Hey, it's Lauren Bright Pacheco, back with season three of Symptomatic, a medical mystery podcast.
This season, we're investigating brand new cases and even revisiting old friends, piecing together the truly baffling symptoms and revealing how the quest for medical answers transforms the lives of everyday people.This is Symptomatic.
Listen to Symptomatic on America's number one podcast network, iHeart.Open your free iHeart app and search Symptomatic and start listening.
You are listening to the Global Network of Podcasters dedicated to the pharmacy profession.Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
Hey, alrighty then.Welcome to a very stressful this week in pharmacy.Hold on a second.Oh geez, I needed that.A little beverage for the end of this week, the end of this section of our year of 2024.It's been very stressful with the elections.
We are going to do a special election debrief through this week in pharmacy.We're going to be doing some
mashups and ideas about where the future of healthcare is going to go, more specifically pharmacy care, with the acceleration of PBM reform, which is exciting.But today's episode is special.
We are gonna break away from the norm, stay away from the news for a little bit.Can we just take a break from the news and stop listening to the news just for a second? And we're going to welcome Renee Rayberg, who's part of the PSG company.
That's a research analytics company.They do audits and clinical optimization, contracting and specialty services.
I'm excited about this interview with Renee and giving us some insights into the future of where sectors of the pharmaceutical industry will be going and some of their, of her ideas and their ideas as a, as an organization.
And then what that means for pharmacist opportunities.We know pharmacy is changing.We know that the pharmacist role is expanding and the MSL opportunities that pharmacists are gonna have out there are pretty significant.I'm excited about that.
We're gonna be doing more interviews about medical science liaisons and pharmacists in 2025, if you wanna get involved. please reach out to me at publisher at pharmacypodcast.com.That's publisher at pharmacypodcast.com.
Make sure that you subscribe, but reach out to us.Hey, this episode is brought to you by JB Consulting.These guys work miracles in the pharmacy technology space, designing software, designing systems to go between, you know,
adjudication between your pharmacy management system, actually customizing data reporting.So we trust in JB Consulting so much.I met Shawn Jensen at a pharmacy conference and we're moving forward with our own technology back end.
So wait till you see what's coming in 2025 from our
from our services that we're going to be getting through JB Consulting for our own metrics and our own reporting and some interesting creative stuff that's going to be coming from the Pharmacy Podcast Network and I just want to say thank you.
I want to thank you for how hard you've worked this year as a pharmacy profession.I've seen massive change.We're going to be talking about HLTH, which is an innovation conference.We're going to be talking about the NCPA, the Super Bowl conference of
of independent community pharmacy and our interaction there with Ural Pharma and with a real value RX as a secondary wholesaler and some of their strategies.So I'm excited about what's coming.
We're coming, we are gonna be coming in stronger than ever in closing out this year.We have a lot of work to do to prepare.I also wanna let you know, Pharmacy 50 is back.It's our fourth annual awards. I want you all involved.
I want you helping us to share the program to award someone in our pharmacy that's making an impact.Once again, this is the fourth annual Pharmacy 50, the 50 most influential people
in the profession of pharmacy who are really making a difference and who are driving the future of pharmacy care, not where we were 10 years ago or 20 years ago.
We're talking about people who have their finger on the pulse, the bleeding edge, and then the people that are actually doing it. and we can't wait to see what's going to come out of our awards this year.It's the 2024 Pharmacy 50 Awards, it's coming.
We are ready.I want you to hear from organizations and people that are truly making a difference and forwarding our profession.Renee Rayberg, VP of Clinical Strategy.I can't wait for you to hear this.
Hey, and on this weekend pharmacy, it's fun to have people in the studio.I always say, if I make it big someday, when I grow up, I'm going to have another studio somewhere with an international airport.
That is within twenty minutes of the studio instead of an hour and ten minutes. down here in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, part of the Western Pennsylvania area.
If you know and have been following the Pharmacy Podcast Network, we're in Brownsville and it's a nice little town, but airport is just too far away.But sometimes you get pharmaceutical and pharmacy care people that are from Pittsburgh.
Actually, there's a lot of pharmacy people in Pittsburgh.Did you know that the birthplace of specialty pharmacy was Pittsburgh?And so with that, I want to welcome my guest today, Renee Rayberg, to the studio.It's great to have you here.
