AJHP Reveals Extensive Redesign with January 15 Issue


With its January 15, 2016, issue, AJHP is launching a new design to signal the turning of a page and a new era for ASHP’s peer-reviewed, scholarly publication. The redesign of AJHP highlights the editors’ new approach to content – with theme issues, increased calls for papers on cutting-edge topics, an enhanced digital experience, an increased focus on ambulatory care, and a heavier emphasis on editorials that tackle the most difficult issues in healthcare. The new design also reflects a major change in AJHP’s mission – “Advancing Science, Pharmacy Practice, and Health Outcomes.” This broader focus supports AJHP’s role as a source of the latest scientific evidence, practice information, news, and opinion pieces that can guide medication use and healthcare delivery at the patient, population, and policy levels. “Over the course of its 72-year history, AJHP has been a repository for landmark publications, building a scholarly culture of excellence that has served patients and the profession well,” says AJHP Editor in Chief Daniel J. Cobaugh, Pharm.D., DABAT, FAACT. “The new design signifies the Journal’s continuing evolution as a relevant, high-impact, innovative, reader-and-author-friendly, 21st-century biomedical publication.” In addition to the complete redesign of the publication, the AJHP editors are pursuing editorials that will contemplate complex topics, pose difficult questions, and envision a better future for patients. These editorials will play a critical role as AJHP tackles the most difficult issues in modern healthcare. In 2015, there were editorials on pharmacists as second victims of medical errors, a patient-centric approach to specialty pharmacy practice, and opposition to pharmacists’ participation in capital punishment.Theme Issues To ensure that AJHP content is supporting members’ and other readers’ efforts to provide optimal patient care, AJHP will create two to four theme issues annually. These theme issues will address some of the most relevant topics confronting healthcare and the profession of pharmacy, with distinguished and respected pharmacists serving as guest editors. Guest editors Kevin Colgan, M.A., FASHP, and Phillip Empey, Pharm.D., Ph.D., BCPS, have already recruited author teams for upcoming theme issues on specialty pharmacy and precision medicine, respectively. Reduced Print Issues Beginning in 2016, AJHP is publishing two fewer print issues per year (eliminating the January 1 and May 1 issues), while still producing all issues for online consumption. Readers will continue to receive all 24 issues online each year, along with 22 print issues. The publishing of two fewer print issues allows AJHP to pursue not only the theme issues, but also the robust and dynamic redesign of the journal that will be revealed in the January 15 issue. Enhanced Digital ExperienceAJHP’s advances will continue in 2016 with the incorporation of the new AJHP design in the online version of the Journal. Readers will also notice additional upgrades, including the availability of PubMed-indexed, ahead-of-print articles and easier access to the AJHP Voices podcasts. Further transformation of the Journal’s digital presence will be under development over the next several months to provide a more dynamic reader experience and heighten the Journal’s impact. About ASHPASHP represents pharmacists who serve as patient care providers in acute and ambulatory settings. The organization’s more than 43,000 members include pharmacists, student pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians. For over 70 years, ASHP has been at the forefront of efforts to improve medication use and enhance patient safety. For more information about the wide array of ASHP activities and the many ways in which pharmacists advance healthcare, visit ASHP’s website, www.ashp.org, or its consumer website, http://ift.tt/1oqARdt.

from ASHP Health-System Pharmacy Press Releases and Announcements