ACCP Leads Pharmacy Voice Among Multi-stakeholder Public Health Advocates Calling for Public Health Infrastructure Investment

The top priorities for the Government and Professional Affairs team in ACCP’s Washington Office are published in ACCP’s Advocacy Platform.

This platform provides a framework for the principal areas of advocacy conducted by ACCP and is designed to align with the College’s strategic plan. ACCP’s advocacy priorities primarily include the following:

• Positioning clinical pharmacists to lead the adoption and integration of medication optimization in all practice settings, with a focus on team-based, patient-centered care that is continuous, coordinated, comprehensive, evidence based, effective, and safe
• Advancing the implementation of high-fidelity comprehensive medication management (CMM) through advocating for payment reform and supporting innovation and practice transformation
• Promoting the value of clinical pharmacists in team-based patient care, education, and research through work with both intra- and interprofessional organizations within pharmacy or other health care organizations

ACCP’s Commitment to Public Health, Access, and Equity

ACCP’s longstanding organizational commitment to key public health initiatives is central to its work to position clinical pharmacists as public health leaders and help interprofessional stakeholders fully understand the value the profession brings to care teams.

ACCP is proud to serve as a member of several nonpartisan coalitions committed to strengthening the nation’s public health infrastructure and prevention programs.

In this capacity, ACCP works alongside organizations representing millions of public health workers, researchers, clinicians, educators, national public health partners, and academic institutions committed to a common goal of maintaining ongoing investment in robust public health infrastructure and protecting Americans from public health threats and emergencies, as well as reducing health care costs and improving health.

Initiatives that ACCP advocates for as part of this work include:

• Ensuring global health security
• Preventing diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, lung disease, and other chronic diseases
• Facilitating tobacco prevention and control
• Preventing vector-borne diseases
• Promoting environmental health, including the prevention of childhood lead poisoning
• Improving access to oral health; vision and eye health
• Reducing health disparities
• Preventing infant mortality and birth defects
• Preventing antimicrobial resistance
• Preventing prescription drug overdose
• Improving the health and quality of life of individuals with disabilities
• Preventing Alzheimer disease and increasing awareness of its impact
• Facilitating programs for nutrition and physical activity; immunizations; HIV, STI, and hepatitis prevention
• Facilitating programs for injury control and violence prevention
• Promoting health in schools and workplaces
• Documenting public health research and health statistics
• Developing evidence-based policies

In keeping with its foundational commitment to developing and implementing excellent clinical practice, research, and education throughout the world, ACCP is actively calling for funding to ensure that health professionals have improved access to:

• Real-time data to inform core indicators of health and health care
• More granular data on key population subgroups, including those defined by age, sexual and gender identity, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability, and geographic area
• Data on health and health care equity, especially related to the immediate and long-term consequences of the COVID pandemic
• Expanded information on social determinants of health and health care, including economic stability, health care quality/access, mortality, education, social and community context, and physical environment

Click on the links below to learn more about ACCP’s involvement in this vital effort to ensure appropriate funding for the nation’s public health infrastructure:

• CDC Coalition: Invest in protecting the public’s health from COVID-19; preventing chronic disease; combating the opioid, tobacco, e-cigarette, and obesity epidemics; and facilitating emergency preparedness
• Friends of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS): Invest in the future of U.S. health statistics
• Friends of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ): Invest in research to improve health care quality, reduce costs, advance patient safety, decrease medical errors, and broaden access to essential services
• Friends of Title V Maternal and Child Health Programs Block Grant: Invest in reducing maternal and infant mortality and preventable diseases among children, advancing health equity, and eliminating racial, ethnic, and geographic inequities in maternal and child health outcomes

For more information on these exciting initiatives, contact ACCP’s Director of Government Affairs at jmcglew@accp.com.