Martin J. Torres, PharmD, FCSHP (martit3@hs.uci.edu) is a director of pharmacy at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, California with administrative oversight of quality, safety, education, and research. He is also an adjunct professor of pharmacology at the Southern California College of Optometry in Fullerton in addition to serving as a volunteer faculty member at the UCI School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He received his PharmD from the USC School of Pharmacy, completed a 1-year residency in clinical pharmacy, and began his career establishing an ICU satellite pharmacy and multiple clinical programs in a community hospital. After initially providing direct patient care for seven years, he has had the opportunity to lead teams both in acute care and outpatient settings in developing patient services across multiple transitions of care.
His ASHP service includes member, Council on Affiliate Relations (2022-current), and California delegate to the ASHP House of Delegates (2018-2021). He has been very active with the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists as chair of the House of Delegates (2018-2021), co-chair/member, Committee on Professional Affairs (2014-2017), president, Orange County Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists (2017-2018), and a member of multiple seminar planning and Pacific Coast Patient Safety Conference committees.
He has developed additional insights into organizational leadership through volunteer activities as a board chair/member of multiple community organizations, including a community foundation board, technology committee, chair of a parks and recreation committee, and others. His goal in every community engagement was to be “the pharmacist” for the organization and its members.
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
As I share my thoughts, I want to first thank those who made time to model and mentor during my journey. As a profession, we have much to celebrate yet so much more to accomplish, all for the care of our patients. There are many priorities which must be addressed, but taking control of how we are represented should have a sense of urgency. The pharmacists I support do not “verify” orders, they “evaluate” orders. Evaluate better represents the cognitive application of our medication management expertise, whereas "verify" might simply imply the click of a mouse. Let’s use the power of words and images consistently in our messaging, where every reference to our wonderful profession conveys caring for patients. Yes, OUR patients!
A pharmacist with a spatula “saving lives counting by fives”? Pharmacy directors or pharmacy executives? Pharmacy departments or pharmacy enterprises? Pharmacy leaders or leaders in healthcare? If there are opportunities for incremental improvement, let’s have a renewed focus on how we represent ourselves through every policy we draft and every position statement issued.
If we don’t control the narrative, who knows, we may end up being the only patient care profession that is reimbursed based on issuing a product. Imagine that. Better yet, reimagine that! I look forward to learning from you and working together with you not only for the benefit of our profession, but for our patients.
I would love to hear your thoughts if you are willing to share. Thank you.