A Look Back on Accomplishments and New Programs in 2017, and a Look Forward to What's in Store for 2018


IACP Executive Vice President Cynthia Blankenship, Esq.
A Message from Your Executive Vice President Cynthia Blankenship, Esq.

The new year did not begin as my family and I had planned. I want to start by thanking you for the outpouring of love and support over my father's passing. He went in for a minor arthroscopic knee scope, and so his leaving us was not something my family and I had braced for or even saw on the horizon. My father was the dad everyone hopes for and deserves. It is from him that I learned what real loyalty, dedication, work ethic, and integrity mean. 

In the 40 years he dedicated to one employer, he was the hardest worker you ever have met, and known to all for standing firmly in his morals and integrity. For my dad, life was defined by his faith, the way you treated others, the passion you demonstrated in helping others, the level of integrity you showed even in the smallest tasks in life, and the level of dedication you brought to the table.

I will attempt to share some of his wisdom as I recount what we've accomplished together in 2017. 
2017: Looking Back on Accomplishments and New Programs

When I was named IACP's Executive Vice President (EVP) last year, one of my main goals for the remaining six months of 2017 was to return IACP to a member-driven organization and to increase transparency. It was incredibly vital to me that IACP hear directly from IACP Members what members needed to succeed. As an organization, it also was critical that IACP be transparent, communicating clearly with you what programs we would be creating and implementing per your feedback. 
 
Increasing Membership Initiatives

The first step in finding out what IACP members needed was to develop and release a membership survey. I am pleased to report, we had the highest participation we've ever experienced at IACP. You provided us with a lot to read, and we loved it! It was with your feedback in mind, that the IACP Committees, Board of Directors, and Staff moved at a rapid pace to develop and implement the following new member-driven initiative programs. 
  • Developed New Member Materials, Demographic Collection, and Renewal Process:To ensure new IACP Members receive the information they need, we developed and launched new member materials along with tutorials and resources. We also made your membership renewal process more convenient, transitioning to a more user-friendly and cost-effective electronic renewal process, significantly eliminating printing and mailing costs. To ensure IACP Committees and Board of Directors are acting in step with your needs, we developed a new demographics collection process conveniently accessed via your online profile. Completing this demographics profile allows you to select the vital information that defines your practice and compounding interests, and greatly helps us as we advocate for you on the Hill and on a state level. Knowing our members better also helps us communicate more effectively with you.
  • Strengthened the IACP Strategic Plan: To develop a strong and effective Strategic Plan, we restructured the IACP Strategic Planning Committee to now include IACP's President-elect Jennifer Burch, PharmD, RPh, CDE, CPP, as the Chair, along with every other IACP Committee Chair to ensure the resulting Strategic Plan reflects IACP membership needs from all perspectives!
  • Elected Board of Directors with Most Nominations in IACP's History: I asked you to ensure that IACP has a strong Board of Directors for 2018, and YOU answered! IACP received an unprecedented number of nominations, and the Nominating Committee had the unenviable task of narrowing the list of incredibly qualified and amazing candidates, to the final slate of candidates presented to the IACP Board of Directors for approval. Make sure you know who your 2018 Board of Directors are! We applaud all nominees for your interest in serving the IACP Board, and for your passion in preserving patient access to compounded medications. We urge those who were not ultimately elected this year to join our IACP Committees. We need you on these incredibly active and engaged Committees to further advance the mission of preserving patient access to compounded medications.
  • Expanded IACP Membership: Your IACP Membership Committee, led by Committee Chair Doug Yoch, PharmD, dove into developing exciting, new incentives for joining IACP, and launched an incredibly successful membership drive in 2017. As part of this revitalized program, the Membership Committee challenged YOU to recruit your colleagues, sign up your employees, and educate others on why YOU value your IACP Membership, and YOU answered that call!
  • Raised Funding to Continue IACP's Efforts: The IACP Fundraising Committee led by Past-President Gary McCrory, RPh, CCN and Board Member Chris Burgess, RPh continued to work to create avenues for members to support IACP financially with donations to IACP's One Fund and Legal Defense Funds. This financial support is what allowed IACP to to lobby and provide the information and programs that IACP members want.
Strengthening Corporate Member Relationships and Programs


