FMI Details Areas of Focus at Upcoming Supermarket Pharmacy Conference

WASHINGTON -- Technology, e-prescribing, the new Medicare drug benefit, and business-building opportunities are just a few of the topics that will be covered at the 18th Annual Supermarket Pharmacy Conference, to be held April 9 to April 12 in New Orleans. Hosted by the Food Marketing Institute, the conference will offer pharmacy representatives a global look at current health care issues, as well as an opportunity to review future challenges.

The conference's main areas of concentration will be technology, health care, and business-building opportunities. Several hundred representatives of retail and wholesale supermarket companies, educators, drug wholesalers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other providers of health care products and services will attend.

"With challenges such as the implementation of the new Medicare drug benefit fast approaching in 2006, pharmacy issues have been brought to the forefront," said Mike LeBlanc, director of pharmacy business development at Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., and chair of FMI's Pharmacy Services Committee, in a statement. "This conference will allow attendees to prepare for these challenges, in addition to exploring the latest technology innovations at the conference's brand-new Technology Expo."

The Technology Expo, an event where six major pharmacy management software providers will preview new products designed to improve operations and lower costs, is one of the main features at the conference's Technology Day. The event will provide retailers with information about technology trends and the latest innovations affecting community pharmacy and health care at large.

Retail pharmacy IT and field staff are eligible to attend the entire conference for $250, when accompanied by corporate pharmacy executives paying the regular registration rate of $675, to allow companies to take full advantage of Technology Day.

The conference will additionally feature sessions on such subjects as the changing pharmaceutical marketplace, leveraging the connection between the pharmacy and the whole store, competing in a changing prescription delivery environment, customer service and sales skills for pharmacists, and medication therapy management and compliance programs.

Business-building opportunities will include appointments over two days, in which trading partners can review products and services, in addition to discussing ways to improve supermarket pharmacy sales and operations. Several events will offer additional networking opportunities, among them three evening receptions, a golf tournament and a riverboat cruise.

For more information on the Annual FMI Supermarket Pharmacy Conference, please contact Laurie Gethin ([email protected]) or Danielle Smith ([email protected]), or visit the FMI Web site at www.fmi.org.
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