Pharmacist Moms | Founder Suzy Soliman, PharmD

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary.

[00:00:12] Mike Koelzer, Host: Well, hello, Susie. Hi. How are you doing great? Thanks for joining the business of pharmacy podcast. Thank you. Thanks for having me tell us what's hot. Tell us why I probably reached out to you. 

[00:00:24] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: I am the founder of the pharmacist moms group, which is the largest group of women in pharmacy in the country.

Um, you know, in just two years, we, before. One of the largest groups for pharmacists representing the voice of women in pharmacy. 

[00:00:39] Mike Koelzer, Host: I heard you on another podcast and you said that one of the goals is to become the largest group on the internet of pharmacists. And break that down a little bit for our listeners who may not know the history of where women in pharmacy started, percent-wise back in the sixties to where they are now.

Yeah, 

[00:00:58] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: That's a great question. So, and throughout some of my research that I've done, when I've been presented. On women and in pharmacy, um, you know, what I found is that women for the past 40 years have graduated as the majority of pharmacists, you know, but there really wasn't an organization back in the 1960s.

Women only made up about 14.9, I think 15% of, of women in pharmacy. And it's slowly increased and, you know, by the. in the 1980s, more than half of each graduating class was made up of women, but there really wasn't an organization that focused on women in pharmacy, up until the pharmacist moms group. 

[00:01:41] Mike Koelzer, Host: And what is the ratio now, would you say of the pharmacy schools?

[00:01:45] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: I'm there for the 2010s. It's about two thirds, female, and one-third male.

You know, that's a great question. Um, I've presented on this before and there's a few, quite a few theories, but one of the largest theories is that, um, you know, which was published in a Harvard journal of economics shows. Pharmacy went from primarily, and it was all owner in management to a field where there were a lot more hospital positions.

Pharmacists were able to replace and walk in and walk out. You didn't have to bring your work home with you. It was kind of illegal to take your work home with you and women were looking for fields like that to raise their family while also having a great career. 

[00:02:32] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah, that's interesting. I always get mad at all the HIPAA stuff.

When that came out, we've been practicing HIPAA as a pharmacy. Pharmacists, pharmacy owners, all our lives. We never, you were never able, we were never able to bring stuff home, you know, to talk about patients and things like that. I suppose maybe owners did more, but it's never been a thing where you've been able to really spread out, and work at home on a patient.

You know, it was more like. Kind of more like an emergency room where you would do your thing and then, and then that patient wants to go to the next, the next person. That's a nice part of it. So pharmacy is two thirds women. So I would say, Susie, why do you need a pharmacist? Moms, you ladies are dominating.

You got the more dads out there that are overrun by 66% of the industry now are women. So what are some of the things that migrated from the years of a male dominated profession? So 

[00:03:28] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: one of the things that the pharmacist moms group is, we established a pharmacist moms coalition for change. Um, you know, as the founder of pharmacist moms, I've received countless messages from women who, um, we allow for anonymous posts within our group.

So someone can contact me or one of my other admins and send us a message, um, that is sometimes disheartening. And then we'll allow for it to go through anonymously. And through some of those anonymous posts I received messages about, you know, I've nowhere to pump, you know, I'm nursing and I don't have a facility at work.

I don't have a place to sit. I'm, you know, I might miscarry my baby. Should I let my manager know? Do you think that I might lose my job and, um, you know, just different issues that women were facing. So we established pharmacists, moms, and a coalition for change. Um, we're working on really all issues that face women, um, especially with.

Pregnancy, childbirth, um, you know, nursing, having young children. Um, I think a lot of those things weren't taken into consideration years ago, especially when it was a traditionally male field. So, um, I know myself, I suffered from preeclampsia. So at one point my legs were so swollen. I mean, I couldn't barely stand on my feet.

I was wearing my husband sneakers, um, towards the last few weeks of my. So I can't imagine, you know, um, 

[00:04:50] Mike Koelzer, Host: how big are those for you even closer now? Like bozo walking around? No 

[00:04:55] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: I know it was not, yeah, not, not a great time, but, you know, and I ended up delivering my son early. He was, you know, he was premature because of everything going on and you know, and I'm not the only woman who has gone through that.

And I can't imagine working in a pharmacy having to stand, you know, for a 14 hour shift. I liked really swollen or women who can't reach certain things because they are pregnant. You know, they're 38, 30, 9 weeks pregnant. They can't reach something on the top. They can't read something on the bottom. Um, different accommodations that don't have a stool, um, to sit or a place to sit.

And their physician might've said, you know what? You need to rest. You can't stand for X number of hours. So. Um, our coalition is working towards this. Um, we've established a not-for-profit arm of the pharmacist moms group, where we are working on this. Um, we actually heard, heard back from a couple of chain pharmacies already that we're focusing on.

Um, and Hy-Vee is one of them, they're based in the Midwest. I think I'm based in Iowa. And they're going to guarantee that their pharmacists have stools during pregnancy. Also very excited that we recently heard back from Walmart, which was a big win from us. Um, you know, we're really trying not to make changes because nobody was thinking about it.