We greatly appreciate our Corporate Members and all the resources and tools they provide to IACP members. In 2017, we worked to ensure our Corporate Members have the resources they need from IACP by undertaking the following actions:
  • Developed a Corporate Member Survey: This survey was sent to all IACP Corporate Members, and we received a tremendous response. Based on this invaluable feedback, IACP created a Corporate Member Committee, which has been hard at work since its inception! Led by current IACP President Erik Tosh, BS, DPh, FIACP, FACA, the Corporate Member Committee has undertaken a comprehensive review of all current Corporate Members to ensure the mission of each Corporate Member is aligned with IACP's mission.
  • Developed a Corporate Member Tier Structure: After much discussion and planning, the Corporate Member Committee will be launching a new IACP Corporate Member Tier program! Committee Members reached out to each IACP Corporate Member to determine what they needed and have been busy incorporating their feedback into the newly designed IACP Corporate Member Tier Structure.
  • Developed Corporate Member Information for the IACP Website: We have pledged to recognize IACP Corporate Members and the great support they provide to IACP and IACP members by launching a dedicated Corporate Member section on IACP's new website. This new Corporate Member website destination will recognize each IACP Corporate Member along with their designated Corporate Member Tier. We also will make public the benefits of becoming a Corporate Member, the fee structure, and additional ways to engage as a Corporate Member.
Increasing Communications to Members



In addition, we pledged to keep you continually informed on all IACP Committee, Board of Directors, and Staff news and activities. To do so, we implemented the following programs:
  • Increased IACP Communications Frequency: Now, IACP Members receive either the IACP Capitol Connections Member Newsletter or IACP's News Roundup on a weekly basis to keep members informed on all Federal and State activity impacting compounding.
  • Developed President and EVP Communications: The President launched the first-ever monthly member messages to ensure you stay up-to-date on all IACP is undertaking on your behalf. We also launched the first-ever EVP tracker, making you aware of where I'm traveling and speaking so that you can come say hello and share your patients' stories.
  • Provided Transparency to the Budget and Finance: IACP is working in business meetings during the State of the Academy sessions at Compounders on Capitol Hill (CCH) and at the Educational Conference to make IACP's financials transparent and to let the membership know how their dues and donations are spent. The Finance & Audit Committee led by Bill Letendre, MS Pharm, MBA, FIACP has led the charge by providing the information for these presentations and working as good stewards of IACP's finances.
Strengthening Committees


With the incredible support and insight of the IACP Board of Directors, we are working towards our goal of creating strong and engaged IACP Committees. In 2017, we began undertaking the following:
  • We Asked YOU to Join an IACP Committee, and YOU Answered: With the most participation in IACP history, you answered the call to join IACP Committees and lend us your incredible talents and invaluable insight. Because of YOU, IACP created five new Committees in 2017: (1) Corporate Member Committee; (2) 503B Committee; (3) International Committee; (4) Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) Committee; and (5) SOP Sub-Committee - Infrastructure Review. Because of YOU, our IACP Committees are thriving, and more engaged than ever. Importantly, we also developed a process to designate time for every IACP Committee during each Board of Directors meeting so that the Committees can see their important work implemented.
  • Developed Committee Structure: We created formal committee procedures and processes, developed monthly meeting schedules for each committee, established Committee guidelines and materials, and set up a reporting structure to the Board of Directors for all Committee recommendations. The IACP SOP Committee, headed by Board Member, William James, has been working to create internal SOPs for IACP Committees. This will allow the Committees to function in a consistent and unified manner with everyone on the same page. Internal SOPs are coming in 2018 for the Committees' use!
Expanding Federal Government Affairs Activities


IACP continues to have a strong government affairs team. We have significantly increased our federal government affairs activities and have communicated these activities to members to engage more of you in these efforts. By having our members assist in these efforts, we have created a unified voice. We are stronger together, and we have made great strides! 

Our goal was to share these ongoing efforts with IACP members in a more timely, clear and concise manner. The IACP Legislative Committee chaired by Board Member Anthony Grzib, RPh has looked for ways that IACP could engage in preserving patient access to compounded medications. Your government affairs team took on this challenge and they delivered in the following ways:
  • Expanded the DQSA Coalition: What began as a vision of former IACP President Dale Coker, RPh, FIACP, and his Board of Directors, the DQSA Coalition has grown from the initial 5 organizations to 36 organizations in 2017, representing a variety of physician, pharmacist and patient-centric organizations. Together, the DQSA Coalition represents more than half a million patients and has become a strong voice for preserving patient access to vital compounded medications. 
  • Introduced Federal Legislation: U.S. Representatives Morgan Griffith (VA) and Henry Cuellar (TX) introduced bipartisan compounding legislation, HR 2871, to address the patient access concerns that have resulted due to FDA's implementation of DQSA. Through your efforts during IACP's annual Compounders on Capitol Hill (CCH), HR 2871 co-sponsors have grown to 43 bipartisan representatives! In addition, working with the DQSA Coalition, we were successful in obtaining report language within the FDA appropriations. 
  • Hosted a Congressional Briefing: Working with the DQSA Coalition, we hosted a Congressional Briefing at the U.S. House of Representatives Office Building in Washington, D.C., which was widely attended and featured an expert compounding panel.
  • Expanded IACP Response to Federal Agency Actions Impacting Pharmacy Compounding: During 2017, we greatly expanded IACP's formal responses to Federal Agencies. Working with the Coalition, IACP submitted comments to every federal agency action that impacted pharmacy compounding. IACP also attended every FDA listening session, and Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee (PCAC) meeting, prepared testimony and submitted comments to the Federal Register. IACP has circulated our comments to all IACP Members and Corporate Members in advance of the federal agency deadlines to provide you and the DQSA Coalition with the ability to utilize our comments when submitting your own comments. This process also has ensured that we maintain a uniform message and stay on the same page with our stakeholders.
  • Increased Local Government Affairs Efforts: We launched a comprehensive Congressional Recess Packet, which can be found here. As a former Congressional staffer, the new recess packet is drafted with every critical step in mind, providing you key information to ensure effective communication with your representation.

