PPAG Buzz

Board of Directors Elections

2006-06-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

What a terrific slate! Elections for 3 new Board Members has started. You must be a dues-paying member to vote in the election. For more information about the candidates and voting process go to: http://www.ppag.org/en/art/?254.

Let your voice be heard! VOTE TODAY! The deadline to submit your vote is June 28, 2006

Patient Compliance Survey

2006-05-15T15:46:00.000-07:00

The American Academy of Pediatrics has released results from their Survey on Patient Compliance With Prescription Regimens.

Check out the Executive Summary.

Journal Progress

2006-05-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note about the Journal. The Oct-Dec 2005 issue has been distributed in late April. Let me know if you have not yet received the issue.

Submit Your Abstract Online

2006-05-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

Submissions are now closed for the 15th Annual Meeting!

Meet the "Office Helper"

2006-04-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

This is my son, Garrett, helping out! I decided to bring some work home; your CE certificates from the Specialty Meeting. I was folding and stuffing envelopes in the dining room. I left for a few minutes. When I came back into the room.....

Garrett had decided he would help. He had lots of fun, of course!

But all is well. Everyone should have their CE certificate in hand (eventhough Dad had to reprint a few certificates)!

A Response to Your Comments

2006-04-25T13:17:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I have posted a message on this blog. Things are usually busy in April, May, and June. We just "closed the books" on the Specialty Meeting, and Annual Meeting planning is in full swing. It's the time of the year that we are working on 2 meetings at the same time!

I wanted to take some time to update you on a few things and respond to the Specialty Meeting Overall Program Evaluation. Your feedback is very important to me personally, as well as the Education Committees and Board of Directors. In fact, your previous comments resulted in the organization including Preconference Symposia within the general conference registration fee!

We had a terrific meeting with a record attendance. About 145 people attended the meeting (165 including speakers). For the most part, attendees enjoyed the conference program and enjoyed the Baltimore area! Most of you had very positive comments regarding our speakers and overall meeting experience. We received very positive feedback regarding the Residency Project Presentations! Most wanted to make sure we continue to do this. You don't have to worry about that. The Board is committed to doing this for the long haul!

But a few of you had some constructive criticism. And some of you didn't. I address both below.

"Not enough rooms in the PPAG room block"

First, this is simply not true. Secondly, as previously mentioned we had a record attendance. We actually picked up nearly as many rooms for the Specialty as we did for the Annual. We were very responsive to the increased interest in the meeting and we expanded the room block 5 times! Some of you may have experienced a delay, but were able to make reservations at the Conference Hotel. The Hotel was very responsive to our needs, as they did not have to offer the discounted rate beyond the contracted and agreed upon amount of rooms. We actually had rooms available right up to the reservation deadline. We can not offer the discount beyond the deadline.

We also enlisted the help of a spill-over reservation service AFTER the deadline for making reservations. A few of you used this service and received very good rates near the conference hotel.

"Could you offer the discounted hotel rate for the week prior to or after the Meeting?"

No.

Concurrent Sessions

Many of you were dissappointed in our concurrent sessions. Not because of quality or speakers, but because you couldn't go to both at the same time! From a Program Committee perspective, this is probably a very good problem. It means that they did their job. From your perspective, it is frustrating.

There are many reasons for concurrent sessions. Ironically, the organization began offering concurrent sessions due to feedback it received years ago. Break-out sessions are meant to be more interactive than lectures. It is easier for speakers to conduct workshops in smaller settings. In order to have smaller settings, we have to split up the group, otherwise, workshops become lectures. Also, the Program Committee would like to offer a variety of topics for the attendees. It's better to offer two or three quality sessions at the same time rather than just one session. This gives the Program Committee the ability to address the diverse CE needs of PPAG members. Unfortunately, during a Specialty Conference, topics are important to everyone.

No matter the reasons, we can do a few things! To respond to this problem, our Membership and Education Committees are working on posting session recordings online. You will be able to obtain CE credit after completion of the online offering. The Program Committees will also focus on ways to provide repeat concurrent sessions. I do not know, though, if we can move to a "no concurrent session" program.

Not Enough Seats in the Breakout Rooms

Again, in many ways, this is a good problem to have. We are offering something that is relevant to you, and you want to be there... and sometimes more of you want to go than we expect. To be candid, PPAG meeting participants would impress meeting planners from other organizations. We do not experience the drop-off in participation that most planners do. We must assume that nearly 100% of our participants will actually participate. (Sounds strange, but this is not true for many meetings/conferences). Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult for us to predict which break-outs will be the popular one!

