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Official Newsjournal of the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists

2021 ICHP Annual Meeting Recap
A Virtual Success

by Melissa Dyrdahl, BA; Communications Manager, ICHP

Another Annual Meeting is in the books! We had truly hoped to be meeting face to face in 2021, but with COVID-19 cases rising across Illinois and the more contagious delta variant running rampant, the ICHP executive board made the tough decision to take us virtual. Once the decision was made, ICHP staff did a complete 180-degree pivot from in-person planning to virtual planning - thankfully, we’d had a few virtual ventures under our belts at this point. It was a true team effort (with the bonus support of student intern Matthew Smith from UIC), and we were all quite pleased with what we were able to pull off in just two and a half weeks.

This year’s meeting included up to 17.75 contact hours of CPE credit for pharmacists and 14.0 contact hours for pharmacy technicians! A total of 328 pharmacists, technicians, and students registered for the meeting and joined us for top-notch educational sessions, the installation of ICHP and affiliate officers, a town hall meeting, and our awards ceremony. We even offered our residency showcase program for students, featuring 25 hospitals and health-systems from around the Midwest and a reverse exhibit for our industry representatives (we capped out at 60 reps!)

Our keynote presentation was a definite showstopper! Dr. Ayesha Khan and Dr. Lalita Prasad-Reddy talked about Precepting and Teaching in 2021 – focusing on implicit bias, macroaggressions, and systemic racism in healthcare. This was one of the few programs we were able to record from this year’s meeting – we’re hoping to offer it to you as a home study to fulfill the new implicit bias credit requirement – more details to come!

The 2021 Annual Meeting marked the transition of Jen Arnoldi’s role of president to immediate-past-president and the start of Kathryn Schultz’s reign as ICHP president (check out her inaugural address in the President’s Message column and soon to be available on our YouTube channel!)

Other new ICHP Board members installed included:

Treasurer - Bernice Man
Director, Professional Affairs - Megan Corrigan
Director, Organizational Affairs - Lara Ellinger
Director, Government Affairs - Peter Couri
Northern Region Director - Jason Orr
Central Region Director - Karin Terry
Southern Region Director - Erika Diericx
Chair, New Practitioners Network - Justin Moore

The following affiliate officers were also installed:

Metro East Society Officers:

President - Jared Sheley

Northern Illinois Society officers:

President - Jason Alegro
President-elect - Lalita Prasad-Reddy
Immediate Past President - Andrew Merker
Treasurer - Brian Cryder
Technician Representative - Glen Gard

Sangamiss Society Officers:

President - Kayla DuBois
President-elect - Katelyn Fryman
Immediate Past President - Ashlie Kallal

West Central Society Officer:

President - Liz Harthan

Rock Valley Society Officer:

President - Wendy Palmer

In addition, Hina Patel was appointed as chair of ICHP’s Residency Leader’s Network, and Matthew Bizewski was appointed as chair of the Ambulatory Care Network.

Another special moment of the meeting was celebrating those who give their all to ICHP! It was wonderful to be able to award and hear from this year’s award winners. Each one of these award recipients is a true leader in our organization!

ICHP Pharmacist of the Year –

Nora B. Flint

ICHP Amy Lodolce Mentorship Award –

Daniel Majerczyk

ICHP Honorary Membership –

Scott A. Meyers

ICHP Technician of the Year –

Annexiea L. Buford

ICHP NPN Leadership Award –

Marianne K. Pop

ICHP Outstanding Volunteer Award –

Karin L. Terry

ICHP President’s Award –

David W. Martin

ICHP Past President’s Award –

Jennifer D. Arnoldi

ICHP Industry Award –

Dana J. Puljan

ICHP Shining Stars -

Peter Couri
Bridget Dolan
Julie Downen
Mark Greg
Heather Harper
Chris Herndon
Alifiya Hyderi
Randall Knoebel
Mary Lee
Katheryn Madden
Kayla Muench
Milena Murray
Jason Orr
Jennifer Phillips
Marianne Pop
Janki Vyas
Elise Wozniak

We were also able to present the 2021 Best Practice award to Ron Hartman and his team at OSF Healthcare for their winning program, “Software-Aided Compounding: Adopting Technology to Improve Patient Safety and Documentation.” Patty Kohli, Karin Terry, Liz Harthan, Heather Harper, and Jamie Martin were other contributors to the program. Be sure to take advantage of the homestudy on page 18! The winners received a $1,000 check for their department. Krause Construction sponsored this year’s best practice award!

Speaking of sponsors – no meeting would be possible without contributions from our industry representatives! ICHP uses these funds to help keep meeting attendance registration fees low (and look around at other states…we’ve got GREAT prices for members). We want to send a big thank you to our meeting sponsors (you can find links to their websites on our meeting page: https://ichpnet.org/events/annual_meeting/.

This year’s Annual Meeting sponsors were:

Diamond

Daiichi-Sankyo

Platinum

Genentech

Gold

DrFirst
Nexus Pharmaceuticals, Inc
United Pharmacy Staffing

Silver

Fresenius Kabi
Sobi

Another program that keeps attendee costs low is our Reverse Exhibit. This event is always wildly successful in huge part to our Pharmacy Directors! These members graciously give us a large chunk of their workday to make a significant impact on what ICHP can offer its members – so a big round of applause to:

Matthew Allsbrook
Erick Borkowski
Megan Corrigan
Peter Couri
Mark Deaton
Andy Donnelly
Jeanne Durley
Tara Gorden
Mike Guithues
Luke Herbert
Rick Jacobson
Rakesh Jain
Jason Orr
William Pong
Elaine Rodriguez
Sandy Salverson
Rishita Shah
Erin Shaughnessy
Ehsan Tavassoli
Jeff Thiel
Georgeta Titean
Joe Vadakara
Thomas Yu

Whether in person or virtual – one thing is for sure – an ICHP Annual Meeting is MUCH MORE than just a way to get your CPE – it’s pharmacy professionals from across the state dedicating their time and energy to advance excellence in the profession. Sound exciting? Want to get involved? Consider joining next year’s Annual Meeting planning committee, submitting a presentation proposal, or even participating in our Spring Meeting poster presentations.

ICHP President Kathryn Schultz’s theme for the upcoming year is “Everybody In” – so what are you waiting for? Jump in!