In this episode of Pharmacy View Podcast’s Pharmacy Career, Resource & Training stream, host Kavita Nadan, Pharmacist and Founder at Locumate is joined by Kevin Walker, President and Co-Owner of RPhAlly. Join us as Kevin discusses their diverse career in healthcare, the establishment of RPhAlly, and the importance of finding focus and passion in the pharmacy profession.
Kevin talks about their humble approach to life and attributes it to their faith and family values. They reflect on their Native American background and the strong influence of inspirational female leaders within their community. Kevin highlights the profound impact of their grandparents, particularly their grandmother’s resilience in overcoming hardships as a first-generation immigrant in the United States. Growing up on a cattle ranch also shaped their perspective on labor, responsibility, and animal husbandry. Ultimately, their faith has provided them with a profound sense of gratitude and an appreciation for the blessings in their life.
Kevin discusses the challenges of managing their various roles and responsibilities when asked about wearing many hats and how they balance it all. They prioritize their roles as a husband and father, striving to be present in those spaces as much as possible. As a passionate professional in the Pharmacy field, they seamlessly interweave their work with projects such as the ACP components, Native American healers’ cohort, and collaboration with a digital health company, all contributing to the future of healthcare and Pharmacy. Kevin acknowledges the importance of effective time management, which remains a work in progress for them.
Kevin then shares their journey into the Pharmacy profession. Initially interested in drug research, their passion for connecting with people and their love for learning about anatomy and physiology led them to explore medical careers. However, after considering physicians’ demanding lifestyle, they discovered Pharmacists’ progressive role as providers, especially within the Indian Health Services system. Witnessing Pharmacists’ impactful collaboration with other healthcare professionals and their crucial role in patient care, Kevin found the perfect fit for their team-oriented and passionate nature.
Kevin also shares their fascinating and diverse career journey within the healthcare industry. They began with a geriatric residency and went on to hold roles in long-term care consulting, mental health consulting, Pharmacy directorship, and clinical development. Kevin’s career progression was inspired by identifying gaps in patient care and healthcare systems and recognizing opportunities for innovation and collaboration. They value connecting diverse perspectives and utilizing technology to bring holistic solutions to healthcare challenges.
Kevin emphasizes the importance of two key skill sets for success: delegation and monetization. They discuss the significance of delegating tasks to others with complementary skill sets, fostering collaboration and efficiency. Kevin also reflects on the value of monetizing services to create sustainable growth and provide even greater value to others. They acknowledge the challenge of balancing personal values while recognizing the need for monetization to scale their impact effectively.
Talking about challenges, Kevin highlights complacency as a significant issue facing the Pharmacy profession in the United States. They emphasize the need for Pharmacists to adapt and position themselves as significant players in the rapidly changing future of healthcare. Kevin believes that the profession’s historically siloed approach hinders progress and that uniting, educating each other, and collaborating across different healthcare roles are crucial for advancing patient care, especially with the advent of the digital age. Kevin then discusses other major obstacles facing the Pharmacy profession in the United States. They highlight the influence of large retail players, vertical integration, and conflicting pressures on the future of Pharmacy. Kevin emphasizes the need for value-based care and leveraging incident-to-billing to recognize Pharmacists’ cognitive abilities and establish a scheduled value-based cognitive process in outpatient and retail settings. They stress the importance of evolving as treatment experts, adapting to changes in healthcare, and utilizing communication and interwoven skill sets to stay at the forefront of the profession.
Kevin discusses the establishment of RPhAlly, a community that addresses major issues facing the pharmacy profession, including burnout, suicide rates, and the need for education and specialization. RPhAlly focuses on empowering pharmacists to play a significant role in patient care, collaborating with other healthcare professionals to improve outcomes. The long-term vision of RPhAlly is to ensure pharmacists are recognized as leaders in healthcare, making critical decisions to advance patient care and drive positive change in the profession.
Kevin also talks the importance of pharmacists finding their voice in various healthcare settings and emphasizes the need for Pharmacists to come together as a community. They highlight upcoming virtual and in-person conferences to facilitate this unity. Kevin also shares their projects in the digital health space, where they aim to leverage the Pharmacy’s unique expertise and integrate it with cutting-edge technologies to advance patient care.
Kevin ends by sharing valuable insights on maintaining focus and igniting passion in their career. They emphasize the importance of taking breaks and stepping away from work to refocus and set realistic daily expectations. Kevin finds passion in collaborating with like-minded individuals and building a strong team focused on advancing pharmacy and patient care. They also discuss the significance of their family and spiritual connection in finding balance and purpose in their professional journey.