Thank you.I'm excited to be here.
Yeah, it's fun to have people in the studio.We do so much Zoom and we do so much StreamYard that it's like virtual fatigue.Having somebody actually here is just a different environment and it's fun to just use the studio once in a while.
No, I agree.The in-person interactions are definitely more valuable.
Yeah.Well, all right.So we met through LinkedIn, PSG, and you do so many things that I didn't even, was even like part of our ecosystem.
Your intelligence for the specialty pharmacy sector is the one that fascinated me, especially things like gene and cell therapy. And you and I were both at the last Assembia and didn't even know it.
We're covering so much of the stories of innovation and specialty pharmacy right across from the Assembia's main booth.So we have promised each other to give each other some time and maybe get a quote from you at the 2025 show.
Yeah.All right.Tell us about PSG.Give us an overview of what your organization is doing.
So at PSG, we are a leading pharmacy intelligence and technology company providing cutting edge drug management strategies and solutions.
We pride ourselves on being independent, so we're independent, but we relentlessly advocate for our payer clients and helping them navigate the challenges that they're facing, right, with drug management in today's industry.
So the goal is to deliver actionable solutions and kind of work with them to understand and meet their needs.And so the niche that we have is the fact that we use data to drive a lot of the strategy and solutions that we do.
So we have a software tool called Artimetrix.That is where the GeneCQ we'll talk about later sits within.
but Artimetrix houses integrated data, so medical and pharmacy data, and we're actually able to identify for each client, you know, what is driving their trend, outlier high-cost claims, and things like that.
So, our staff consists of 17 clinical pharmacists, which also I believe is unique, so we have a strong pulse on the clinical aspects of pharmacy and drug management.
And just to give you an idea of the type of work that we do, we did 50 procurements, market checks, renewals last year in 2023, over 400 audits.We have an audit team as well.We have implementation team too.
And the results of all of that hard work was about $7.2 billion in cost savings. So another interesting arm of our business is the research arm.
So as we were talking, getting to know each other, we published four different reports each year, you know, relating from specialty pharmacy, specialty drug trend.And the last one that we published was about PBM satisfaction.
I'm sorry, PBM satisfaction.
Yeah, that one was interesting to me.And we talked about data resources that
We've known about, I've known about for years, like drug channels and Dr. Fine's team, and your organization is supplying some of those data points to a lot of organizations that are drilling down into studies, whether that be PBM.
And if you're watching on YouTube, you'll see the preview of the 2024 PBM customer satisfaction report from PSG.That's just one example of so many of the things that you guys are working on and what you're doing.
I think that that's important to this day and age.Data is great, but John Nosta, I call him my digital health godfather.He is a philosopher and speaker across the entire world.
He actually goes to big, big governments and talks to them about what's real and digital health. And he's like, data is great.
But if you don't, if you can't make sense of it, like it's not worth anything, because it just gets confusing, especially to, I would think like an employer that that has a big HR team that has a benefits team inside it.
And they're like, all right, what do we do with all this data?It's not making any sense to us. You know, how do we really drill down into formulary management?You know what?
And so having a pharmacist insight, which is why I was excited that you came down, really provides them with a unique perspective.So talk to us a little bit about more of this system.It's called Artimex?
Artimetrics.Yeah, definitely talk to us about that because I'm fascinated and I wanted to ask a question I'm always thinking of when I sold pharmacy management systems, we always had APIs to other systems or some integration.
So what's the main system that's being used that someone would use Artimetrix for?
Well, there's multiple things, but one is just to have the insight into the integrated data.So to have your medical drug claims file and all your medical claims, actually your pharmacy claims and your eligibility all together.Right.
So eligibility ties the medical and the pharmacy claims.And to be able to in one system to look at what's driving your trend, you know, what is is specific as a patie understand, you know, the their claims history.
You ties to the medical data information.So you can s looking at a patient that drug and you're spending that drug, you want to ge working for the patient?R doing?We can go and see, been to the E. R. Lately, hospital, you know, we ca
We actually have a total cost of claim function in there that measures them against all the other patients that have MS in that population.But data is important, right?But how you organize it and how you use it becomes even more important.
