Abbi M. Blevins, PharmD, MBA, CSP, CTTS ([email protected]), is a pharmacy specialist at WVU Medicine Specialty Pharmacy and Home Infusion in Morgantown, West Virginia. She completed both her PharmD and MBA at West Virginia University and went on to complete a PGY1 community- based residency with West Virginia University School of Pharmacy in partnership with Kroger in Morgantown. Blevins joined the Specialty Pharmacy in 2018, where she serves as a clinical specialist managing patients in endocrinology, neurology, and inflammatory disease states. In addition to her clinical work, Blevins established an APPE rotation site for students and developed an elective in partnership with West Virginia University School of Pharmacy, Intro to Specialty Pharmacy to expand student knowledge of specialty pharmacy. To further foster specialty training, Blevins recognized the opportunity to implement a residency program and currently serves as residency program director.
Blevins has been an active member of ASHP, serving across several SSPP Advisory Groups (SAGs). Her involvement began as a member of the SAG on Workforce Development, where she assisted in several deliverables including development of a template material for APPE rotation syllabus, template PowerPoint presentation regarding the overview of specialty pharmacy, and multiple others. She currently serves as a member of the SSPP Educational Steering Committee. In addition, she has coauthored multi-site health-system owned specialty pharmacy research publications and given podium presentations at ASHP annual meetings.
Specialty pharmacy ignited a passion within my career as a pharmacist. Health-system specialty pharmacies are uniquely positioned to provide comprehensive patient-centered and collaborative care across the entire health care team. The thing I enjoy contributing to the most is educating and mentoring pharmacists, technicians, residents, interns, and students as we continue to build a robust specialty pharmacy workforce. Education and training of future practitioners is vital to the successful growth of health-system specialty pharmacies and ASHP provides opportunities to further engage in this unique niche of pharmacy providing a network of peers to brainstorm recruiting efforts. Members of the Section must continue to collaborate and share our passion for specialty pharmacy by expanding our presence nationally with continued virtual sessions as well as an increase in continuing education sessions, round tables, and networking sessions at national meetings. Strong recruitment is necessary for battling the challenges of 340B longevity and patient access to facilitate moving specialty pharmacy forward through patient-centric care.
I am thrilled by the nomination for the opportunity to further my engagement in the ASHP Section of Specialty Pharmacy Practitioners. If elected, I look forward to educating and advocating for the opportunities that health-system specialty pharmacists have in supporting patient-centered care.