You asked for it… The Board of Trustees of the Research Institute met in late June in Kansas City to review and continue to work on new initiatives to meet ACCP member needs. Recent strategic planning initiatives, together with member surveys and focus groups, led the board to create the following new avenues toward accomplishing meaningful member research:
- Focused Investigator Training (FIT). This program for well-trained, seasoned researchers who are poised to receive federal funding was developed earlier this year. The first class completed the inaugural program coursework last month. Please read the exciting reactions to this endeavor elsewhere in this issue of the ACCP Report.
- Research Academy. This program for early career scholars was developed during the past year and will be launched at the Annual Meeting this October. The College hopes it will reach a large number of members interested in sharpening their ability to perform research as a component of practice.
- Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN). ACCP is consulting experts both within and outside the organization, and we plan to enroll clinical pharmacists as investigators within the next year. This will allow members to participate in large-scale projects of potentially high impact to both patients and practitioners. Our hope is that this PBRN enrollment will engage a larger number of ACCP members in Research Institute–supported projects than have been involved previously in our individual grants program.
We are excited about the current direction of the Research Institute and expect our efforts to produce significant dividends for ACCP members in the near future. Stay tuned….
Susan C. Fagan, Pharm.D., BCPS, FCCP
Chair, Research Institute Board of Trustees