Introducing MPhA Resident Dan Wahl

[February 1, 2010]

My name is Dan Wahl. I’m a PD4 student from the University of Minnesota on rotation at MPhA. I have a Chemistry degree from Minnesota State University, Mankato and will pursue an MBA part-time after completing my PharmD. I’m undecided as to what field of pharmacy I will enter come May but am looking at retail, hospital, managed care and nuclear pharmacy.

This week started off with a House committee meeting regarding House File (HF) 491, HF1640, and HF1641 regarding prohibition of marketing prescription information, academic detailing and gift ban respectively. Data mining occupied most of the discussion and both sides presented valid concerns. The Board of Pharmacy meeting that evening was my first look at how detailed the Prescription Monitoring Program is. In just three weeks of reporting over 318,000 prescriptions have been entered. Estimates were that somewhere near 5 million prescriptions will be entered every year. That’s about one prescription every 6.3 seconds.

I spent Wednesday morning reading a myriad of bills which will pass through both legislative bodies this session. Of these I’m tracking eight bills which I felt pertain to pharmacy. Friday marked the start of organizing meetings for Legislative Day on February 9th.