ARLINGTON, Va. – The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), the American Public Health Association (APHA) and the CDC Foundation will co-host a pre-conference workshop that brings together public health, pharmacy and health care stakeholders to assess gaps in patient care access, leverage partnerships, and analyze practices for improved population health outcomes. The forum—in its third year—will take place on Saturday, November 2, 2019, in advance of the APHA Annual Meeting and Expo, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.

The workshop, “Demonstrating Our Collective Impact: Pharmacy and Public Health Collaborations to Create the Healthiest Nation,” will center on the combined strength of public and private entities partnering to achieve the shared goals of improving the health of all Americans. This will include identifying opportunities to increase these collaborations and examining existing healthcare innovations that can be broadly expanded to serve communities more effectively. Panel discussions include medication optimization and the promotion of patient care; opioid abuse prevention and treatment strategies; and the rise of healthcare hubs as part of the changing dynamics of innovative care. These sessions aim to present strategies that can be scaled and replicated to serve diverse communities across the United States.

NACDS president and chief executive officer Steven Anderson said, “This is a tremendous partnership. NACDS is excited to join with APHA and the CDC Foundation for the third time to present this pre-conference session. Pharmacy plays a positive role in partnering to help advance patient health outcomes and to achieve public health benchmarks – and fantastic opportunities exist to do even more. The past two sessions—in 2017 and 2018—were extremely popular and well-attended, and we are looking forward to building on that success.”

Dr. Judith Monroe, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation, said, “This collaborative session exemplifies the goals of the CDC Foundation, which are to leverage the strengths of public and private entities to find solutions that will improve the health of Americans and people around the world.” Monroe will open the pre-conference workshop by leading a plenary session on “Integrating Pharmacy into the Healthcare Team.”

Registration for the pre-conference workshop is complimentary. Limited space is available, and online registration currently is open.