I wanted to let members know about two ISMP pharmacists who have retired or will be retiring soon, Darryl Rich and Matt Fricker.

Darryl Rich, who's been with ISMP for the past 5 years, is retiring effective February 28. Darryl has accomplished a great deal while at ISMP. He has led the ISMP effort to create the Targeted Medication Safety Best Practices for Hospitals, has served as editor of the ISMP Long-Term Care AdviseERR newsletter, and has also overseen ISMP efforts in running the Medication Safety Officers Society (MSOS). Prior to joining ISMP, Darryl worked with The Joint Commission for over 20 years. Thank you, Darryl, for your outstanding work in improving medication safety.

Chris Michalek will be taking over the reins in overseeing the MSOS and will work with Bob Feroli on Member Briefings. Chris is a pharmacist on our consulting team and is an expert in advancing medication safety technologies, recently overseeing the update to our ISMP Guidelines for Safe Preparation of Compounded Sterile Preparations. She serves as a Patient Safety Analyst for the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System and is former director of pharmacy at Lehigh Valley Health Network and Doylestown Hospital, both in PA.

Finally, I also wanted to mention the retirement of Matt Fricker, whom many of you know. Matt was a pharmacist with ISMP for over 15 years, also with our consulting team. Prior to retiring, Matt headed our safety work with anticoagulants and blood products and oversaw development of the updated ISMP Medication Safety Self Assessment for Antithrombotic Therapy. As program director, he also developed many other projects on behalf of ISMP. His clinical expertise is sorely missed.

While we are sad to see Darryl and Matt leave, we wish our retiring pharmacists a long, happy, and healthy retirement and will certainly stay in touch with both gentlemen.