Martin J. Torres, PharmD, FCSHP (martit3@hs.uci.edu) is a director of pharmacy at UC Irvine (UCI) in Orange, California with administrative oversight of quality, safety, education, and research. Torres provides executive leadership in strategic planning, medication safety, regulatory compliance, formulary review, preceptor development, PGY1/2 residency programs, and investigational drug trials in addition to serving on the UC Irvine Health Council on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Torres is also an adjunct professor of pharmacology and pharmacology curriculum coordinator at the Southern California College of Optometry in Fullerton and on faculty at the UCI School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Torres received his PharmD from the USC School of Pharmacy, completed a residency at LAC/USC Medical Center, and while providing direct patient care, established clinical programs in several community hospitals. In leadership roles in academic and hospital medical centers with increasing responsibilities, Torres was privileged to lead teams in acute care and outpatient settings in developing patient care services across multiple transitions of care.
Torres has been an active member of ASHP for 40 years with his most recent service including the Commission on Affiliate Relations (2022-current), member, meeting with legislators during Policy Week, and California delegate to the ASHP House of Delegates (2018-2021). He has been very active with the 4,000 member California Society of Health System Pharmacists (CSHP) as chair House of Delegates (2018-2021), co-chair/member Committee on Professional Affairs (2014-2017), president, Orange County Society of Health System Pharmacists (2017-2018), frequent speaker at state meetings, member of state conference planning committees, and being recognized as a fellow of CSHP.
Join with me as we control the narrative on our profession and reinforce our identity as medication management experts with an expertise in patient safety! ASHP’s leadership has provided a platform for telling our story, but do all pharmacy organizations articulate our value with the same sharp focus? We must continue our leadership role on how our profession is promoted to the patients we serve and the policy makers who determine payment. It is imperative we drive unified messaging across all pharmacy organizations highlighting “taking care of patients is what we do” and avoid confusing terminology which diminishes our role in patient care.
We must use our training as clinical scientists with patient care experience to develop healthcare leaders not only for the pharmacy enterprise, but as CEOs, COOs, vice presidents of quality, patient safety, and population health management (PHM). If not a pharmacist, then who?
Let’s further standardize the pharmacist’s role in medication histories in all settings, TOC within and between health systems with handoffs to community pharmacies, telepharmacy, and promote research which provides statistically significant evidence for the value of pharmacy on outcomes and not solely cost reduction.
We must establish an unequivocal role for pharmacy in PHM, independent of medication dispensing, based on medication and medical history/lab reviews at every patient interaction.
Additionally, we need to define our responsibilities in pharmacogenomics, gene and cellular therapies, and artificial intelligence.
Together we can do this! Please send me a note to share your thoughts.