Total Pharmacy Interviews

From PBM reform and AI to burnout and closures, Tom DePietro, PharmD, addresses the current state of independent pharmacy.

In part 2, Tom DePietro, PharmD, explores emerging topics of interest within community pharmacy, including AI, PBMs, and the industry’s evolving nature.

From PBM reform designed to benefit pharmacies to closures impacting the greater public health sector, Tom DePietro, PharmD, discusses current developments in community pharmacy.

With value-based care initiatives on the rise in the US health care system, one partnership in Ohio is showing early signs of significant success.

In part 2, Kevin Day, PharmD, breaks down the Pharmacy Quality Rewards Program and its push toward value-based care in pharmacy practice.

In an evolving pharmacy landscape, accreditation can be difficult to manage, which is why experts like Mitch Lamb, PharmD, can steer businesses onto their desired paths.

With a 7-year target date, the FDA is moving away from 10-digit NDCs and toward a universal 12-digit format.

In part 2, Neal Cooper and Matt Sample address the foreseeable challenges and necessary questions surrounding the FDA’s push toward 12-digit national drug codes.

With workforce and work-life balance issues plaguing pharmacy, the newly introduced hybrid pharmacist role is creating innovation across the greater pharmacy industry.

In part 2 of our interview with Walgreens Chief Pharmacy Officer Rick Gates, he explored the modernization behind his organization’s newly introduced ‘hybrid pharmacist’ role.

Rick Gates, chief pharmacy officer at Walgreens, helps introduce his organization’s innovative new ‘hybrid pharmacist’ role.

Drug shortages remain one of the most persistent challenges in pharmacy practice, but emerging technologies like AI are beginning to shift the landscape for pharmacies and public health as a whole.

Lani Bertrand, senior director of clinical marketing & thought leadership at Omnicell, discusses the consistent drivers of drug shortages in the US.

With a key exemption under DSCSA expiring at the end of the year, Matt Sample from Cencora helps pharmacies understand the tools and processes they need now to best comply with the law.

Matt Sample, senior vice president of manufacturer, quality, and replenishment operations at Cencora, discusses DSCSA compliance hurdles, VRS tools, and a new push toward 12-digit NDCs.

Matt Sample from Cencora discusses current DSCSA developments on the rise for pharmacy businesses in 2026—namely small dispensers that have been under exemption.

In this episode, host Taylor Watterson, PharmD, PhD, welcomes Mohammad Al Numan, BS, MS, a 2025-27 University of Illinois Chicago/Takeda Fellow in Health Economics and Outcomes Research.

Direct contracting can boost transparent drug pricing and help independent pharmacies earn fairly while patients save on generic medications.

As the pharmacy industry seemingly transforms in real-time, expert pharmacists and digital health experts explain how DTP models are paving a new path for drug distribution.

Timothy Aungst, PharmD; Ravi Patel, PharmD, MBA, MS; and Smit Patel, PharmD; provided much-needed nuance to the evolving nature of DTP pharmacy models in today’s landscape.

Timothy Aungst, PharmD; Ravi Patel, PharmD, MBA, MS; and Smit Patel, PharmD, share their insights on the emerging direct-to-patient pharmacy model.

Anne Cassity, senior vice president of government affairs at NCPA, discusses the next moves of both PBMs and community pharmacy advocates following the signing of HR 7148.

With President Trump’s signing of HR 7148, experts are now racing to get a grasp on the monumental shifts in pharmacy that will stem from this new legislation.

As lawmakers continue to deliberate on HR 7148, pharmacy law expert, Jesse Dresser, Esq, joined Drug Topics to discuss its provisions related to PBMs.

If signed by President Trump in time to avoid a government shutdown, HR 7148 has potential to enforce significant change in the prescription drug supply chain.

As more prescription drugs move to OTC, the pharmacist’s role in their communities are continuing to shift as well.

In part 2, Alyssa Billingsley, PharmD, explores some of the recent switches that made waves in the US and how they impact pharmacy operations as well as patient outcomes.

Community pharmacies continue to operate in unchartered territory regarding Medicare drug price negotiations as the new IRA statute becomes an unavoidable reality for business operations.

With unprecedented changes to Medicare Part D plans at the top of the year, experts from ASCP help pharmacy businesses understand key provisions under the IRA.

Representatives from the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists joined Drug Topics to discuss the day 1 reality of the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program.