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ASHP recognizes that well-educated and highly skilled pharmacy technicians have important roles and responsibilities in the pharmacy profession and that a safe and effective medication-use process depends significantly on the skills, knowledge, and competence of those pharmacy technicians. To

BACKGROUND AND CHARGES According to the Bylaws of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), the Professional Affairs Committee is to study issues associated with the professional practice as they relate to pharmaceutical education, and to establish and improve working relationships with all other organizations in the field of health affairs. The Committee is also encouraged to address related agenda items relevant to its Bylaws charge and to identify issues for consideration by subsequent committees, task forces, commissions, or other groups. President Peggy Piascik established the theme for 2013-2014 as "the relentless pursuit of excellence." (1) President Piascik acknowledges that academic pharmacy is at the crossroads of many areas of change, including the continuing evolution of pharmacy as a profession, how health care is delivered in America and rapid changes in higher education. As the roles of pharmacists continue to change, pharmacy technician roles must also evolve, necessitating changes in pharmacy technician training and education. Specifically, the 2013-2014 Professional Affairs Committee is charged to: (1) Describe the elements that should be present in a quality technician education/ training program; (2) Identify potential role(s) of pharmacy academic institutions and pharmacy faculty in the education, training, and certification of pharmacy technicians; and (3) Recommend strategies to develop collaborations/relationships between schools/colleges of pharmacy and pharmacy technician education/training programs to advance pharmacy practice in the evolving health care system. Members of the Professional Affairs Committee (PAC) include faculty representing multiple disciplines from various schools/colleges of pharmacy, a coordinator from an American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists (ASHP) accredited pharmacy technician education/ training program as well as professional staff from ASHP, the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) and the Pharmacy Technician Educators Council (PTEC). Prior to an in-person meeting of the committee, pertinent background information and resource materials were distributed, and a conference call was held to develop a strategy for addressing committee charges. The committee members met for a day and a half in Crystal City, Virginia on October 28-29, 2013, to discuss the various facets related to this issue as well as to develop a process and strategies for addressing the charges. Following the process development and delegation of assignments related to the committee charges, the PAC communicated via electronic communications, as well as through personal exchanges via telephone and email. The result is the following report, which discusses the elements and importance of a well educated and trained pharmacy technician workforce and also provides information on current collaborations between schools/ colleges of pharmacy and pharmacy technician education/ training programs. Disseminating the purpose and framework behind these collaborations may assist members of the academy to identify potential strategies and roles for schools/colleges of pharmacy in the education, training and certification of pharmacy technicians. In addition, these examples may help to guide the development of these collaborations at other member institutions. Pharmacy technicians are viable members of the health care sector and are necessary to the pharmacy profession for pharmacists to satisfy the Joint Commissioners of Pharmacy Practice (JCPP)Vision for Pharmacy Practice: (2) Patients achieve optimal health and medication outcomes with pharmacists as essential and accountable providers within patient-centered, team-based health care. Charge 1: Describe the elements that should be present in a quality technician education/training program A pharmacy technician is an individual who, under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist, assists in pharmacy activities that do not require the professional judgment of a pharmacist. …

This paper presents epidemiological data on the prevalence of 26 common (i.e., having a lifetime prevalence of more than 1 per 10(4) individuals in the population) multifactorial diseases in Hungary and estimates of detriment associated with them. The detriment is expressed using 3 indicators, namely years of lost life (LL), potentially impaired life (PIL) and actually impaired life (AIL). The total prevalence of these diseases in Hungary has been estimated to be about 6500 per 10(4) individuals in the population. This estimate is in agreement with published data for other parts of the world. On the basis of clinical severity, these diseases have been split into 3 groups, namely (1) very severe (schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, acute myocardial infarction and related conditions, and systemic lupus erythematosus); (2) moderately severe and/or episodal or seasonal (15 entities including Graves' disease, diabetes mellitus, gout, affective psychoses, essential hypertension, peptic ulcers, asthma, etc.); and (3) less severe than those in the first 2 groups (varicose veins, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, Scheuermann disease and adolescent idiopathic scoliosis). The essential clinical and genetic aspects of these diseases are briefly discussed. With the exception of epilepsy, none of the diseases included in our list causes mortality between ages 0 and 19. However, they are among the leading causes of death between ages 20 and 69 and thereafter. A sizeable proportion of those with essential hypertension, diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, etc. survive to 70 years and beyond, as do those with gout, glaucoma, allergic rhinitis, psoriasis, etc. Overall, about 16% of all deaths that occur in Hungary every year (all age groups) can be attributed to these diseases. The mean number of years of PIL covers a wide range (about 20-40, 12-70 and 40-60 for groups 1, 2 and 3, respectively), the overall mean being about 24 years. However, the nature and degree of impairment and the impact on the life quality of those afflicted differ for the different diseases. Likewise, the mean number of years of AIL (for which the interval between the mean age at premature retirement and mean age at death was used as a rough index) also spans a wide range from 16 to 45, and the overall mean is about 20 years. At the population level, the diseases considered in this paper cause about 2700 years of LL, 96,000 years of PIL and about 5800 years of AIL per 10(4) individuals in the population. Relative to Mendelian diseases as a whole, these multifactorial diseases are associated with much greater detriment (LL: 1.4 X; PIL: 30 X and AIL: 3.9 X).

When analyzing the Roentgen documentation of 102 leukaemic children, the prevalence of bone anomalies of the extremities, pelvis and vertebral column was studied. The frequency of the abnormal or unusual findings was compared with that of 660 control subjects. The frequency of osseous anomalies proved to be 2 to 3 times higher in leukaemic children tha in the controls. Considering the number of ossification centers and the presence nutritional canal of vertebrae, in leukaemic children the ossification seemed to be retarded.