The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) is the organization whose members are recognized in society as essential in all patient care settings for optimal medication use that improves health, wellness, and quality of life. Through information, education, and advocacy APhA empowers its members to improve medication use and advance patient care by:

• Providing timely and accurate information that is vital to our members.
• Raising societal awareness about the role of pharmacists as essential in patient care for optimal medication use.
• Providing state-of-the-art resources to enhance our members' continuing professional development.
• Educating and influencing legislators, policy makers, regulators, and the public to advance our vision and mission.
• Creating unique opportunities for our members to connect and share with their peers across practice settings.

The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) represents multispecialty medical groups and other organized systems of care, including some of the nation's largest, most prestigious integrated healthcare delivery systems. The members of AMGA deliver health care to 80 million patients in 43 states, including 15 million capitated lives. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, AMGA is the strategic partner for medical groups providing a comprehensive package of benefits, including political advocacy, educational and networking programs, publications, benchmarking data services, and financial and operations assistance. Please visit www.amga.org for more information.

The Center for Health Transformation is a high-impact collaboration of private and public sector leaders committed to creating a 21st Century Intelligent Health System that saves lives and saves money for all Americans.

The Center is based on the following premise: Small changes or reactionary fixes to separate pieces of the current system have not and will not work. We need a system-wide transformation. Unlike other alliances, CHT unites stakeholders across the spectrum - providers, employers, vendors, trade associations, disease groups, think tanks and government leaders, at both the state and federal level, to drive transformation according to a shared vision and key principles. www.healthtransformation.net

The Center for Improving Medication Management was founded by the American Academy of Family Physicians, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Humana, Intel, Medical Group Management Association, and SureScripts-RxHub. The mission of the Center is to serve as a collaborative forum to encourage adoption of technology to electronically exchange prescription information between prescribers, pharmacies, payers and patients and to test innovative approaches to improving patient adherence with prescribed medications. www.thecimm.org

Published in partnership with HIMSS, Healthcare IT News reports on events that affect those working in the healthcare information technology industry. Our more than 50,000 readers include IT professionals employed in physician practices, hospitals, integrated delivery networks and payer organizations, as well as members of the C-suite in those entities. Ranked #1 by hospital CIOs two years in a row (PERQ/HCI study 2005, 2006), Healthcare IT News offers timely, relevant news on new technologies; on IT strategies and tactics; on statutory and regulatory issues decided in Washington, D.C. (as well as state policies); and on news about their colleagues and competitors. www.healthcareitnews.com

The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA®) represents America's community pharmacists, including the owners of more than 23,000 community pharmacies, pharmacy franchises, and chains. Together they represent an $84 billion health-care marketplace, employ over 300,000 full-time employees, and dispense nearly half of the nation's retail prescription medicines. NCPA and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) founded SureScripts in 2001 and is a part owner of SureScripts-RxHub, a single, secure, nationwide network for e-prescriptions and the exchange of health information. www.ncpanet.org

Found in 1987, OPEN MINDS is the premier industry research and management consulting firm for the behavioral health and social service field. It is our mission to provide behavioral health and social service payers and service providers, and the vendors that serve them, with the market and management knowledge needed to improve their organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Services include consultation, technical assistance, workforce development, executive education, and subscription information services. For more information, visit www.openminds.com.

Point-of-Care Partners, LLC (POCP) is a healthcare information technology (HIT) strategy and management consulting firm. Its two active practices are electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) and chronic care management in the context of electronic health records (EHRs). The firm considers personal health records (PHRs), health information exchanges (HIEs), payer-based health records, ambulatory electronic medical records (aEMRs) and enterprise electronic medical records (eEMRs) under the umbrella of chronic care management.

POCP's consultants have from 15 to 25 years experience in all aspects of HIT, including strategy, management, marketing, product development, infrastructure, customer service and implementation. Its clients include a who's who of HIT stakeholders from employers to health plans and pharmacy benefit managers to technology companies and both state and federal government. www.pocp.com

SureScripts-RxHub gives healthcare providers secure, electronic access to prescription information that can save their patients' lives and reduce the cost of healthcare for all. Available during emergencies or routine care, SureScripts-RxHub's network is used by physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners nationwide to exchange health information and prescribe without paper. The next time you or anyone you know goes for a checkup and your healthcare provider takes out their pad and pen to write a prescription, take the opportunity to ask them for an e-prescription instead. For more information go to www.SureScriptsRxHub.com

Media Partner

Strategic Insights on the Future of the Health Insurance Industry www.corporateresearchgroup.com/MarketTrends

Strategic Partner

The WHCC Affordable Health Innovations Site seeks and promotes health care innovations that can reduce the cost of quality care. Visit the site to learn how the share your innovation.