Topics Covered
- Lessons from a cattle ranch: how hard work has shaped Kevin’s perspective
- Patient care and health innovation
- How Kevin found their perfect fit in Pharmacy
- Power of collaboration in healthcare
- How complacency impacts Pharmacy’s role in healthcare
- Billing for cognitive abilities: the potential of Pharmacy services
- The vision of RPhAlly
- Pharmacists are at the forefront of advancing patient care
Key Quotes (Time Stamps)
- “And so, looking at myself from a 10,000-foot view and looking down and thinking, why does he do the things he does or why does he think the way he thinks—a lot of it really revolves around ancestral history for me. And so, having my Native American background and having connections to individuals in Native American communities who have been very inspirational in the ways that they handle their business, the way that they treat their families, the way that they communicate within their communities, and the way they put their communities first—has always been very interesting to see that. Often, there have been very strong female leaders that I’ve been influenced by from a very young age to now.” (4:54 – 5:34)
- “It’s a passion for me. I think you and I both share that we are very passionate about our profession and seeing the impacts that we can have on patients and patient care; and the improvement there.” (8:38 – 8:48)
- “I try to allow all of those hats that I’m wearing to be able to sit under one umbrella and then work with all of them at the same time. And that is probably the most beneficial.” (9:08 – 9:17)
- “I think I just enjoy variety, Kavi. I love the different dynamics of being able to do different things during the day and leverage and push your skill sets a little further and different aspects of what you could do professionally.” (10:52 – 11:03)
- “I realized, I love people just way too much, Kavi. I like being around people. Connecting with people is just part of my inner fiber. If you ever meet someone that you will struggle to get to stop talking—that’s probably me because I just enjoy it. I enjoy conversations. I enjoy learning about other human beings.” (11:58 – 12:17)
- “The Pharmacist in this setting (India Health Services-IHS) was able to blend their immense skill set and medication knowledge along with being able to directly interact with and better the patient, progressing their disease status. You know, oftentimes, they were focused on certain chronic diseases, but just the scope of what they were doing and the collaboration level they had with the physicians was stellar. And then the other piece that I felt was the most enjoyable is that the nursing staff, the providers, and everybody in the entire crew just really appreciated each person’s role in this collaborative healthcare environment. And I thought this is perfect. Like I can be on a team.” (14:30 – 15:08)
- “I’ve been able to work underneath chief medical officers and chief nursing officers and executive teams. They’ve had very different perspectives than me, and being able to be able to learn from them and the way they’re valuing things and the exact same things with other companies and trying to put myself in their shoes to look at their perspectives on what the problems are, how they create those problems in their minds and how they solve them and the solutions they solve for, and then try to replicate that across multiple hats to be able to solve those same problems and check off multiple boxes.” (18:36 – 19:10)
- “And so, becoming a Pharmacist, you and I just talked about, oftentimes, we love to just give things away because we’ve determined that we already have something else paying for all of our services, which doesn’t have to be our knowledge that we’re giving away. And so, I think monetization is the other element that I always try to weave into my mindset and philosophies.” (23:10 – 22:32)
- “In the next 5 to 10 years, the United States will look a lot different when it comes to how health care is delivered and deployed and how things are paid for. And so, because those changes are coming rather rapidly now and the advancements in technology are happening at a lightning-level of pace, being complacent may be the worst thing our profession could potentially do.” (26:54 – 27:14)
- “And it’s really all about avoiding that complacency and understanding that there’s a real opportunity for us to, one, educate each other and two, drop some of the walls and the facade with our side of the fence isn’t being impacted by the changes in health care versus your side of the fence. There honestly isn’t a fence. All of us need to recognize that patient care is something that all of us are in charge of, regardless of what part of the healthcare system you’re in, and being able to leverage the appropriate care providers across all care aspects is going to be essential for us to advance patient care, especially when we’re having the digital age come upon us that is going to change how we’re interacting, and the skill sets that we need to be successful inside of it.” (28:22 – 29:01)
- “Treatment is changing. What we think of as treatments are changing. And so, we have to be akin to that and attuned to that to make sure that we’re staying at the very top of our license and knowing a drug isn’t always going to be the next best choice. What is and do you know enough about it to be able to recommend that to your physicians and patients?” (35:36 – 35:53)
- “I think that the overall vision is just keeping the Pharmacists not just part of the team, but leading the teams in collaboration with their general practitioners to be able to advance patient care.” (42:18 – 42:28)
Important Clips (Time Stamps)
- The importance of faith, family, and gratitude in Kevin’s life (4:23 – 7:54)
- From family time to patient care: Kevin Walker’s journey in Pharmacy (7:57 – 9:25)
- Discovering one’s passion between the journey from research to patient care (10:37 – 15:24)
- Connecting the dots and identifying opportunities in patient care (16:07 – 19:30)
- Adding value and scaling impact through delegation and monetization (21:01 – 24:15)
- Threat of complacency in Pharmacy in the digital age (25:31 – 29:10)
- Beyond dispensing: how Pharmacists can thrive in an evolving healthcare landscape (30:29 – 35:35)
- How RPhAlly is empowering Pharmacists to transform patient care (37:14 – 42:47)
- Significance of Pharmacists finding their voice in healthcare settings (43:31 – 46:20)
