Sophia Humphreys, PharmD, MHA, BCBBS, director of system pharmacy formulary management and clinical programs at Sutter Health and clinical assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy, spoke with The American Journal of Managed Care® about Newport Beach Institute for Value-Based Medicine® (IVBM) Eventof which she was co-president.
At the event, experts spoke about the intersection of medicine and pharmacy, and his presentation was titled “Forms Management is a Team Sport.”
Transcription
What were you most looking forward to at IVBM held in Newport Beach?
That’s a great question, actually. This particular conference, we’re going to be hosting in collaboration with Providence Health System. This is a very large IDN (integrated delivery network) on the west coast. I will be co-hosting with Elie Bahou, (PharmD, MBA,) who is the Director of Pharmacy at Providence Health System. We will bring in experts from Providence and Sutter Health, as well as Baptist Health, a sister organization in Florida. We will have experts from both pharmacy and medicine. I’m really looking forward to listening to many of our expert discussions regarding medication management, regarding home plan navigations, as well as academic details from Harry Peled (MD, FACC), who is the co-chair of formulary management in the Providence Health system. .
Was there anything you were particularly excited to talk about in your presentation?
So, as I’ve probably mentioned in my previous discussions, I’ve been managing the formulary for health systems large and small for 20 years. I have always said that I have (had) 4 bosses throughout my entire career and they all gave me one duty, that of providing the best patient care with the most financially viable methodologies. This means we want to receive high-quality care at a lower cost.
As part of this particular discussion, I’d like to touch a little on our current drug market outlook and then delve deeper into the basics of formulary management and also who (is) involved, both internal and customer external. Additionally, how we collaborate within health systems and also collaborate with external clients, such as government and regulatory agencies and professional organizations, as well as even drug manufacturers, so that we all serve a single purpose, which is to care for our patients and improve their overall quality of life and clinical outcomes.
