Staying Up-to-Date Is Important for Medication Therapy Management

Jennifer Gershman, PharmD, CPh, PACS
As of this writing, more than 50 new drugs have received FDA approval in 2023.1 These new drugs manage disease states that include depression, heart failure, migraine, and more.1 Keeping up with the medication therapy management (MTM) literature helps ensure patients receive appropriate pharmacotherapy, but staying up-to-date can be challenging. The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education defines continuing professional development as a “self-directed, ongoing, systematic, and outcomes- focused approach to lifelong learning that is applied into practice.”2 Staying on top of the latest developments in pharmacy as a lifelong learner plays a major role in MTM.

MTM AND STAYING UP-TO-DATE
Participating in topic discussions is a great way for pharmacists to stay up-to-date on MTM clinical studies. If pharmacists serve as preceptors for pharmacy students on their advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs), they can include topic discussions as teaching opportunities. This can also include journal clubs that involve selecting a recently published clinical study to share in APPEs. Pharmacists and students can perform a literature search to identify clinical studies published within the past year that are related to a specific disease state. Facilitating discussions with multiple pharmacists or other health care professionals can also serve as MTM professional development.

One study utilized a preintervention and postintervention survey to evaluate a multipreceptor approach for topic discussions on ambulatory care APPEs, with topics including diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, heart failure, anticoagulation, devices and physical assessment, and asthma.3 The study found that students’ knowledge assessment scores increased significantly from baseline (P < .001).

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