Chris Pasin, a pharmacist and owner of several Okanagan Valley pharmacies, has been awarded the 2017 Ben Gant Innovative Practice Award by the BC Pharmacy Association.
The award recognizes a pharmacist who’s demonstrated “significant innovation” in their practice, and has gone above and beyond in their profession. Pasin received it for his diligent work to “prevent and reverse the devastating effects” of the province’s opioid crisis.
Over the last couple of years Pasin has dedicated hundreds of volunteer hours towards educating physicians on how to best use and prescribe chronic pain medication. He’s also helped develop communications and care strategies for chronic pain patients with other front-line responders like the RCMP and mental health workers.
Most recently, he was invited by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC to present and participate in the latest Methadone 101 course, B.C.’s only recognized course for physicians to gain their methadone prescription license.
Partnering with his local family physician Dr. Peter Entwistle, Pasin provides regular in-clinic medication consultations and reviews, offering patients a comprehensive and collaborative approach to their health care.
Entwistle says the model Pasin has helped develop “has helped develop promises to provide a sustainable and patient-focused practical and equitable model of care to patients,” says Entwistle.
Pasin, who owns pharmacies based in Oliver, Penticton and West Kelowna, has been pushing to expand the pharmacist’s patient care role since entering the field in the early 1990s, and says the model is a “huge move forward for the profession.”
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