2024 at a glance
- Pharmacy’s national voice
- In depth: Pharmacists and primary care
- Engaging with and supporting the profession
- In depth: Diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility at CPhA
- Education, resources and content
- Board of Directors
- CPhA Awards
- Pharmacy Appreciation Month
- Thank you to our partners
As we reflect on 2024, we are inspired by the unwavering dedication of pharmacy teams across Canada who have continued to adapt and innovate, finding new ways to meet the evolving needs of their patients and communities. For our part, we were excited to start the year with the launch of our new Strategic Plan and a new but simple mission: We are the national voice for every pharmacist, for all of pharmacy. This plan was developed to address the challenges and opportunities facing pharmacy and reinforces our commitment to supporting the work you do every day. We are tremendously proud of the work CPhA has done this year and hope that you see yourself and your practice reflected in our efforts. In addition to continuing to develop and refine our clinical and educational content, this year we strongly advocated for enhancing and supporting pharmacy’s role in primary care, and we continue to fight on your behalf to address third-party payer challenges. Join us in celebrating the progress we’ve made together and the opportunities ahead in 2025.
Annette Robinson, Chair
Glen Doucet, CEO
In 2024, we helped connect federal officials to the pharmacy voices on the front lines to ensure that pharmacists are recognized and heard.
Pharmacare
CPhA stayed active on the pharmacare file throughout 2024, appearing several times before federal committees in advance of Bill C-64 being passed on October 10. Working closely with the health minister’s office, we advocated strongly for a pharmacist to be included on the Committee of Experts, and we were pleased that Amy Lamb, executive director of the Indigenous Pharmacy Professionals of Canada, was appointed to represent pharmacy as this work moves forward. We will work closely with our provincial association partners throughout the implementation phase to ensure the best outcomes and smooth transitions for patients and pharmacies.
Third-Party Payers
One of the key elements in our updated strategic plan is a commitment to advocating against restrictive third-party payer policies. In February, we filed an abuse of dominance complaint with the Competition Bureau against Express Scripts Canada’s implementation of a new service fee, and we’re awaiting a judgment on that file. We also issued a position statement calling for regulation of payer-directed care. A survey we conducted in the fall seeking pharmacy experiences with third-party payer activities received more than 1000 responses and will inform the next phase of our 4-pronged strategy, which is focused on legal, regulatory and media activities, and government relations.
Federal Government Engagement
CPhA continued our extensive federal government outreach program, appearing before parliamentary committees, meeting with government representatives and participating in consultations on a variety of topics, including the budget, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act regulations, drug shortages, national drug schedules and the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board. Throughout the year, we maintained an excellent working relationship with federal Health Minister Mark Holland. We also represented pharmacists during the Council of the Federation meetings with Canada’s premiers in July.
Appropriate Use Advisory Committee
Our Chief Pharmacist Officer, Dr. Danielle Paes, was 1 of 3 pharmacists appointed to the Canadian Drug Agency’s 10-member Appropriate Use Advisory Committee. The committee’s mandate is to advise and provide recommendations for its appropriate use strategy and program, identify priorities, ensure alignment and maximum efficiency, share information, and champion its appropriate use program work to system partners.
Student Loan Forgiveness
After many years of joint advocacy, CPhA and the Canadian Association of Pharmacy Students and Interns were thrilled that the 2024 federal budget included a commitment to expanding the Canada Student Loan Forgiveness Program to include other health professionals working in rural and remote communities, including pharmacists. This was a big win for pharmacy, and we’re continuing to advocate for pharmacists to receive forgiveness amounts similar to those given to physicians and nurses as this change takes effect.
Drug Importation
In early January, the US Food and Drug Administration issued a ruling authorizing Florida to import certain prescription drugs from Canada. CPhA issued a statement to express our concerns and reassure Canadians that there is no immediate threat to our drug supply.
In depth: Pharmacists and primary care
Primary care, and the role pharmacists play in primary care, was a key focus for CPhA in 2024 and it will continue into 2025. Take a look at a few of our activities in this area and check out Dr. Danielle Paes’ blog post, On pharmacists and primary care.