And we have a saying I say all the time, is this so what? And that's what really we're trying to find, right?So we don't wanna sit there and tell you, oh, guess what, Humira was your number one drug spend for the last 10 years, right?
So what is, you know, what can we do about it?Why do I need to know this?Why is it important to me to know that information?And that's really what we try to dig into.And that's where the actionable solutions come in.
So, you know, did you know that, you know, you had this high cost claim as an outlier?We've found so many through the data to say,
You know, just recently found a person that was getting probably three times what they should have gotten in the quantity for a specialty drug.So the claim was over $100,000.It turned out that they had a quantity limit in place.
So apparently it must not have been coded correctly.So, you know, identifying that information, then taking it to the PBM on their behalf and then finding out kind of what happens, right?
And so how do you correct it and mitigate other outlier claims, things like that.
Who's the physical user of Artemetrix?
Great question.It can be a pharmacist, right?It could be pharmacy.So for health plans, it's usually a typical pharmacy director, the pharmacist that are working, but it's also could be the analytics team as well.
And so we have employers that also use Artemetrix.And so we have their financial analysts that are using it there.We have a client where the CFO actually gets in there and looks at it, right?
um the you know the hr benefit directors it just depends on how uh the organizations are set up and if they have the resources to do the work much of the work is us doing it on their behalf so it's just as valuable from that aspect as well remember you and i before we started recording we're talking about so we know the big huge
conglomerate big PBMs and they're whatever they're going to they're going to get the old shakedown now.But there's a whole bunch of other PBMs that are privately owned carve out type of benefit standings that are just amazing organizations.
A shout out to the Fields family out of Ohio who started Aperorx and CapitalRx and TruthRx.I mean, no, I can't remember the other one.That's a transparency one.But true benefits, I think.
Anyway, so I'm fascinated to think, okay, where are they getting their data and what tools are they dialing into to really get more out of the claims data and the follow-up and what's coming and drug pricing?
And so is Archimetrics, are you guys helping them too?
So in some cases, yes, because I think vertical integration has been long talked about, right?But I would venture to say, just Renee's opinion, it's not being done all that well, especially at the biggest levels.
And so the fact that we can put the pharmacy claims data and the medical claims data together and to look at it together all as one, I think is the most valuable piece of that. So, but where it is helpful is it can be used as a reporting tool.
So, we have ways to generate quarterly data reports, you know, things like that that can show.
We have a hierarchy built so that, you know, even for health plans, if you have different ASO clients that you can get specific drill down to that client level, the same, you know, amount of data, things like that.So,
But from a reporting perspective, I think it is really helpful and we can help.So just as an example, with the clients that I work with, I have access to the medical data.
So when we're on a quarterly PBM call, we may be discussing a drug and a drug spend.
Like I actually can look it up and see, okay, for every member that's using Dupixan, I could tell you how many of them are using it for atopic dermatitis or how many of them are using it for asthma.So just through a couple of clicks.
So there's value in that sense as well.
How are you, are you, you're obviously extracting CPT, ICD-10s, all from electronic health records.Do you have interfaces to all of these big systems?
Yeah, they come through in a medical claims file and I am technology is not my strong suit.So so but it's a medical claims file is sent over.
And then we have experts within our data team that ingest the data and transform it to be able to put it within the tool and get it to the working level that we need.
I haven't sold pharmacy software in nearly 10 years, but I remember a file called the 856, which was like a claim file that had specific metrics in it.
I don't know if it's that one, but obviously it's like a big data dump to your system, and then your system demystifies it and kind of organizes it and brings it to light.
Yeah, the data transformation is where the magic happens, right?With our team.
Yeah.Yeah.Data's great, but if you can't use it, what's the purpose?Right.This is fascinating because this is going to be more important in the eve.And you have your opinion.I always have my opinion.Everybody listening has an opinion.
But my opinion for years, and I'm putting my foot down for 2025, is the rise of the pharmacist.And here's the reason. sociological issues and economic issues.
And one of those economic issues is is we're minus 8,000 pharmacies right now that were here two and three years ago that aren't here anymore.So pharmacy deserts are going to impact public health
And the pharmacies that are out there are going to have to become strengthened in order to continue to provide at least some sort of health care service in an area where some people have to drive 20, 30, sometimes 40 miles to get care.