Speaker Handouts

For the most part, the lack of speaker handouts is not necessarily a reflection of PPAG or its Program Committees. We have printing deadlines. If we don't receive handouts before the deadline, it can not be included in the program. However, sometimes we must add last minutes replacements or additions to the program. Every effort is made to provide handouts ONSITE if we are unable to include a handout in the program booklet.

If you did not attend a session because of a lack of handout, you can always ask for one in advance onsite. There is no reason not to attend a session due to lack of handout. We also provide objectives for each session. If you still have questions about a session, feel free to ask.

"Speakers should include email addresses on opening and closing slides."

Good idea! We will encourage speakers to do this, but some may not want to do that! :)

Elevators were too slow

Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do about this one.

"Color scheme was boring"

Here's to hoping this was the comment of a prankster with a good sense of humor. Did you want to see if we really look at the comments? Well, we do.

Parking was too expensive: "You should pay for our parking to attend"

Some of the local attendees complained about the parking fees at the hotel ($23). My gut reaction is to point out that you spent a lot less money than those that had to pay for airfare, hotel room, and ground transportation. Your received more CE per dollar than most of the attendees. PPAG saved you money because we had the meeting in your home city! The bottom line is that PPAG does not pay for the travel expenses of any participants (long distance or local).

If you would like to discuss the comments above, or other issues as it relates to PPAG meeting, feel free to call me or email me.

Do Kids Spread the Flu?

2006-04-02T03:51:00.000-07:00

Check out this interesting article from CNNHealth.

MVI Shortage

2006-03-25T14:49:00.000-08:00

A few members have wondered if PPAG is going to release recommendation for alternatives for ped-MVI. The American Soceity of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition has released guidelines.

You can review the recommendations here.

Anti-psychotics for kids raise concerns

2006-03-20T11:11:00.000-08:00

Check out this article from CNN Health. Antipsychotic Prescriptions for children increase fivefold in seven years.

Journal Reviewers

2006-03-10T07:43:00.000-08:00

Sixty-seven members have agreed to be reviewers for the Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics!

This is tremendous participation, and will help the Journal in its effort to catch-up.

Due to the response and the nature of the publication cycle, you may not be asked to review an article immediately; however, Stephanie Phelps, the Editor-in-Chief of JPPT, will contact you in the event an article matches your interest or expertise. Diabetes was inadvertently omitted from the list of topics. If you are willing to review manuscripts associated with Diabetes please let me know by replying to this e-mail (or you can email Dr. Phelps directly at sphelps@utmem.edu).

Again, thanks so very much for your support of JPPT.

If you haven't signed up already, you can still do so. To obtain a Reviewer Information Form, click here.

Indomethacin Price Increase

2006-03-10T07:22:00.000-08:00

Many of you have called or emailed about the price increase for indomethacin. What can PPAG do about this?

Robert Kuhn (Board Chair) and James Dice (COO) will be meeting with representatives from Ovation at the Specialty Conference in Baltimore to discuss issues relative to the price increase.

We will keep you posted on this meeting. Stay tuned!

PPAG is on your side!

Hotel Overflow Information

2006-03-07T13:36:00.000-08:00

The PPAG room block at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel is full. You will no longer be able to make reservations for the discounted group rate at the hotel.

PPAG has enlisted the help of "A Room With a View," a national hotel reservations agency that specializes in assisting over 150 national association with hotel overflow during their conferences.

"A Room With a View" will assist you in finding an affordable hotel rate within walking distance of the conference hotel! This is a free service for PPAG conference participants.

For assistance please call 1-800-780-4343. It should not take more than three minutes to make your reservation.

To register for the Specialty Conference, please go to the following website: http://www.ppag.org/en/cev/?11.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

To all Residents: Remember the deadline to submit your project abstracts is March 10, 2006

MedPage Today

2006-03-01T11:53:00.000-08:00

The Pediatrics section of MedPage Today is a great news resource. Check it out at:
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pediatrics/.

Opening Day in Baltimore!

2006-02-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

On April 1, 2006, the Orioles will have an exhibition game against Washington. April 3, 2006 is their home opener against Tampa Bay! So, this will be a busy time for the hotel and Baltimore.

