Does APhA act on behalf of the working pharmacist?
I have written for Drug Topics magazine for twenty-one years. I am a company man and not a disinterested observer. That being said, I’m going to comment on David Stanley’s current essay about pharmacists and APhA (When Pharmacists Speak, Who Listens?). It is brilliantly written and oh so true. Please take the time to visit the Drug Topics site. You can look down to the right and click on the link Click on E-News and read the best, edgiest comments on the organization that has the name, but has never delivered anything for working pharmacists. Our working condition entreaties have been ignored.
I have observed Drug Topics since the 1950s. Since January, 1989, it has been MY magazine. It was OUR magazine, with news and commentary that we wanted to read. Pharmacists actually took the magazine home. Drug Topics was published twice a month, 23 issues a year. The staff took December off. It was a news magazine for pharmacists and it was a really fun magazine to read.
Then, there was what felt like a never-gonna-end period when a pharmacist was the Publisher and it looked to me like he was leading the magazine to being just a me-too 100% clinical rag. Of course, we do read clinical pieces if they fit our interest, but this was ridiculous. Drug Topics had become a very boring, into the round file publication. They ended twice a month issues after more than a century. It was a very low period for Jay Pee and the magazine. The story is long, but the magazine is back. Drug Topics is published every month FOR YOU.
I think that David Stanley’s essay on the APhA is a statement by the publisher of Drug Topics. You need to read it. If you agree, you need to communicate your thoughts to the magazine because the “posers” who promote APhA are gonna whine.
Send your thoughts to the managing editor. Julianne Stein jstein@advanstar.com
Please pass this on.
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Ok, JP, I did just as you said. I wrote the editor at Drug Topics to compliment her on the great job they are doing there. The article by David Stanley is GREAT! Now, time for all you other pharmacists to get off your rears and write Drug Topics and thank them and you could write David Stanley and compliment him too.
I wrote the managing editor as well but I do have one question. What is the process of election of officers for the APhA? Would it be possible for an internet “grass roots” movement such as this to vote in out own people? An APhA with Jim, Drug Monkey, Angry, Angriest, Pharmacy Chick as officers would be awesome.
The former Drug Nazi now Drug Monkey has been reveled! A very nice article in Drug Topics. I read his post on it a few moths ago. Amazing the California Pharmacists Association declined to show up for the hearings. Not only is APhA worthless but so are the state organizations.