The APhA Foundation Announces 2013 Pinnacle Award Honorees
May 14, 2013
WASHINGTON, DC – The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Foundation announces the honorees of
the 2013 Pinnacle Awards. The Pinnacle Awards, established in 1998 by the APhA Foundation, celebrate significant
contributions to the medication use process through increasing patient adherence, reducing drug misadventures, promoting
the use of national treatment guidelines, improving patient outcomes or enhancing communication among the members of
the health care team.
The Awards are presented in three categories and the recipients will be honored on June 24, 2013, during a ceremony at
the APhA headquarters in Washington, DC.
- Individual Award for Career Achievement: Individuals that have demonstrated exceptional leadership in enhancing
health care quality and medication use. - Group Practices, Health-Systems, Health Care Corporations: This category recognizes a significant scientific
contribution and/or quality improvement project. - Voluntary Health Agencies, Non-profit Organizations, Associations, Government Agencies and Public/Private Partnerships: Organizations that have demonstrated
approaches to assist patients and their caregivers in achieving better outcomes from their medications.
2013 Individual Award for Career Achievement
Steven W. Chen, PharmD, FASHP, FCSHP
Chen is an Associate Professor and the Hygeia Centennial Chair in Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Southern
California School of Pharmacy. He supervises clinical pharmacy services integrated into over a dozen safety net
community clinics in Los Angeles and Orange Counties. These services have reduced the clinics’ medication costs by up
to 75%, while significantly improving control of chronic diseases for the most challenging patients. Chen is part of a
faculty team that has acquired over $15 million in grant funding to advance the spread of ambulatory care clinical
pharmacy services, including a $12 million grant from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation to evaluate the
impact of clinical pharmacy teams integrated into safety net clinics on quality, safety and total health care costs. Chen also
serves as residency director for 15 PGY1 residents.
Chen has been involved with the HRSA’s Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative (PSPC) since its
inception, serving as Co-Chair from 2009 to 2010 and developing a medication intervention and safety measurement tool
that has been adopted by PSPC teams and Quality Improvement Organizations across the nation. Chen served as chair of
the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ (CSHP) MTM Task Force, leading the development of a resource
guide to assist California pharmacists in initiating or advancing MTM programs.
2013 Group Practice–Health System–Corporation Award
Community Health Association of Spokane (CHAS)
Community Health Association of Spokane (CHAS) is a non-profit community health center that provides access to all
patients, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay. It is a “patient-run” organization with patients occupying a
majority of the positions on its Board of Directors. Operating since 1995, CHAS currently has nine clinic locations within
the Inland Northwest (eastern Washington and northern Idaho), and serves as a health care home to nearly 50,000 patients.
The mission of CHAS is to improve the overall health of the communities it serves by expanding access to quality
primary health services, dental care and wellness services. There are currently 25 pharmacist providers incorporated into
the care team who contribute to the continuity of care for the patients within the system. This integration has resulted in
safer and more effective medication use for the patients they serve. The CHAS leadership – including the CEO, former
and current medical director, and director of pharmacy – has been at the forefront of advocating aggressively for American Pharmacists Association Foundation
2013 Government Agency–Nonprofit Organization–Association Award
The University of Arizona College of Pharmacy’s Medication Management Center (MMC)
The Medication Management Center (“MMC”) is a pharmacist-run medication management program established in 2006
at The University of Arizona's College of Pharmacy. The program uses pharmacists in a call center to provide Medicare
patients with medication therapy management (MTM) services. The genesis of the MMC was established in law in direct
response to the public policy direction outlined in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (“MMA”). Even prior to the
formation of the MMC, the pharmacists currently employed at the MMC were instrumental in creation and drafting of the
language that would eventually become statutory requirements of today's Medicare program. By 2014, the MMC will be
the largest provider of MTM services in the nation. Since 2006, the center has delivered MTM services to well over
1,000,000 Medicare beneficiaries nationwide. The MMC’s targeted approach to MTM works with prescription claims to
qualify members and identify intervention opportunities. The MMC team then turns these identified opportunities into
therapeutic interventions through a combination of mailings, faxes, and personalized phone calls to patients and providers.
The Pinnacle Awards are administered by the APhA Foundation. Premier support for the Pinnacle Awards is provided by
an educational grant from Merck. This activity is additionally supported by an educational donation provided by Amgen.
About the American Pharmacists Association Foundation
The APhA Foundation is affiliated with the American Pharmacists Association, the national professional society of
pharmacists in the U.S. The APhA Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., conducts research
which is essential to the transformation of health care. The APhA Foundation’s mission is to improve people’s health
through pharmacists’ patient care services. For more information, please visit the APhA Foundation website
www.aphafoundation.org.
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