Dearly beloved,
We are gathered here today
To get through this thing called… Pharmacy?

ASHP’s Summer Meetings & Exhibition will take place in beautiful Minneapolis this June, and the staff of Pharmacy Purchasing & Products is most excited. Although Minneapolis may not be considered as exotic as, say, Las Vegas or New Orleans, it does offer a wide range of activities during the perfect time of year—Spring.

The Twins will be out of town during this time (June 3rd – 7th), but excellent alternatives are available, including the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Walker Art Center, a tour of Minnehaha Park, or a performance of Refugia at the Guthrie Theater (www.guthrietheater.org).

Many may also be drawn to Paisley Park—the iconic home, studio, archive, and museum of Prince Rogers Nelson (www.officialpaisleypark.com). While not all of us are living the electric word life, it is easy to imagine every pharmacist in the country breathing a knowing sigh upon learning of the circumstances surrounding Prince’s death. As is the case with so many patients who suffer from chronic and debilitating pain, maintaining the division between proper use and abuse of pain-relieving medications can be a significant challenge. A discussion of the ethical dimensions of the opioid crisis is just one of many pressing topics that will be probed at this year’s summer meetings.

We hope you will take advantage of the unique model of ASHP’s Summer Meetings and Exhibition. With four focused tracks—The Ambulatory Care Conference, The Medication Safety Collaborative, Informatics Institute, and Pharmacy, Practice, and Policy—there is something for everyone.

PP&P will be there, of course, so please stop by Booth 809 and say hello. In the meantime, we hope you will take a long look at this month’s supplement, our annual State of Pharmacy Compounding issue. After a decade of annually surveying hospital and health system pharmacists on compounding practices, technology use and satisfaction, and future plans, we are proud to present this year’s in-depth results. Serving as valuable benchmarking data and an influential support structure for new compounding technology acquisitions, we are happy to make the information found in this issue available as a PowerPoint slide package (www.pppmag.com/slides). We encourage you to download these slide packages and use them to benefit your practice.

All the best,

R. Mitchell Halvorsen
Publisher