PQA members and health care quality professionals gathered in Tampa, Fla., May 19-21, for the 2025 PQA Annual Meeting.

Over those three days, health care executives and quality professionals from pharmacies, health plans, health care providers, pharmacy benefit managers, life sciences companies, technology vendors, research institutions, academia and more addressed top issues and emerging trends in medication quality, measure development and implementation, care transformation and technology.

 Attendees heard from more than 60 speakers across the general sessions, breakout sessions, briefing sessions and innovation theaters. These nationally leading speakers shared expert insights and best practices for improving medication use quality from every angle in the industry.

The need for holistic, team-based approaches to improve care access and delivery is greater than ever. This is our opportunity to address health equity, transform chronic disease and advance value-based care models.

-James Kirby, PharmD, BCPS, FAPhA, Chair, PQA Board of Directors Chief Commercial Officer, Kroger Health

Garth Graham of Google/YouTube Health provided the opening keynote with insights on how information drives health outcomes and the opportunities that exist to improve information context, quality and connectivity. General sessions focused on value-based arrangements, obesity treatment and care, and recent changes to the Medicare Part D program.

Here are some top insights from our sessions’ speakers.

Health Information Quality

• Some of the most powerful pieces of health information are user-generated content. Patients seek health care information from sources that are most accessible and relatable to them. Often, those sources are not licensed health care providers.
• Graham recommends health care professionals and health care organizations not resist how patients access health care information. Instead, they need to understand it and use it to meet patients where they are.

Value-Based Arrangements

• There is significant value in finding the right partner to tackle a value-based care initiative. Partners that communicate, collaborate and evolve with the process are instrumental to success.
• Positive patient outcomes are important but so is acknowledging progress and improvement in patient health and value-based care delivery.

Obesity Treatment and Care

• Integrated and holistic approaches to obesity management are critical to outcomes. Obesity is a multifaceted disease, and effective care requires a multifaceted approach, including lifestyle modifications, the use of medications and other interventions.
• Anti-obesity medications (AOM) are intended to be used with lifestyle modifications, and patients need to have wraparound services to support that. Registered dieticians have a critical role to play, but most individuals taking an AOM are not on a nutrition plan.

Medicare Part D

• There are several changes underway or forthcoming to the Medicare Part D program, affecting patient access and affordability, while impacting the strategies that health plans, pharmacies and other health care stakeholders take to deliver care.
• Engaging and educating patients on these changes will be critical. Health care organizations must ensure that communications materials and information are available in formats that are easily understood and relatable.

Attendees engaged in a series of special sessions, briefing sessions, a stakeholder symposium, an innovation theater, wellness programs and networking events, many of which took place throughout the Industry Showcase. See Drug Topics’ coverage of the meeting for more insights from this year’s sessions.

Thank you to all our sponsors for being partners in quality.

PQA also presented eight Medicare plan contracts with a PQA Laura Cranston Excellence in Quality or Quality Improvement Award for high achievement or significant improvement in PQA measures of medication safety and appropriate use.

Save the date to join us at the 2026 PQA Annual Meeting, May 12-14 in Baltimore! Sign up to receive updates on all of PQA’s convening events. Attendees can access the information about the 2025 meeting in the meeting app through June 11, 2025.