PQA offers a competitive Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiential (APPE) Rotation for pharmacy students, which provides experiential learning opportunities in non-profit association management, medication use quality education, communications, research and performance measurement. PQA works with individual students to align their rotation experience with desired career goals and interests. Applications for the 2025-26 year are now being accepted. You can apply here. Visit our Student Programs page for more information. 

PQA is developing a set of standard pharmacy performance measures that would be appropriate for pharmacy quality assessment. As part of this work, PQA has launched a proof-of-concept pilot using several PQA pharmacy measure concepts to evaluate the effectiveness of pharmacies in improving adult immunization rates through value-based arrangements (VBA) with payers.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a serious global health concern impacting millions of individuals. Despite being the third leading cause of mortality worldwide, COPD remains underdiagnosed and undertreated. Quality measures are a vital component of value-based payment models, but there are few COPD measures in current U.S. quality reporting programs, despite the established burden of COPD.

PQA offers a variety of student and professional programs, including experiential rotations, internships and fellowships. Each focuses on providing health care quality experience to diverse individuals from diverse disciplines. PQA is now accepting applications for our student and professional programs for 2025-2026.

There are numerous opportunities for you to be part of the PQA Convening events in the coming months. Registration is also open for the 2024 PQA Leadership Summit and PQA Convenes: Quality Medication Use in Rare Disease. We also invite submissions for breakout session and poster abstract proposals for the 2025 PQA Annual Meeting, which is set to take place May 19-21 in Tampa, Fla.

Adherence to medications for cholesterol, hypertension, and diabetes helped Medicare beneficiaries avoid up to $29.2 billion in healthcare costs over six years (2016-21), according to the 2024 National Impact Assessment of CMS Quality Measures Report. This report underscores the importance of high-impact measures for chronic conditions, as evidence-based management efforts can significantly reduce complications and mortality.

PQA has issued an eight-point call to action for improving the quality and measurement of medication therapy management (MTM) services. The call was developed with extensive stakeholder input as part of a national, multi-phase initiative that PQA launched in 2023 to identify a pathway for new quality measures. It is the focus of a report published this month, “Advancing Medication Therapy Management Quality Measurement.”.

PQA has received a 2024 Power of Associations Gold Award from the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) for the PQA Diverse Quality Leaders Program. The program helps individuals at various career stages become leaders in health care quality focused on safe, effective and appropriate medication use.

PQA provides healthcare quality experience to students from a wide variety of disciplines. This summer, we are hosting four students through our internship and MPH practicum programs.

Registration is open for the 2024 PQA Leadership Summit, November 7-8, 2024, in Arlington, Va., and PQA Convenes: Quality Medication Use in Rare Disease, which will take place before the summit on November 7. This year’s summit will focus on pharmacy measure use in value-based arrangements (VBAs) and quality improvement programs.

PQA published the Strategies to Expand Value-Based Pharmacist-Provided Care Action Guide five years ago. The guide was designed to spark conversation and foster collaboration between community pharmacy organizations, pharmacists and health care payers.

Patients receiving specialty medications often have complex, high-cost treatment needs, necessitating close management from care teams, including specialty pharmacies. Recognizing this, specialty pharmacy stakeholders have articulated the need for standardized turnaround time (TAT) measurement and reporting to better understand a key aspect of specialty pharmacy quality.

Diverse Voices in Quality is a PQA blog series that showcases the successful career paths and experiences of medication use quality professionals from diverse groups at PQA member organizations. A part of PQA’s Diverse Quality Leaders Program, this series celebrates the achievements of our members who reflect our nation’s diversity and provides everyone with insights and inspiration for becoming a leader in quality.

PQA, in partnership with Inovalon, is evaluating the impact of the Medicare out-of-pocket cost cap for insulin on persistence to basal insulin.

More than 400 leaders from PQA member organizations attended the 2024 PQA Annual Meeting, May 14-16, to network, engage and gain actionable insights.

Oral anticancer medications (OAMs) are a growing and important tool in the fight against cancer. More than 120 FDA-approved OAMs were used in clinical practice in 2022, and OAMs represent more than one-third of cancer medications in the development pipeline.