Trisha LaPointe

Trisha’s Story

Trisha LaPointe, Pharm.D., BCPS, received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Northeastern University in 2001. She then completed a pharmacy practice residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. LaPointe is a board certified pharmacotherapy specialist.

Dr. LaPointe has been involved in the New Practitioner Forum, Section of Inpatient Care Practitioners, and currently on the Section Advisory Group on Pharmacy Practice Experiences. She has volunteered with ASHP in different capacities as poster reviewer, CV review, and poster mentor for students and residents. She has also been the faculty advisor for the ASHP-SSHP chapter at MCPHS University for several years. In this role she has coordinated the New England Regional Residency and Fellowship showcase each fall. Dr. LaPointe was recently inducted as a Fellow of ASHP.

Facility

MCPHS University, formally known as Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, is the 2nd oldest pharmacy school in country founded in 1823. To date MCPHS-University has over 25,000 alumni worldwide. Dr. LaPointe has been a member of the faculty since 2003 and has extensive teaching and course coordination experience.

Dr. LaPointe is also an inpatient general medicine advanced pharmacy practice experience preceptor. She precepted pharmacy students at Massachusetts General Hospital for 12 years and currently precepting students at a community hospital in Lowell Massachusetts. Lowell General Hospital is 434 bed community based hospital and a member of the Circle Health network.

Significant Projects

Dr. LaPointe’s research areas focus on precepting skills, student perceptions to different teaching styles and post graduate training, and women’s health. Recently Dr. LaPointe presented a poster at the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting titled “#thisismylastrotation, #ihaveajob, #iwantodoretail: Incorporating self-reflection and social media into an advanced pharmacy practice experience.” In collaboration with Section Advisory Group on Pharmacy Practice Experiences, she presented a poster at National Pharmacy Preceptors conference in August 2015 titled “Creation of a busy day toolkit for preceptors of pharmacy students.”

In addition to numerous publications, Dr. LaPointe has also contributed to various textbooks on chapters focused on women’s health, notable the ASHP publication “Women’s health across the lifespan.”

Advice for Someone New to Your Specialty Area

"Embrace change. As the profession and the role of the pharmacist are ever-changing, be flexible, open minded and don’t be afraid to “think outside the box.” Taking care of general medicine patients requires a pharmacist to know a little bit about everything, therefore it is crucial to keep up with the literature and continue to learn new things every day."

Involvement in ASHP

Dr. LaPointe first became involved at the state society level with the Massachusetts Society of Health System Pharmacists (MSHP) during college and has held numerous roles including society president and currently a second term as a board member. It was through her state society involvement that she became interested in pursuing opportunities at the national level. Working with ASHP has allowed her to network with pharmacists from around the country and gain different perspectives of practice outside New England.

ASHP's Value to Members

"ASHP provides invaluable resources such as residency guidance, guidelines, professional vision like the Practice Advancement Initiative (PAI), position statements, policies, and legislative work to move the profession forward. They provide great networking opportunities through meetings and committee work. ASHP provides quality programming in various forms geared towards the education needs of the profession."

"ASHP is the voice and face of health-system pharmacy on Capitol Hill and provides support to the states in their legislative pursuits to drive the profession forward. They provide vision for the growth and expansion of the profession."