Expanding IACP's State Tracking and Reporting


During 2017, IACP pledged to work more closely with  State Pharmacists Associations and State Boards of Pharmacy to support and assist them as they work tirelessly to help compounding pharmacists. IACP undertook the following efforts: 
  • Increased State Presence and Engagement: In addition to increased State Tracking and State Member Alerts, IACP drastically increased State presence and engagement by opening support letters to State Pharmacists Associations, working to meet with as many State Pharmacists Associations and State Boards of Pharmacy as possible, and serving as a dedicated pharmacy compounding resource. We also drastically ramped up our State efforts by working with State Pharmacists Associations to formally comment on all State regulations and legislation impacting pharmacy compounding and patient access.
  • Released State-by-State Analysis of Office-Use Regulations: We released a comprehensive State-by-State Analysis of Office-Use Regulations! We thoroughly researched State regulations, State notices, State activity, personally calling each State Board of Pharmacy when regulations conflicted with actions to confirm each State's office-use actions. In the instance where a State had recently changed its office-use practices, we called the Board to determine why, and noted each response where FDA had communicated State law was pre-empted with Federal law.
Increasing Grassroots Efforts



IACP heard your requests and worked to increase our grassroots efforts:
  • Launched the Partnership for Personalized Prescriptions (P3) Patient Advocacy Website: More than 150,000 individuals have signed up to receive Partnership for Personalized Prescriptions (P3) alerts. This effort is raising awareness and providing patients with an important voice. 

IACP also provides effective and user-friendly grassroots tools on the P3 website, allowing advocates (patients, pharmacists and providers) to quickly and conveniently contact their Representatives on key issues. This unified and passionate voice is helping to preserve patient access to vital compounded medications! Through this influential P3 advocacy website, we have collected powerful and essential patient stories on how customized medications have made a real difference for so many people. In addition, IACP included the pharmacy locator membership benefit on the P3 website. This allows patients to find a compounding pharmacy in their area to obtain the compounded medications they need. IACP members at the Owner/Manager/PIC level are listed in the locator service as an IACP member benefit.

Increasing IACP COMP Political Action Committee (PAC) Presence

Under the leadership of IACP Vice President Shawn Hodges, PharmD, the IACP COMP PAC has evolved into a powerful force. YOU answered the call to join the COMP PAC Committee and have undertaken a multitude of strategic steps to ensure IACP can continue to host events for compounding champions on Capitol Hill. In 2017, the IACP COMP PAC attended 93 events in 25 States and Washington, DC and donated more than $89,000.

Tomorrow - A Look Forward to What's in Store for 2018

While we have accomplished so much together in 2017, we must keep the momentum going in 2018! As we can expect to encounter obstacles in our mission to preserve patient access to vital compounded medications, I'd like to share with you my father's wisdom. Something that many may not know about me is that I was an All-State athlete. My father was as well, and when we spoke daily, we often talked about whatever obstacles I was facing in life. My father always had such unwavering and insightful advice.

For the big life lessons, he always used sports analogies, and when facing a really big obstacle in my life, my dad would paint this picture - in basketball, as you break down the court, there are times you look up to realize you are outnumbered by the defense. It can be a chilling sight - you against five defense players who only have you within their sights. In that moment, my father would say, you have two options, pull up in the hopes of a three-point shot, or lower your shoulder and drive the lane. My father would go on to explain that in life, when you know you're on the right team, and when you know your mission is honorable and of service, always lower your shoulder and drive the lane.

Please Stay Tuned Tomorrow - as I share in detail how we're going to lower our shoulders and drive the lane in 2018! Stay tuned also on Wednesday for a chart (visual aid) to really bring to life what's coming in 2018!
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