Sandra Leal is the Vice President for Innovation at SinfoniaRx, a provider of medication therapy management services nationally. Dr. Leal is working to establish integrated clinical pharmacy services in a variety of settings including a hospital discharge program, integrated behavioral health clinics, and accountable care organizations. She is utilizing tele-health, gaming, and other strategies to scale resources to communities, clinicians, and patients.
Dr. Leal received her PharmD from the University of Colorado and her MPH in Public Health Practice from the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Leal completed her residency at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System and a Primary Health Care Policy Fellowship with the Department of Health and Human Services. Her work has been published in Diabetes Care, Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease, American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy and a discussion paper published by the Institute of Medicine entitled, “Patients and Health Care Teams Forging Effective Partnerships”.
Her programs are a two-time recipient of the APhA Foundation Pinnacle Award, ASHP Best Practice Award in Health-System Pharmacy and the National Association of Community Health Centers Innovative Research in Primary Care Award. Dr. Leal was recognized as APhA’s Good Government Pharmacist-of-the-Year for her advocacy work on pharmacist provider status and has been elected to serve on the APhA Board of Trustees.
Learn more about SinfoniaRx on their website.
Key Takeaways:
- Direction of pharmacy provider status and impact of the new presidential administration of value-based payment programs
- How Sandra became involved in the Project Impact diabetes study
- Changes to the DSMT which allows credentialed staff to provide care without requiring a CDE
- Various strategies to incorporated pharmacists into FQHCs
- Sandra’s role and her work at SinfoniaRx to integrate clinical pharmacy services and opportunities in a variety of settings
- How pharmacists can find resources on impacting quality measures, billing codes and new opportunities through professional conferences and affiliations (Blair: I also think joining the Pharmapreneur Academy is a good option, but I may be biased!)
- Tips on starting conversations with providers about pharmacist-led clinical services
- Why access to the electronic health record is key
- Utilizing tablets and tele-health to connect with epileptic patients in Illinois and the neurologists reaction to working with clinical pharmacists for the first time
- Online education and group coaching program opportunities for pharmacists to be able to scale their patient reach
If you have any questions about this interview, come see me in our private Facebook community (link to join in your first email upon registration).
I hope to see you soon and look forward to hearing your ideas and plans to Elevate our profession.
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