with the Board of Pharmacy. They are Jim Kinderknecht, R.Ph., Carly Haynes, R.Ph., Melissa Martin, and Reyne Kenton. All pharmacies should verify that anyone coming in to do an inspection is a Board inspector. Board inspectors have business cards and are also listed on the Board’s web page. If you have anyone come to your pharmacy claiming to be an inspector and they are not a Board of Pharmacy inspector named above please notify the Board office 785-296-4056 and ask to speak to Debra Billingsley, Executive Secretary or Marty Singleton, Assistant Director. Do not let anyone claiming to be a Board inspector in to your pharmacy until you have verified they are Board inspectors. 

The pharmacists of Northeast Kansas and the Kansas Pharmacists Association are hosting the Northeast Kansas  Legislative Dinner on Thursday, January 9, 2014. The dinner will be at Your Place Or Mine, 501 E 5^th St. in Holton Kansas. Agenda topics will include issues affecting pharmacists and the pharmacy profession for the 2014  legislative session. Dinner will be provided by KPSC. Please  plan on attending and invite your local legislators. Use this link from the KPhA website to find out who the legislators in your district are. To RSVP for this event click here or call the KPhA office at 785-228-2327

Kansas Board of Pharmacy has approved and published continuing education violations and penalties for failure to comply with continuing education requirements. Guidelines have been set for failure to comply with the continuing education rules and regulations. Repercussions for a first offense include a fine of $100 for each hour missing and four hours of CE will be mandatory for each one hour of missing or falsified CE. Additionally, CE must be provided to the Board within 30 days of receipt. At the next license renewal, original CE completion certificates must be submitted to the Board for audit. Failure to comply with policy rules and regulations will result in the license being placed on inactive status. To learn more visit the Kansas Board of Pharmacy website.

The 2013 Kansas Pharmacy Law Book is now available for purchase. The cost is $85 for KPhA members and $175 for non-members. The book contains current pharmacy statutes and regulations as well as select related statutes and regulations. It is indexed, tabbed and in a small three ring binder. Included is a CD that can be used to reference it on your computer. A link to an order form is located on this webpage to purchase the law book. Once you complete the order form, KPhA will email an invoice to you for payment. The invoice will contain a link to pay online or you can print and send it with a check. The law books ordered will be shipped once payment is received. Please call Collene at 785-228-2327 if you have questions.

FDA's Bad Ad program is an outreach program designed to educate healthcare providers about the role they can play in helping the agency make sure that prescription drug advertising and promotion is truthful and not misleading. 

The Bad Ad Program is administered by the agency’s Office of Prescription Drug Promotion (OPDP) in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. The program's goal is to help raise awareness among healthcare providers about misleading prescription drug promotion and provide them with an easy way to report this activity to the agency: e-mail BadAd@fda.gov or call 855-RX-BADAD.

As part of FDA's Bad Ad program, OPDP introduces a new CME/CE e-learning course and case studies to raise healthcare providers (HCP) and HCP students' awareness of misleading prescription drug promotion and other common regulatory concerns. 

For more information, please visit http://www.fda.gov/badad

The University of Kansas School of Pharmacy presented its Distinguished Service Award to Max Heidrick of Beloit, Kansas on Friday, October 18 at the School of Pharmacy building in Lawrence. Heidrick, a 1971 graduate of the School of Pharmacy, owns S&S Drug in Beloit.

Established this year, the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy Distinguished Service Award hon­ors individuals who have demonstrated selfless and sustained service and leadership in advancement of the profession, their communities and the School of Pharmacy.

In addition to serving as a mentor to many School of Pharmacy students over the years, Heidrick has served on countless committees and boards for the pharmacy profession on both the state and national level, including the School of Pharmacy’s Advisory Committee. He has supported the community of Beloit, not only through his downtown pharmacy, by also by donating his time, expertise and resources to local schools and community projects.

School of Pharmacy Dean Ken Audus said the school has honored distinguished alumni in the past, but not through an annual award.

“Whether they are practitioners or researchers, those in the pharmacy profession are known for their generosity and service to the community, the profession and the school,” Audus said.  “We decided it was time to recognize them for the amazing work they continue to perform, both professionally and personally.”

Audus said the selection committee, which included school administrators, faculty, and staff members made an excellent choice when they selected Hedrick to receive the inaugural award.