Or they don't have any public transportation and their pharmacy used to be a two mile bus ride.And now it's a 20 mile Uber or ride, which is never going to happen.
So we have technology partners, we have independent pharmacy networks, we have buying groups who are all working together to get the most out of everything to try to soak up some of the pharmacy desert pockets.
And data is going to play a big, big, huge part of that.
And your organization, I'll guarantee, is going to probably see some growth because the money being spent now is going to be scrutinized at levels that we've never seen from an audit perspective.
because a lot of the, I call it truth, whereas some people might, PCMA might say something else, but when the truth comes out about all of the profit that was all about just that and not about healthcare through Medicaid and Medicare and some of the other government run plans, I don't mind so much.
I mean, I do mind, but if you get taken advantage of and you're on a private insurance plan, that's one thing.
But if you're a grandma and you don't have any money and you're relying on Medicaid to give you your life-saving medication, and now you can't afford it because the big PBMs are sucking up all the mustard and sauce and keeping it to themselves, that's where I become anti, I don't know if that's partial anti, maybe I'm a reasonable capitalist, because I love capitalism, but I don't like it at that level where it starts crushing people's wellbeing.
Correct, so it is a business and I respect that, right?It's a business for all the players, right?But at the same time, I think there's a finite number of healthcare dollars available.So we wanna spend that in the best way possible.
And that's where the data really comes in.So we find instances of these high cost outlier claims and sometimes it's a simple fix, right?Sometimes it could be a fat finger, right?A fat finger with a specialty drug could result in a lot of money.
right?But sometimes it's just awareness, right?And awareness that, you know, these drugs are being used in this way or overused or misused.
And when you marry that with the clinical pieces and the evidence to support it, it becomes even more valuable.
And I think that that is something special we do at PSG because we could take that data and we make recommendations and there's nothing more satisfying than
you know, when we make a recommendation to put a quantity limit or utilization management in place, and then we see an article pop up that validates exactly why we put that in place.
And that has happened recently a couple of times in the past two weeks, where it just, you know, it strengthens kind of the work that we do.But at the end of the day, there's a finite number of healthcare dollars, so, and every penny counts.
I said that once on a PBM call, and I'm not sure everyone from the PBM side agreed with me, but,
truly, the payers that we work with, they act like it's their money because that's how meaningful it is to their organization to be able to continue to provide those benefits and such.
All right, well, Renee, we've enjoyed having you here.
We'd like to have PSG back on future episodes and really drill down into maybe some disease state specific data and kind of getting some oncology pharmacists involved or dialing into pediatrics or something.
But I think there's a lot that we could do together in 2025.So I look forward to following up with you.
Yeah, thank you.This is great.
Yeah.All right.We'll be back with more from This Week in Pharmacy.Stay tuned and listen to this message.This is one of our sponsors.Thank you.
This episode is sponsored by Independent Pharmacy Cooperative, widely known as IPC.Established in 1983, IPC is the nation's largest group purchasing organization owned by Independent Pharmacy.
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Head on over to jbconsulting.com.This is a group that is committed to our profession, the pharmacy profession.We kind of met Sean Jensen at a specialty pharmacy conference, but Sean, you really work in electronic health records.
You work with other facets of the pharmaceutical industry.Give us a quick overview of JB Consulting.
So yeah, we work with everybody in the specialty pharmacy industry.We help you know, enable companies to get more with technology, get more out of their teams using technology.
We help connect systems and we help get more insights out of data and enhance the data capabilities of our customers.
That's excellent.So a JB consulting, you've been around for 20 years.I've seen case studies that you've worked on, which is really interesting, especially pharmacy case study that you worked on with NCPDP.
Talk to us a little bit about things that you've done specifically in specialty.
I mean, just connecting systems and connecting different organizations is a huge one.
And then working with all the different data, I mean, you get certain data out of a pharmacy system, but there's just so much more for specialty that we really help our customers improve that data capability they otherwise wouldn't have.
Yep.Integration with electronic health records, special needs, artificial intelligence.I want everyone to go over to JBconsulting.com and take a look.Once again, it's JBconsulting.com and reach out to Shawn Jensen.
