Dr Sophia Humphreys Highlights Important Topics of Newport Beach IVBM

Sophia Humphreys, PharmD, MHA, BCBBS, director of system pharmacy formulary management and clinical programs at Sutter Health and clinical assistant professor, University of Washington School of Pharmacy, spoke with The American Journal of Managed Care^® about the Newport Beach Institute for Value-Based Medicine (IVBM) event, of which she was a cochair.

At the event, experts spoke on the intersection of medicine and pharmacy, and her presentation was titled "Formulary Management Is a Team Sport."

Transcript

What were you most looking forward to at the IVBM held in Newport Beach?

That's a great question, actually. This particular conference, we are going to host in collaboration with Providence Health System. That's a very large IDN [integrated delivery network] on the West Coast. I will be cohosting with Elie Bahou, [PharmD, MBA,] who is the chief pharmacy officer of Providence Health System. We are going to bring in experts from both Providence and Sutter Health, as well as Baptist Health, which is a sister organization from Florida. We're going to have experts from both pharmacy background, as well as medical background. I'm really looking forward to listening to a lot of our expert discussions regarding medication management, regarding House plan navigations, also regarding academic detailing from Harry Peled, [MD, FACC,] who is the system formulary management co-chair from Providence Health.

Was there anything you were particularly excited to talk about in your presentation?

So, as I have mentioned probably in my previous discussions, I have been managing formulary for health systems large and small [for] the past 20 years. I always said I have [had] 4 bosses in my entire career and all of them gave me 1 duty, which is to provide the best patient care with the most financially sustainable methodologies. Which means we want to have high-quality care at lower costs.

Within this particular discussion, I would like to cover a little bit about our current medication market outlook and then dive deep into what are the basic principles for formulary management and also who [is] involved, both the internal customers and external customers. Also, how we collaborate within health systems and also collaborate with external customers, such as government and regulatory bodies and professional organizations, as well as even drug manufacturers, so that we all serve 1 purpose, which is to take care of our patients and improve their overall quality of life and clinical outcomes.