“I can think of no one more deserving of this award. The countless hours he has spent mentoring our students over the years, the financial support he has provided to the program and its students, and the contributions he has made to the profession of pharmacy make him the ideal recipient of the first University of Kansas School of Pharmacy Distinguished Service Award,” Audus said.

Type 2 diabetes patients who take their medicine for nocturnal hypertension before bed may have better blood pressure control than those who take their medicine in the morning, according to a study presented on September 26, 2013, at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes annual meeting in Barcelona.  

 Previous research indicates that high blood pressure at night may be a stronger independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease than daytime blood pressure. To investigate new strategies to treat increased nighttime blood pressure, researchers in the current study assessed whether bedtime dosing of once-daily antihypertensive medication reduced nighttime blood pressure without a subsequent increase in daytime blood pressure.  

The open-label study enrolled 41 type 2 diabetes patients with a nighttime systolic blood pressure reading higher than 120 mm Hg, defined as nocturnal hypertension. Patients were instructed to take all of their once-daily antihypertensive drugs either in the morning or at night for the first 8 weeks, and then to switch to the opposite regimen for the next 8 weeks. Blood pressure measurements, measurements of arterial stiffness, and blood and urine testing were performed at baseline and after each 8-week period. Participants took an average of 3 once-daily antihypertensive drugs.  

 The results indicated that bedtime dosing was associated with a significant decrease in nighttime blood pressure. Average nighttime systolic blood pressure with morning dosing was 125.3 mm Hg, compared with 117.8 mm Hg with bedtime dosingundefineda 7.5–mm Hg difference. When patients took their medications at night, 24-hour systolic blood pressure was also significantly improved when compared with morning dosing (128.7 mm Hg vs. 131.7 mm Hg).  

 In addition, bedtime dosing did not lead to an increase in daytime systolic blood pressure. Average daytime systolic blood pressure for morning dosing was 134.2 mm Hg compared with 133.0 mm Hg for nighttime dosing. In addition, dosing time did not affect morning surge. Similar trends for nighttime and 24-hour decreases without morning increases were seen in diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, and pulse pressure when medications were taken at night. The results also associated bedtime dosing with increased nocturnal natriuresis.  

These findings suggest that taking antihypertensive medications before bed may have significant benefits for both nocturnal and 24-hour blood pressure control, without increasing morning blood pressure.  

“In patients with type 2 diabetes and nocturnal hypertension, dosing of antihypertensive drugs at bedtime may be favorable,” the authors conclude. - See more at: http://www.pharmacytimes.com/news/Taking-Meds-Before-Bed-May-Improve-Nocturnal-Blood-Pressure#sthash.ZEOKCLm4.dpuf

Sometimes it's easy to forget that KPhA represents not only Kansas pharmacists but Kansas pharmacy technicians as well. KPhA has a membership category for technicians and an Academy for technicians. Technician membership in KPhA is only $25 per year.  This could be the best $25 a technician ever spent in the furtherance of their career.

For those who want to prepare to take a certification exam, KPhA has an agreement with the publishers of Pharmacists Letter to provide a technician training module/webinar called Pharmacy Technicians University™ to our members at a steeply discounted rate.  Normally priced at $960 - the KPhA member price is only $150. In order for technician members to take advantage of the discount, they must call the KPhA office to receive a special code to enter on the PTU website.  Because this is a members-only benefit, the technician must be a member of KPhA.  If you know of a technician that is a member of KPhA or wants to join, have them give KPhA a call and the  discount code to use will be provided when they join.

Once a pharmacy technician becomes certified - he or she will have to obtain continuing education to retain the certification.  KPhA also has an agreement with the CE Institute in Iowa for pharmacy technician members to obtain continuing education.  This price is steeply discounted for KPhA technician members. The CE Institute provides 20 hours of continuing education every two years for only $20

The Obama administration has kicked off the Health Insurance Marketplace education effort with a new, consumer-focused HealthCare.gov website and the 24-hour-a-day consumer call center to help Americans prepare for open enrollment and ultimately sign up for private health insurance.  The new tools will help Americans understand their choices and select the coverage that best suits their needs when open enrollment in the new Health Insurance Marketplace begins October 1.

The website is built with a responsive design so that consumers may access it from their desktops, smart-phones, and other mobile devices. In addition, the website is available via an application interface at www.healthcare.gov/developers.