Your USHP delegates, Stephanie Barrus, Shannon Inglet, and Jeff Olson, represented Utah at the ASHP House of Delegates this year. Here's what came out of it.

The House approved 16 policy recommendations, sent 2 resolutions back to Council for further study, and accepted 2 new business items.

Practice and public health: Delegates affirmed the pharmacy workforce as the leader in expanding vaccine access and called for interoperable vaccination records and a more reliable vaccine supply. A companion policy commits the profession to recognizing, countering, and refusing to spread public health misinformation. Other approvals promote body size inclusivity in patient care, environmental sustainability across the medication life cycle, and safe compounding. The right-of-conscience policy accommodates moral, religious, or ethical objections in non-emergency care while ensuring patients receive referral or transfer of care without coercion.

Technology, education, and workforce development: A new policy calls on health systems to involve pharmacy leaders, including informatics leadership, in technology assessment, procurement, and oversight while promoting greater vendor transparency and accountability. Delegates also backed a standard of care regulatory model for pharmacy practice, a stronger organizational focus on career fulfillment, and pharmacy education quality grounded in ACPE accreditation, quality experiential sites, and qualified preceptors. Another policy seeks protections against unauthorized synthetic media.

Therapeutics: Approvals covered nicotine cessation and tobacco-free healthcare environments, pharmacist-led processes and information exchange for long-acting injectable antipsychotics, clearer labeling and dosing for combination antibiotics, and an official definition of evidence-based medicine as a foundational principle of practice and ASHP policy. The House also reaffirmed the FDA's public health role.

Two resolutions went back to Council for further study: recognizing a pharmacist license from any state for non-dispensing telehealth services and opposing alternative funding programs. Two new business items were accepted, protecting pharmacists' scientific and clinical decision making, and supporting efforts to reduce disparities in health and healthcare. Proposals in the pipeline for next year include GLP-1 access, non-nicotine vaping products, medication carbon metrics, support for rural health improvement projects, college credit for technicians, and more.

Many of these policies started as member-submitted proposals. If you have thoughts on the new business items or ideas for next year's cycle, reach out to your USHP delegates. We want to know where Utah stands.