Tell him you heard this on Pharmacy Podcast Network.And Shawn, we will be seeing you soon at upcoming meetings.
Sounds great.Thanks, John.
Alrighty then.Hey, this week in pharmacy is really been special to me.It's my first, it's actually my first podcast that is specifically kind of a catch all, um, a catch all audio program for our profession.
So a lot of that creativity comes from you.I've had so many listeners start getting involved in our programming.So if you're listening right now,
and you're digging into something specific, pediatrics, if you're digging into HIV, if you're digging into oncology, whatever it is, just like blogging, just like if you go to Medium or you go to some other blogging site.
Speaking of blogging sites, before I go any further, MedicaLife.Have you heard of MedicaLife?If you haven't, I want you to look up MedicaLife.It's M-E-D-I-K-A dot life.Once again, that's MedicaLife.
We have a partnership with them when we're taking pharmacy insights and we're helping to promote those insights.I like building it into podcasting and then push it over to MedicaLife for the text and the traditional blogging. which is very important.
And Medica has 300,000 plus, sometimes depending on their thing, I think it's a million readers that come to their content.And they're all primarily healthcare professionals in some capacity.So that kind of connection
is part of the future of this publication and of this network that is growing at a global scale.And we're plugging pharmacists into each other and you're doing projects all on your own.And that's what really this is about.
We are excited about the APHA 2025.I can't tell you how excited I am that this is going to be a supercharged event because of how much momentum that we're picking up
because of the evolution of our profession and how pharmacists are leading and how this is just a time to celebrate.So you will
benefit from that gathering and that coming together more than ever just because of the focus that we're going to have on.We'd like to actually have very specific content that we'll be covering.
A lot of that content comes from our hosts, and a shout out to all of our hosts that have given us content over the last 15 and a half years. I wanna give a shout out to a guy named Matthew Zachary.Matthew Zachary was a pioneer in podcasting.
I don't know how long ago it was, but it was before we started.I started in 2009.So I think he started in, podcasting started in 2006.So he was definitely before that.And he was going through MySpace.That's gonna age him right there.
As soon as you say MySpace, it's just like, yo are you a boomer or are you gen x or what's up it's probably pretty much gen x he's Matthew, I would guess is my age.
And he's very special to me, a very special friend that's kind of educated me to the importance of being real with your patients and being a human to your patients and stop sugarcoating it and stop being fake and using funds for the right way.
But he has really been special over the years of educating me.He posted something on LinkedIn that he got to spend time with us at the studio.It's a special episode that's out on our YouTube page.I got to have him in the studio.
It was an amazing conversation.It was a very raw conversation.There's There's emotion in this conversation, and there's education in it.So I want you to take advantage of this.
I want you to listen to, it's titled, Healthcare Isn't Broken, It Was Built This Way.So the title of his article, Healthcare Isn't Broken, It Was Built This Way.And he just goes through the truth from his perspective,
as a patient that got cancer thought, you know, when you say cancer, my goodness gracious, I can only imagine what you go through.Some of your listeners out there, you've gone through it.
So you know exactly what that felt like getting that announcement.But that announcement and then how the system he realized as a cancer patient
how he would say effed up it is, except he would, of course, say the F-U-C-K, which if you listen to this interview, he does drop all the bombs because it's real.I wanted it to be raw.I wanted it to be for real.
So what did he go through as a patient in cancer care?You're listening right now.Are you a cancer-focused pharmacist?If the answer is yes, listen to this interview with Matthew Zachary.
Go to LinkedIn, look up Matthew Zachary, look up this post of him talking about his experience. telling his story about pharmacists, you're gonna be very eye-opened when you listen to this interview.
And I want you to take advantage of this time to learn from Matthew and realize that we need more patience that are telling the stories of what's really happening from their experience.
And the bad experiences are not coming from the provider themselves most of the time.I can't say that overall, but most of the time, it's not the provider, it's not the pharmacist, it's not the nurse, it's not the physician, it's the system.
It's the system around them that has kept them hostage from receiving the healthcare that they want.And you know as well as I do, listening to us right now, what the PBMs have done.
to our profession and they're healing and we're healing and they're transforming.
