Susan M. Flaker, PharmD, MBA, DPLA (flaker.susan@mayo.edu) is currently the Director of Therapeutic Strategy at Mayo Clinic with appointment of Instructor of Pharmacy at Mayo Clinic as well. She was educated by books at and got her degree in Pharmacy from the University of Health Sciences in St Louis Missouri and her MBA from Webster University but believes it was her schooling at Columbia Entertainment Company in her formative years that developed her finesse of the verbal word. This finesse has helped Flaker in her early career at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St Louis Missouri before moving up to Rochester Minnesota to grow her work there where she has been heavily involved in project to grow the practice of pharmacy, working with predictive analytics to help with inventory management and receiving grant funding to study Verification Decision Support, among other things.
Dr. Flaker has been an active member of ASHP, most recently serving on the executive committee of the Section of Digital and Telehealth. Prior to that she was an active member of the Section of Pharmacy Practice Leadership Educational Steering Committee and a member of the SICP SAG on Compounding Practice and alternate for the House of Delegates. Flaker is a frequent speaker as ASHP and MSHP meetings and has published multiple article on her work around predictive analytics and Verification Decision Support. She believe greatly in helping guide the future pharmacists by mentoring residents and students and serving on the Alumni board of her alma mater.
The profession of pharmacy is at a precipice. We must choose to actively be involved in the transition and adoption of technology or allow others to make the decisions for us. I believe that the SDTP is at a key position to help guide the practice of pharmacy as we navigate what, operationally, is acceptable. As pharmacy is facing a shortage of technicians and pharmacists we must look to technology to help with tasks to allow pharmacists and technicians to work at the top of their license. As a member of the executive committee of SDTP I assisted with starting to establish the guardrails for the profession to establish when technology can step and where we feel care requires more of a human touch.
I think establishing these items and then advocating with state and federal governments will be key in setting up the profession of pharmacy for years to come. We must be an active part of the process and I would love to listen to the thoughts and opinions of the entirety of the profession to advocate for the best path forward. We have so much to offer our patients I would hate for us to be stymied by regulations we are too scared to evaluate.
The executive committee has set a wonderful foundation for the practice and where we feel pharmacy should go, I am excited for the opportunity to continue to build on this work that myself and so many other brilliant people have already done.