Transforming Primary Care in Canada Summit: In June CPhA hosted a national leadership summit that highlighted innovative, pharmacy-led models that are increasing access to care. The full-day event was attended in person by 120 people, with an additional 300 participants joining the livestream. Following the summit, CPhA released a communiqué, Strengthening primary care: Elevating the role of pharmacists in Canada’s health-care future, that included recommendations and key areas that need to be addressed to better support and leverage pharmacists in primary care. Session recordings and the experiences of our “Win a Trip to the Summit” contest winners are available on our website.
Educational Benchmark Initiative: Throughout the year, CPhA engaged in extensive consultations with the pharmacy community regarding the development of a national benchmark for pharmacy practice that enables pharmacists to practise to the fullest extent of their education. We know that variations in scope across the country mean that not all pharmacists can fully use the skills they build during their education. We also know that pharmacists, patients and the health-care system benefit when pharmacists are fully enabled. We’re working hard to remove barriers to allow pharmacists to provide care effectively and give them the freedom to build a practice that meets their needs and those of the communities they serve.
Celebrating Success—Nova Scotia’s Community Pharmacy Primary Care Clinics: Within months of being launched, Nova Scotia’s Community Pharmacy Primary Care Clinics demonstrated the incredible value pharmacy can bring to primary care and health-care delivery. The pharmacist-led clinics were developed as a pilot project between the Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia, the Government of Nova Scotia and Nova Scotia Health. They provide an extended suite of pharmacy primary care services, including assessment and prescribing for strep throat, pink eye, urinary tract infections, chronic disease management (diabetes, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), prescription renewals for all medications and more. Beginning with 12 sites in February 2023, the project now includes 45 clinics province-wide. In June, NS government data revealed that the clinics contributed to a nearly 10% decline in emergency room visits for non-urgent or less-urgent cases. If you want to learn more about how the clinics operate, meet Leslie Howard Lloy and Miranda Teasdale, 2 NS pharmacists taking part in the project.
Engaging with and supporting the profession
Everything we do as an association is intended to support the profession of pharmacy and the pharmacy teams that play such a critical role in the health-care system. In 2024, we continued to focus our efforts on initiatives and priorities both for and about you.
In 2024, CPhA received funding from Employment and Social Development Canada to lead a 4-year project to help unlicensed International Pharmacy Graduates (IPGs) with mentorship, practical experience and other key integration supports to increase their chances of success at licensure. Following a soft launch in August, the IPG Mentorship & Integration Project fully launched with great success this fall. Explore the program:
Scope of Practice
As pharmacy practice evolves, CPhA keeps you up to date on what scope of practice looks like across the country. We made regular updates to our scope of practice charts this year, including:
Pharmacy Claim Standard
Transition from the Pharmacy Claim Standard (PCS) to the Canadian Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources Standard Pharmacy Claims Standard (FHIR PCS) began in 2024. As the Secretariat for the PCS, CPhA has been leading the work of the Steering Committee and the Technical Working Group and will continue to maintain the PCS throughout the transition period.
Pharmacy Virtual Advisory Team
Members of CPhA’s Pharmacy Virtual Advisory Team (PVAT) completed several short surveys throughout the year, allowing us to share front-line, real-time data with Health Canada to better prepare for potential shortages. Interested in contributing? Join the PVAT!
Pharmacy Workforce Wellness Initiative
This year, we continued to work with our Workforce Steering Committee and our Wellness Task Force to support our Pharmacy Workforce Wellness Initiative. Throughout the year, we actively engaged with the federal government and other health-care stakeholders on the topic of Health Human Resources and contributed to a study on the future needs of health-care professionals in Canada. In late fall, we conducted a survey of students and new practitioners, focused on their career expectations—stay tuned for the results!
Engage with us: CPS User Group
CPhA is continually evolving CPS to better suit your needs, and your feedback is essential to keeping us moving in the right direction. This year, CPhA recruited health-care professionals practising across the country to share their thoughts and experiences to help us enhance CPS.
Nice to meet you!
Our team members met with students, educators, pharmacists and other health professionals at a wide range of conferences, meetings and events from coast to coast over the course of the year. We love getting to know you so we can better understand your needs and talk to you about how CPhA can help you in your practice. Missed us? We hope to see you at an event in your area in 2025.
