Content about Professional certification

TAMPA, Fla. — The outline of an exam that will be used to certify pharmacists working in the specialty channel has received approval from the Specialty Pharmacy Certification Board, the group said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — A new organization aims to be an independent group to certify specialty pharmacists.

The National Association of Specialty Pharmacy and the Specialty Pharmacy Certification Board each formed as the result of a decision to create an independent certification board. Originally, the certification board would have been an entity within a professional organization granted autonomy in making decisions regarding certification.

DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. — As technology is becoming crucial to retailers' businesses, innovations in information technology continue to transform the retail sector, with digital signage, payment processing, customer engagement and other solutions playing increasingly important functions, according to new research from CompTIA.

Are the nation’s more than 330,000 pharmacy technicians ready to step up to a higher level of patient services and a more demanding but rewarding career?

For most pharmacy techs, that step up in duties is either fast approaching or has already begun. Given the massive changes sweeping the severely stressed U.S. healthcare system and the retail, clinical and hospital pharmacies that serve it, thousands of technicians in those settings are already taking on meatier roles as they fill the void left by pharmacists called on to perform additional clinical services.

WASHINGTON — Technology is helping pharmacies provide services to rural areas by allowing them to remotely monitor pharmacy technicians, according to the country's largest organization that certifies pharmacy techs.

WASHINGTON — An organization that certifies pharmacy technicians is starting a program designed to encourage more technicians to get certified.

The Pharmacy Technician Certification Board announced Tuesday the launch of the Employer Partnership Program, which it said was for retail and health-system pharmacies that want to encourage technicians to participate in the PTCB certification program. North Carolina regional chain Kerr Drug already has joined the program, according to PTCB.

Drug Store News spoke with Category Management Association managing partner and director of best practices Gordon Wade.

DSN: What is the Category Management Association? What is its mission?


WASHINGTON — A groundbreaking call center at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy that delivers medication therapy management services to patients with chronic illnesses utilizes pharmacy technicians certified by the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board.

WASHINGTON — Pharmacy technicians certified through the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board maximize their training experiences at the Department of Defense Military Education and Training Campus in Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the PTCB said.

Prior to graduating, students in the METC Pharmacy Technician Training Program are encouraged to take the PTCB’s Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam and gain national recognition as certified pharmacy technicians. Pharmacy techs trained at the METC work in pharmacies operated by the federal government and the military.

WASHINGTON The head of an organization that accredits pharmacy technicians will serve as president of an international credentialing organization next year.

The Pharmacy Technician Certification Board announced Thursday that executive director and CEO Melissa Murer Corrigan would serve as the 2011 president of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence and be installed at the ICE Annual Education Conference in Atlanta, which also took place Thursday. ICE provides educational, networking and advocacy resources for credentialing organizations.

NEW YORK This is the second new pharmacy technician certification program to be announced in a week (the other being Rasmussen College) and marks the continued evolution of the pharmacy technician — whose job really no longer entails just ringing out a prescription-drug purchase and making sure patients sign the prescription-drug logbook.