Robert L. Talbert, Pharm.D., FCCP, BCPS, has been chosen by the Parker Medal Selection Committee as the 2015 recipient of the College’s Paul F. Parker Medal for Distinguished Service to the Profession of Pharmacy. Talbert has served as a leader of clinical pharmacy practice, education, and research for more than 3 decades.
Paul Parker was one of clinical pharmacy’s most influential proponents. Before his death in 1998, Parker spent 24 years as director of pharmacy at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky. His innovations include developing decentralized pharmacy services, placing pharmacists in the hospital’s clinical areas, and developing the nation’s first pharmacist-staffed drug information center. Parker’s vision for pharmacy practice was passed along to the more than 150 residents and fellows who trained in the Kentucky program during his tenure. These disciples include many of today’s leaders in clinical pharmacy, who continue to pass on his wisdom and vision to their trainees. The Paul F. Parker Medal recognizes an individual who has made outstanding and sustained contributions to the profession that improve patient or service outcomes, create innovative practices, affect populations of patients, further the professional role of pharmacists, or expand the recognition of pharmacists as health professionals.
In making its selection, the Parker Medal Selection Committee commented on Talbert’s extensive record of advocacy and advancement of clinical pharmacy and his many professional accomplishments, stating that his name “is nearly synonymous with clinical pharmacy practice.” The committee added:
Dr. Talbert has pioneered many innovative practice models and achieved recognition not only by our profession but also by medicine and other health care disciplines. He is recognized as an outstanding mentor and has trained many clinical pharmacists who’ve gone on themselves to become outstanding clinical pharmacists. His record of scholarly achievement is clearly outstanding and he is well-known for his kind and untiring mentorship of clinical pharmacists who have followed in his footsteps. Dr. Talbert has had an important impact on many people, not the least of whom are patients who receive better medication management because of his work and the people he has trained. He has achieved a remarkable record of professional achievements—we feel that he embodies all of the characteristics we’d expect in someone honored with the Paul F. Parker Award.
Talbert has served as a member and chair of numerous ACCP committees and task forces, the ACCP Board of Regents (1998–1991), the ACCP Research Institute Board of Trustees, and the Pharmacotherapy Board of Directors and has served as ACCP president (1992–1993). He has received many awards, including the University of Texas College of Pharmacy Preceptor of the Year award, the Robert G. Leonard Memorial Lecture Award from the University of Texas at Austin, the Robert K. Chalmers Distinguished Pharmacy Educator Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the ACCP Russell R. Miller Award, and the ACCP Education Award. He was elected as a fellow of ACCP in 1986 and as a fellow of the American Heart Association in 2008.
Talbert’s nominator, Michael Bottorff, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at South College School of Pharmacy, wrote in his letter of nomination:
When ACCP developed the criteria for the Paul F. Parker Award, it would seem as if they had Dr. Talbert in mind. Not only would Dr. Parker be proud of someone like Dr. Talbert receiving the award, Dr. Talbert would be equally as proud for being recognized as having met and exceeded the award criteria of “outstanding and sustained contributions to improving or expanding the profession of pharmacy.”
Jean Nappi, professor of clinical pharmacy and outcomes sciences at the Medical University of South Carolina, observed in her letter of support:
Bob served as a clinical pharmacist and role model for students and residents on an internal medicine service for his entire career. His knowledge of the primary literature and his practice of using evidence-based medicine to support his recommendations for patients were apparent long before it became standard practice. The number of students Bob has influenced are too numerous to count, but I feel fortunate to have been one of them.
The 2015 Paul F. Parker Medal will be presented during the Opening Session at the 2015 ACCP Global Conference on Clinical Pharmacy in San Francisco, California, on Sunday morning, October 18. Talbert will attend to accept the medal and will deliver a brief acceptance address. The Parker Medal Selection Committee is composed of representatives from member organizations of the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners, together with past presidents of ACCP. Members of the 2014 committee are William Kehoe (chair), Gilbert Burckart, Rodney Carter, Diane Ginsburg, John Murphy, Robert E. Smith, Jenelle Sobotka, George Spratto, Glen Stimmel, and Barbara Wells.