Awards given, issues
discussed at annual forum.
On the eve of a possibly historic
Congressional vote on health care reform, more than 500 APhA2010
attendees gathered on March 15 in Washington, DC, to honor the
profession’s finest in government affairs and discuss key pharmacy
issues with Senate staffers.
This year’s Political
Leadership Breakfast included presentations of the 2010 Hubert Humphrey
Award to Eddie M. Madden, BPharm, from Hartwell, GA; the Good Government
Pharmacist-of-the-Year Award to Norman P. Tomaka, BPharm, CPh, LHRM,
from Melbourne, FL; and the Good Government Student
Pharmacist-of-the-Year Award to Kenneth Fletcher, 2010 PharmD Candidate,
from Mesa, AZ.
Liz Fowler, PhD, JD, and Mark
Hayes, BPharm, JD, on staff with the Senate Finance Committee, made
brief remarks about health care reform and answered questions posed by
the pharmacists and student pharmacists in attendance. Their comments
were off the record and are not reported further here. Fowler and Hayes
serve as Democratic and Republican committee staff,
respectively.
Attendance at the event was one of
the highest figures in recent years.
Madden, founder and president of
Madden’s Pharmacy in Elberton, GA, served in the Georgia State
Senate from 1993 through 2001. He is the current president of the
Georgia Pharmacy Association.
In accepting the Humphrey Award,
Madden said more pharmacists need to run for public office at all
levels. “Pharmacists are excellent candidates for political
office. They are highly respected and have a natural talent for
communicating with people. They have an innermost nature of caring for
patients that translates to a need to do more beyond the doors of their
practice.”
Pharmacists elected at one level
need to run for the next higher level, Madden added. “We
especially need pharmacists in the Congress where our presence is
sparse,” he said. The one pharmacist in Congress, Democrat Marion
Berry of Arkansas, is retiring at the end of his current
term.
Introduced as a man who
“goes about 21 or 22 hours a day,” Tomaka called on
pharmacists to make sure that Congress and other leaders understand the
potential of medication therapy management but also to address the
challenges of a divided nation. “Through our work in our practice
sites, each one of us can promote a spirit of positive government and
less divisive accusation by encouraging participation in the free
political process we are so blessed to have. We must embrace civil and
positive discussion of those issues, even if it is health care
reform.”
Tomaka is the current chairman of
the board of directors of the Florida Pharmacy Association and a member
of the Florida Pharmacy Legislative Committee. He is the Florida media
advisory consultant with APhA. He practices at 15 outpatient procedure
centers as the clinical and consultant pharmacist for Holmes Regional
Medical Center/Health First, Inc.
Fletcher, a final-year student
pharmacist at Midwestern University College of Pharmacy in Glendale, AZ,
comes to pharmacy after two decades in banking. As a member of the
Arizona Pharmacy Alliance Legislative Committee, he has been actively
seeking immunization privileges for student pharmacists.
Fletcher implored pharmacists and
student pharmacist to do what they can when it comes to legislative
activism. Quoting Everett Edward Hale, he concluded: “I am only
one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do
something. Because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the
something I can do.”
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