I think I’ve just come down (barely) from the experience at the Premier Breakthroughs Conference. We were honored that our Rhazdrugs hazardous drug safety solution was one of 10 revolutionary healthcare technologies recognized by Premier, Inc. at the Innovation Celebration. The journey to this moment has been challenging, transformative, and, most of all, rewarding.
As most of our Rpharmy community knows, my career in healthcare tech began 30 years ago at Abbott and GE Health. In those days, I learned everything about customer service that I practice now — the importance of establishing strong customer relationships and, most importantly, how to maintain them for the long term. Even then, I had ambitions to someday run a company and do things my way.
The stars seemed to align when John and I bought the company I was working for at the time, Formulary Productions. This gave us the chance to follow our passion - improving patient safety - which became our life’s work after his beautiful mom died due to a preventable med error.
Soon after, we rebranded to Rpharmy and have since worked alongside our loyal customers to develop Formweb and Rhzadrugs with the features they need to protect patients and healthcare workers.
Now, nearly twenty years after we first set off on this entrepreneurial journey, Rpharmy is being honored alongside the large industry titans at which I once earned my chops—Abbott and GE Health. I am taking a moment to soak in and celebrate this milestone.
None of this is possible without the talented and equally passionate Rpharmy team:
- My partner and husband, John, played a crucial role in inspiring the life-changing work we do and has leaned his leadership as COO to drive the company forward.
- Sherlene Christen, once a long-time customer at Duke University Hospital and now our Director of Customer Experience;
- Patrick Turner, our Chief Technology Officer who combines his technical expertise and shared mission for protecting people to direct the strategy of Rpharmy’s solutions;
- Daniel Robertson, who’s programming skills bring our customer requests to life as the Lead Web Developer;
- Last but not least, our newest team member, our daughter Caroline McBreen, has hit the ground running as our Business Development Director. In addition to her financial background, Caroline shares our deeply held passion for protecting frontline healthcare workers and vulnerable patients and is serving our customers with the same care and attention we value.
At the conference, we had the pleasure of meeting many remarkable people and visiting with loyal clients we call friends. It was great to meet the amazing people behind the event and the Premier team, including Sudha Narayanaswamy, Vice President of Pharmacy Practice and Portfolio; Jessica Daley, Group Vice President of Supply Chain Pharmacy; Michele Wright, Director of Pharmacy Contracting; and of course, Kevin Hanson, Senior Director of Pharmacy Compounding.
We do not take for granted the time spent visiting our customers in person at events. It was wonderful to see Derek Holmes, MWDBE Program executive at Harris Health, and Mike Carlin, Senior Director of Pharmacy at University Health.
One session we enjoyed was led by our customers at WVU Medicine, Dave Cecere, Enterprise Pharmacy Director, and Marc Phillips, Assistant Director of Pharmacy Supply Chain and Procurement. Dave and Marc shared the innovative ways they manage and anticipate drug shortages at WVU.
The Premier Innovation Celebration was the perfect chance to stop and enjoy all the Rpharmy team has accomplished and get excited about the innovation yet to come. Thank you, Premier, for recognizing the value of Rhazdrugs in the vast world of healthcare technology!