They're gonna have to change and not that they're not invited anymore, as long as they're paying a pharmacist for what they're worth and the reimbursement and stop playing games and stop with the spread pricing.And you know what?
If a pharmacist is involved, they should be leading the clinical care, obviously.And any insurance organization that is making a payment should not own pharmacies.
So a PBM should absolutely not be able to own pharmacies because it's a conflict of interest.
And if you gathered up all of the independent community pharmacies in the United States and you had them start working on their own insurance program, you know as well as I do, you'd get flagged.
By every major federal association protection agency of our big government, you definitely flag their attention and FTC would say, no, you can't do this.It's a collusion.And I'm just like, okay, well then what?
then what is it when big, big corporations do it?You know I'm right.You know exactly what we're talking about.Oh, by the way, PBM Reform Podcast.Go Google PBM Reform Podcasts as part of our network.
We have so much content there educating about PBM reform.So if you have someone that doesn't understand it, go out and find a couple of those episodes.Many of the people in there
have contributed that have different insights in what that means, what PBM reform truly means, and if it should even be reformed.
There have been people that we talked to, people that are transforming pharmacy care, the cash-based system pharmacies that are out there, that they're like, hey, just remove the PBM altogether.
And with other countries doing what they're doing in medication care, Is that another option?Is that the future?But guess what?It's not staying the same.It's not staying the same.
That means that you're gonna have more opportunity as an individual pharmacist, an individual pharmacist inside of community pharmacy, the individual expertise pharmacist inside a specific disease state.The board of specialties will be expanding.
These board of specialties will include pharmacogenomics as a specialty, pain care as a specialty.I actually know that is inside information from Dr. Garifulli from the WVU School of Pharmacy.Shout out to the pain guy, hashtag. pain guy.
Mark knows what's up.And he knows that the board of specialties will be expanding.That means that your expertise as a clinical pharmacist digging deep into a specific condition, your insights are going to be worth something.They are worth something.
Well, who's marketing you?Who is marketing you?Are you marketing yourself?It's a lot of work. and good luck getting bandwidth at doing it.Hey, they're out there.
There's plenty of onesie twosie pharmacists who have journeyed out in the realm of building themselves a brand.And it's some of them is working.I mean, some of them are superstars and it's working.However,
There are some of you who are just as bright and just as intelligent as providers, as pharmacists who are digging down into disease states and nutrition and specific diseases and diabetes management and weight loss management and the whole thing.
And you want to build a business, right?And you want an organization that you could partner with to understand what you're trying to do, knows your vernacular, knows how to market you, has the network to market you.
We're looking at doing some major, major changes in 2025 to support pharmacy professionals, but we only want serious pharmacists, professionals, entrepreneurs that are ready to build sales, business development, and marketing infrastructure underneath you and around you and surround you like an agency, which is that's exactly what it's gonna become.
where we can say, hey, what do you want to do?Are you into sickle cell pain management?Are you in cannabis pharmacy?Are you building your remote patient monitoring services, right?I mean, that's happening.
Thea Blystone, Dr. Blystone up in Meadville, Pennsylvania is building an entire consultancy around patient, remote patient monitoring services and remote pharmacy services. and getting paid and getting other pharmacists paid.
This is going to become their full-time job.They're going to make all the money that you should be making as a pharmacist and sometimes more. and we are going to back them up.
Marketing, business development, contract management, negotiations, Salesforce.I can't wait.It's a whole nother level.It's time to evolve.We're evolving.You're evolving.Pharmacy technicians are evolving.
Shout out to Mike Johnston from the NPTA, the National Pharmacy Technician Association. They're now part of the network.We're strengthening.We see the strengthening of our profession, taking back control of it.
And it's going to be one of the most different years in our profession than you've ever seen of what you're about to see in 2025.We also hear some tricklings and some whispers in digital therapeutics.
And our new show, our new host, which is gonna be announced coming very soon for Digital Therapeutics Talks, which is the podcast all about digital therapeutics.There's a lot happening in that market.
And there's finally FDA approval of different apps for different conditions based on the same proven evidence-based method of storing information and using information.
and then giving that information back to the clinicians, back to your physician and pharmacist and therapists to dial into behavioral health. That is a major future for the future of pharmacists.And I am excited that we get to be a part of it.