In depth: Diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility at CPhA
Fostering a culture of belonging and community is important for pharmacy teams, for the patients we serve, and for the board and staff at CPhA. We’ve made diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility a cornerstone of our efforts and we are continually striving to do better to engage with and support those who need it most.
Clinical and therapeutic content: This year, we continued to focus on reviewing our clinical content to identify, assess and address instances of bias, racism and discrimination. In addition to updates in our editorial policy to include a commitment to diversity, the publication of our new Dermatological Considerations in Skin of Colour chapter in CPS was a significant step in efforts to address the lack of diversity in clinical education. CPhA was proud to be nominated for the Women Leaders in Pharma’s 2024 Shine Bright: Diversity Initiative of the Year award for this work. In November, CPhA hosted the CPS Health-Care Symposium: Addressing Diversity and Equitable Care. This free event provided health-care professionals with the latest tools, knowledge and CPS content to make their practice more inclusive. The recordings from the symposium are available on our website.
Indigenous Pharmacy Professionals of Canada: CPhA is proud to support the work of the Indigenous Pharmacy Professionals of Canada (IPPC), and we were honoured to be named IPPC’s inaugural Indigenous Pharmacy Supporter of the Year. We collaborated with IPPC on a range of resources to support Indigenous pharmacy professionals and their patients, including both a live webinar, Pharmacy Professionals Guide to Navigating the Non-Insured Health Benefits Program (NIHB), and a follow-up series of short videos providing practical details on how to navigate the program.
Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors Johnson & Johnson, Shoppers Drug Mart, Green Shield Canada, Sobeys and BioScript Solutions, IPPC and CPhA were thrilled announce the 6 recipients of the 2024 IPPC Indigenous Pharmacy Scholarship in September.
These are just some of the activities CPhA is undertaking to help shape a more progressive and compassionate pharmacy world that celebrates diversity and empowers every pharmacist to thrive.
In addition to our materials supporting pharmacy professionals through a number of critical drug shortages this year, CPhA developed additional practice tools and resources in other areas and made key updates to our clinical content.
Drug & therapeutic information
Thanks to our team of expert authors, reviewers and editors, our drug and therapeutic content was updated regularly throughout 2024, ensuring that CPS Full Access remains the go-to clinical resource for primary care in Canada. Our 50 most-accessed chapters are available in both French and English and we launched two brand new CPS chapters this year — Dermatological Considerations in Skin of Colour and Routine Childhood Vaccinations — with more new content coming in 2025. We are collaborating with innovative partners to explore how to leverage emerging technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) to support Canadian clinicians. Check out the new CPS Resources section on our website to help you get the most out of your CPS subscription.
Pharmacy Practice Webinars and Recordings
This year, CPhA presented 9 live webinars on topics including drug interactions with tobacco, respiratory conditions, employment negotiations, the sexual and reproductive health toolkit, sustainable pharmacy practices, deprescribing, diabetes and insomnia. In addition to the more than 2500 pharmacy team members who joined us at our live events, our recorded sessions were viewed more than 3000 times throughout the year.
Clinical Resources to Manage Drug Shortages
In addition to collecting front-line data and representing the voice of pharmacists in regular drug shortage meetings with Health Canada and other stakeholders, CPhA developed dozens of resources this year to support pharmacists in navigating shortages and finding available alternatives. These clinical resources were used by thousands of health professionals across the country and covered shortages of lithium carbonate, carbamazepine CR, hormone replacement therapies, cholestyramine, tamsulosin, progesterone and more.
Smoking Cessation Counselling Toolkit
Did you know that 12% of Canadians aged 15 and older reported smoking in 2022? To support pharmacists and their crucial role in helping patients quit, CPhA launched the resource Break the Habit: A Pharmacist’s Toolkit for Smoking Cessation Counselling, a new collection of resources to equip pharmacists with tools and strategies they need to deliver effective smoking cessation interventions. We have also provided programs, digital resources and insurance information that can be shared with patients, making it easier for them to get the support they need to successfully quit smoking.
