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APhA Foundation Announces 2016 Pinnacle Award Honorees

August 4, 2016


APhA Foundation Announces 2016 Pinnacle Award Honorees


WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Foundation announces the honorees of the 2016 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 healthcare team. The recipients will be honored on September 19, 2016, during a ceremony at APhA headquarters in Washington, D.C.


The Awards are presented in three (3) categories:

  • Individual Award for Career Achievement: Individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership in enhancing healthcare quality and medication use.

  • Group Practices, Health Systems, and Healthcare Corporations: This category recognizes a significant scientific contribution and/or quality improvement project.

  • Voluntary Health Agencies, Nonprofit 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.


Category I: 2016 Individual Award for Career Achievement

James M. Hoffman, PharmD, MS, BCPS, FASHP

Dr. Hoffman is a member of the St. Jude faculty and clinical staff, with his appointment based in the Pharmaceutical Department. He has emerged as a senior leader within the St. Jude clinical staff, currently serving as the Chief Patient Safety Officer for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (SJCRH). Dr. Hoffman earned both his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. In 2014, he was recognized as young alumnus of the year by the University of the Sciences. He earned his MS degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, completed postgraduate training at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics, and is also a board certified pharmacotherapy specialist (BCPS). Dr. Hoffman was recruited to SJCRH in 2004. He has made a profound impact since joining, significantly enhancing the care that patients receive and the role that his department plays in the care of children with cancer, sickle cell, HIV, and other potentially devastating diseases. His primary interests include patient safety event detection, clinical decision support, and the clinical implementation of pharmacogenetics. Dr. Hoffman is an investigator on PG4KDS (www.stjude.org/pg4kds), which is St. Jude’s prospective clinical trial to optimize the processes required to successfully implement preemptive pharmacogenomics for “precision medicine.” In addition, he has been a member of the global Clinical Pharmacogenomics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) since its inception. Dr. Hoffman’s influence has extended well beyond clinics and inpatient units, as his many accomplishments, including teaching, professional organizational work, mentoring, and publications have impacted the care of children worldwide.


Category II: 2016 Group Practice–Health System–Corporation Award

Kelley-Ross Pharmacy Group

Kelley-Ross Pharmacy Group embodies the vision to continually improve quality of care and medication use. Guided by the principal to help people live better lives, and creating a culture that empowers its pharmacists to be leaders and practice at the top of their license, the company has launched a number of “first ever” innovations in the profession that contribute to changing the face of pharmacy. There are four core areas where the company focuses its efforts to improve quality of care and medication use processes: direct patient care, harm reduction, research, and expanding pharmacy practice. Kelley-Ross Pharmacy Group prides itself on engaging as a partner in the continuum of care from innovative services to improved processes. Its innovations are unleashing the power of the pharmacist to solve problems and improve outcomes. Dramatically impacting the delivery of health care in communities, these innovations have caught the attention of both local and trade media. In the past six months, Kelley-Ross Pharmacy Group has appeared on every local broadcast station in the Seattle metro area as an expert on a number of pharmacy issues. Its in-home care, One Step PrEP, and naloxone training efforts have also been extensively covered by a media audience of more than 2.5 million since November 2015.


Category III: 2016 Government Agency–Nonprofit Organization–Association Award

United States Department of Health and Human Services

As the principal impact measurement arm of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Partnership for Patients initiative, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) established that there were 2.1 million fewer incidents of patient harm in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 in comparison to the 2010 base year, including a dramatic 40% reduction in Adverse Drug Events (ADE), the largest single category of hospital harm. These impressive national results were driven by an aligned, collaborative, synergistic set of federal and private sector initiatives. The Federal interagency partnership included active participation from AHRQ, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Veterans Administration (VA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Administration for Community Living (ACL), the Indian Health Service (IHS), the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH), with frequent participation and representation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Department of Defense (DoD), patients, national association partners, frontline caregivers, hospital partners, universities, and others. A number of key initiatives were at the “center of the action” that drove national progress, including:

  • AHRQ’s National Scorecard for tracking national progress on ADEs and 20 other forms of patient harm

  • CMS Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) program work in both the 10th and 11th Scopes of Work

  • HHS National Action Plan for ADE Prevention

  • HHS Partnership for Patients initiative and the CMS-supported Hospital Engagement Networks (HENs)

  • HRSA’s Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative


Each of these key national initiatives worked together with frontline pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and other caregivers to generate the substantial reductions in adverse drug events that have been documented now by the AHRQ National Scorecard for the period 2011 through 2014.


About the American Pharmacists Association FoundationThe APhA Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., is a trusted source of research demonstrating how pharmacists can improve health care. The APhA Foundation’s mission is to improve health by inspiring philanthropy, research and innovation that advances pharmacists’ patient care services. The APhA Foundation is affiliated with the American Pharmacists Association, the national professional society of pharmacists in the U.S. For more information, please visit the APhA Foundation website www.aphafoundation.org. Follow the APhA Foundation on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates.

About the American Pharmacists AssociationThe American Pharmacists Association, founded in 1852 as the American Pharmaceutical Association, is a 501 (c)(6) organization, representing more than 63,000 practicing pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, student pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and others interested in advancing the profession. APhA, dedicated to helping all pharmacists improve medication use and advance patient care, is the first-established and largest association of pharmacists in the United States. For more information, please visit www.pharmacist.com.

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