And thank you for allowing us to be a podcast network for you to listen to, to really advocate for you as the medication professional.
If you're listening to this show and you have a podcast idea, if you're thinking about podcasting, we have resources for training you.We have resources for getting you started.We have resources for best equipment to use.Just come to us.
And then if you want to take it to the next level where you actually start making money from your podcast, that's a whole nother level of service that is going to be offered.But just let me say this.Content developers
are a big future for our healthcare profession because of the acceleration of social media, acceleration of TikTok, the acceleration of information, trust.Guess what?
Podcasts, I don't wanna say the word, but I'm gonna say it one more time and I promise I won't say it anymore.Podcasts impacted the election.That's the bad word of the day, election. Election 2024.
Election 2024 at the local, at the state, and at the federal level was actually impacted by podcasting. And we've been sitting around and standing around and running around and jumping around for almost 16 years now.
And now it's time to take it up another level.It's time for us to partner with bigger organizations, which we already have in place.iHeartMedia, iHeartMedia's Ruby division has a podcast episode.They have a podcast out called Symptomatic.
And Symptomatic is a medical mystery podcast, which I love that, medical mystery podcast.And they are looking to us to get pharmacists to dial into some of the conditions that they're talking about.
and giving their opinion from a pharmacist perspective, which is going to open the door for more opportunity for exposure of pharmacist insight through iHeart.And they're the biggest podcast distributor, not hosting provider, but distributor
in the world for podcasting and it's just amazing to be to be part a small tiny part of getting out the messaging.So this is a fun podcast it's called Symptomatic You can find it on any podcast player, but you can also go to iheart.com.
And as you see on the screen right here, if you're watching YouTube, go to symptomatic, listen to these episodes.They have up to 21 cases right now, but you only have to go through 21, 20, 19 for episode or season three.
So we're gonna have on November 12th, We're going to have a live discussion on symptomatic and we're going to have a five panel process people processes discussion about these conditions and be able to get
the insights of pharmacists on some of the strangest descriptions of what patients were going through.
It's like I said, it's a mystery and you have to be able to kind of listen in to the description of the actual patient's testimony of what they were going through, what they thought they were going through.Many times thinking, you know, am I dying?
and the terror that they were probably going through.And then you figuring out along the way as the medication experts, guessing what condition did you think that the patient was describing? and what medications would have been involved?
And can we give feedback to big publishers and big organizations that listen back to Pharmacist Insights and realizing that, wow, have we underplayed the position of our pharmacists and what they know?So it's exciting.
We're going to have a panel of pharmacists as well as business professionals talk about the symptomatic coming on November 12th next week and it'll be at 6 p.m live.
It'll be a live discussion with Dr. Ryan Paul, Steven Beckman who is CEO of Ural Pharma, Dr. Mark Garofoli, the pain guy, hashtag pain guy, Shout out to Mark, Dr. Tamar Lawful.She's one of our podcast hosts as is Mark Garofoli and myself.
And we'll have Dr. Becky Winslow on as well from a very well-known PGX-focused podcast that she co-hosts with Binaz Rami.So Becky, Steven, Ryan, Mark, Tamar, I'm excited to be talking with you about symptomatic
Lauren Bright Pacheco is the host of Symptomatic.She is brilliant.She's a journalist.She's a storyteller.This is a medical mystery podcast.We can't wait to share this with you.
We can't wait to tell you what's coming down the pike for the transformation of the pharmacist, independent community pharmacy.We can't wait to tell you what's happening in specialty pharmacy, infusion pharmacy,
We cannot wait to share of the political impacts that pharmacists are making.All of this programming is coming actually before the end of the year.So hang on, there's going to be a lot happening here in Pharmacy Podcast Network land.
We want to share it with you.We also want to shout out if you want to be a part of it, You be a part of it.You come aboard.You be a part of this.This is how we're growing.Let us know how we're doing.Subscribe on all podcast platforms.
Please share the podcast links.I know that we're going to be expanding content in many ways, but if you have an interest in expertise, reach out to me.Hey, you have a great week and we'll talk to you next time on This Week in Pharmacy.
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