Canadian Pharmacists Journal
Six issues of the Canadian Pharmacists Journal were published in 2024, featuring research and practice tools on pressing topics such as Indigenous patients’ experiences in pharmacies, deprescribing, accessibility, climate-conscious pharmacy, addressing vaccine hesitancy and social prescribing. Research articles on the management of hypertension, opioids and combined hormonal contraception were also included. To provide evidence to support the expanding role of pharmacists, CPJ published papers this year on strengthening primary care, expanded pharmacist scope and addressing pharmacist stress. CPJ remains the only journal in the world to publish pharmacist-specific guidelines; in 2024, we included guidelines on managing HIV and helping patients living with autism.
Women’s Health Symposium
Our half-day, virtual Women’s Health Symposium brought together leading women’s health experts to explore the knowledge, practical skills and tools pharmacists need to provide appropriate care to women, transgender individuals and non-binary individuals.
Environmental Sustainability
This year, CPhA developed a range of educational materials, tools and resources to support environmental sustainability in pharmacy. We received funding from Choosing Wisely Canada to conduct a survey and create a resource series on sustainable blood glucose monitoring, as well as a set of climate-conscious recommendations for pharmacists. We also checked in with several pharmacists across the country who are working hard to reduce pharmacy’s impact on the environment. You can find all of our information and resources in our Resource Round-up: Environmental sustainability.
Supporting you, supporting your practice
CPhA creates a variety of practice tools to support you and your interactions with patients. Some of the resources we developed this year included:
- Top 10 Updates for Osteoporosis for Pharmacists (based on the 2023 Osteoporosis Canada Clinical Practice Guidelines)
- Measles: What you need to know
- Mpox: What you need to know
- Signs of support: Navigating deaf and hard of hearing culture in pharmacy practice video series
- FAQ resource: New measures to restrict nicotine replacement therapies
- Resource round-up: Ramadan
- CPS patient infographics for frostbite, allergic rhinitis and routine childhood vaccinations
Board of Directors
In June, we thanked outgoing chair Shawn Bugden (AFPC) for his leadership over the past 2 years and installed Annette Robinson (BCPhA) and Joseph Amiel (AQPP) as the new chair and vice chair of the CPhA Board of Directors. We also took the opportunity to thank outgoing board members Murray Perelman and Christine Hrudka and welcomed new board members Catherine Rosebrugh (individual director), Jennifer Butler (Pharmacists Manitoba) and Lindsey Ziegler (Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan). The entire Board remains dedicated to guiding the work that we do on your behalf and ensuring that the voices of our members and stakeholders are heard and considered in our decision-making processes.
CPhA
Awards
Canadian Pharmacist of the Year
Dr. Sherif Hanafy Mahmoud
CPJ Best Paper of the Year
Dr. Sherilyn K.D. Houle
Dean George A. Burbidge Award
Dr. Maxime Perron
CPhA Centennial Leadership Award
| Harman Waring, University of British Columbia | Jonathan Chan, University of Alberta |
| Emily Galey, University of Saskatchewan | Marc Herrera, University of Manitoba |
| Ayman Lakhani, University of Toronto | Paige Klingbeil, University of Waterloo |
| Félix-Olivier Dumas, Université Laval | Inès Belamri, Université de Montréal |
| Madison Bell, Dalhousie University | Melanie King, Memorial University |
Pharmacy Appreciation Month
In March, CPhA celebrated Pharmacy Appreciation Month, thanking pharmacists across the country for their ongoing efforts for their patients and their communities. This year’s campaign focused on the Power of pharmacy and kicked off with a joint CPhA-CAPSI webinar on the Power of negotiation: Navigating your first (or next) career move. Throughout the month, we featured pharmacists from across the country on social media and in our special PAM edition Pharmacy Check-ins, and we closed out the month by naming Frank Longo of Sault Ste. Marie, ON as this year’s #MyFavePharm patient contest. Thank you, pharmacy!
CPhA is grateful for the ongoing and continuous support of our partners and stakeholders. We thank you for your partnership and your dedication to the profession of pharmacy.
Organizational Members
Pharmacy Network
Organizational Affiliates
Sponsors