If you are a baseball fan, this might be perfect! Go to www.orioles.com for ticket information.

To register for the conference, CLICK HERE.

Residency Presentations

2006-02-23T11:20:00.000-08:00

The deadline for residents to submit their abstracts has been extended to March 10, 2006. PPAG will host Residency Project Presentations at the Specialty Meeting in Baltimore.

For more information, CLICK HERE!

Online CE Status

2006-02-23T11:10:00.000-08:00

During the Business Meeting at the Annual Meeting, it was announced that we would have online CE programs available in January. Well, as you can see, this has not happened yet. But not for a lack of effort. To make a long story short we have run into technical difficulties, but nothing that can not be overcome.

While Tendenci (our Association Management System) can adequately support online CE, we needed to figure out a way to post "courses" in a user friendly format. We also needed to figure out a way to make it easy on faculty/speakers to create courses using PowerPoint and other software.

I would anticipate our first online offerings to be available in the next 2-3 months. We will have a series of courses on vaccines.

The Board, Education Committee, and Member Services Committee believe this will be a terrific added benefit to your membership. If you would like to create online courses for PPAG, please do not hesitate to contact the PPAG office!

PediNet

2006-02-23T11:04:00.000-08:00

A few months ago the Member Services Committee posted a survey on the PPAG website. Not many PediNet users participated in the survey. But those of you who did are either "very" or "somewhat" satisfied with PediNet.

We did have some terrific ideas for new forums, such as (1) Med Error Forum, (2) Community Pharmacy Forum.

The survey participants seem split on the issue of moving to a "listserv" rather than a forum.

In an effort to get more feedback, we have reposted the survey. You will be able to take the survey through April 14, 2006.

To take the survey CLICK HERE!

What is Tendenci?

2006-02-23T10:50:00.000-08:00

You may have heard me refer to "Tendenci." Tendenci is our Association Management System (AMS). It is the program that operates our website modules, such as; membership renewals, meeting registration, PediNet Forums, JobCentral, Residency postings, Useful links, and future online CE. It is the backbone of PPAG's technical, communications, and even accounting infrastructure. In many ways- it IS the organization at times.

If you need any help navigating the website, please do not hesistate to ask!

Electronic Renewals

2006-02-23T10:46:00.000-08:00

PPAG has moved to an electronic renewal notification system. You will receive an email 30 days and 15 days in advance of your renewal date reminding you to renew. The email will also provide a link to your specific account to renew online. You will also receive an email 30 days AFTER your membership has expired.

For most members, this is working smoothly. However, some of you still need "paper" invoices because your institution pays your membership (and needs a paper trail). This is not a problem. If you receive a renewal notice, simply reply to the email stating that you need a paper invoice. I will then create one for you and send it ASAP.

Innovative Pediatric Pharmacy Practice: Best Practice Poster Session

2006-02-23T10:36:00.000-08:00

In an effort to encourage the submission of Best Practice Abstracts, all practice-based abstracts will only be accepted as a Best Practice Award Abstract. The IPPP category will no longer be available within the Research Abstracts.

The Advocacy Committee will accept or reject best practice abstracts. From these abstracts, the Best Practice Awards will be chosen. This process will be similar to the research abstract review process. However, the criteria for review will be different.

At the Annual Meeting, we will have a "Research Abstract" section and a "Best Practice Abstract" section.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Ralph Lugo or Dave Knoppert (Research Co-Chairs) or Catherine Tome (Advocacy Chair).

Abstract Submission Site

2006-02-23T10:29:00.000-08:00

Last year PPAG used an online abstract management service. We believe this worked very well for both reviewers and the people submitting their abstracts. We are currently working with our vendor to tweak the site just a bit. We hope the changes will improve the friendliness and functionality of the site. As soon as it is up and running, I will send a mass email!

We anticipate that the site will be up and running in early April (after the Specialty Conference). The deadline for submissions will be in May.

The site will be used for both Research Abstract and Best Practice Paper submissions

For more information, check out:

Call for Research Abstracts
Call for Best Practice Abstracts

Conference Call Numbers

2006-02-23T09:11:00.000-08:00

Hey Committee Members, the following are the conference call-in numbers for all PPAG meetings!

1-866-476-8702 (if you are calling within the Continental US)
1-888-241-2545 (if you are calling from Alaska, Hawaii, or Canada)
Participant PIN: 2112232#

Please keep these numbers in a safe place!