Sometimes 

[00:06:09] Mike Koelzer, Host: drugs can be too low when you've got somebody with that can bend the road. Well, now I've got a washboard app and, and so I, you know, this would never be me of course, but if somebody happened to have a few more pounds around the midsection, but you know, really thinks he can get too low in a pharmacy where you can't bend down.

And so there's, there's that range of shorter men and women, or if you're pregnant and it's a certain range when you're going back hundreds of times. 

[00:06:36] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: Exactly exactly. And it's just those accommodations that should be necessary. And, I think a lot of women face that in other areas. And I've spoken about this before as well, but women who have worked in smaller offices, they might not have had a place.

Nurse comp, you know, um, so things like that. So I think that there's changes at, in the workplace in general, for women throughout other professions, and now pharmacies need to begin to make these changes as well. 

[00:07:03] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. I remember when some of the women that worked at my pharmacy. Had their needs of either pumping and things like that.

This is after the birth of their baby, but I was happy to oblige, but I wish that there were standards or suggestions that I could have looked to. And my pharmacists could have looked to instead of the two of us kind of reinventing the wheel. Right. 

[00:07:27] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: Exactly. And that's kind of what we're, we're trying to establish is just some sort of guidelines, standards, some sort of minimal.

Requirements that are, that are needed for women. 

[00:07:37] Mike Koelzer, Host: What any of these Susie turned into laws versus working with? Let's say the chains you mentioned who are coming along on things, or any of these things, laws, are they always working with the company? Would you say 

[00:07:49] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: they probably don't need to be a lot? I think they're also just general things that are happening now for women, you know, in all workplaces.

So I think. They would just follow along. So I don't necessarily think that we have to go that route. You know that maybe for provider status or other things that go the law. 

[00:08:10] Mike Koelzer, Host: So this way it seems like there's enough room and you're getting enough response from people. It's almost like, Hey, thanks for bringing that to our attention.

[00:08:20] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: And I think that's what's happened. I think that. Nobody was looking at this, you know, nobody was talking about it and now all of a sudden everyone's like, yes, that impacted me. So, um, you know, there hasn't been pushback or, you know, companies saying, no, we're not going to do this. I, you know, in fact, we're actually hearing more like, yes, you know what?

These are great ideas. We're going to begin to implement. So, um, you know, even hospitals now and, um, because it's not just retail pharmacists, so it's, you know, certain hospitals and, um, so all pharmacists that are, you know, might be standing and their staffing and, um, different areas. But I think it's just something that we need to talk about more.

I think that a lot of women have shied away from talking about it. And I think that's where we really need to begin. So you have more discussions on it. 

[00:09:04] Mike Koelzer, Host: I think you're right about that because I know as an owner, that one person came to me and had a request to at least listen and probably try to acquiesce to what I could.

But if. 10 people came or I knew it was like a national topic going on. It would probably push me along a little bit more quickly, you know, if I knew that and certainly the person wanting that would be more, as you just mentioned more comfortable in, in coming up, knowing that there's 30,000 pharmacists across the country that might be having the same discussion that day with their management team.

You exactly, 

[00:09:44] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: exactly. So I think it's just something that we need to talk about. We need to. Start discussing. And I think, um, you know, that's our goal really for 2020. I mean, that's what, we're what our plan 

[00:09:54] Mike Koelzer, Host: is. You've got a bigger heart than I do. I think all moms probably do, but, but I know you do. If I was going to start a group, I would say, I want to check out the coolness of the internet, being able to.

Gather groups together and how well it can build stuff and so on. So my impetus would be, I want to make a group. And now I'm going to find something to make a group for in your case though, did you have any of that? Are you saying I want to do something as a group or did this all come from just saying I'm a mom pharmacist with needs.

[00:10:38] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: Yeah, that's a great question. So, um, I never. thought this was going to happen. So I, you know, how it happened was my son who plays sports. He's, you know, I was missing a lot of his games. I was working a lot. I was just feeling guilty. It was just mom's guilt. And so really what I did was I said, you know what?

I want to talk to other pharmacists, moms, other moms who went through similar schooling to me had completed a residency maybe, or a fellowship. You know, went through all this training and then all of a sudden, boom, they have these kids and they're like, what am I going to do now? Am I going to continue working?

Am I going to work? Time my, you know, all the things that I was thinking about and having the mom guilt, where I was missing a lot of his games, especially on weekends, where I was working and his games were on Saturdays and I couldn't make it on a Saturday. Um, you know, and all the other moms were there.

So I started to feel that guilt. And so I started this group. Um, and it's really just been natural. 

[00:11:36] Mike Koelzer, Host: You truly wanted people to talk to and to associate with. 

[00:11:41] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: Yeah. And it's what I'm passionate about too. I think, you know, um, Ultimately, it was my passion and what I, what I've always been interested in, even when I was a pharmacy student, believe it or not, I was presenting on women in pharmacy.

And that was my research area. Um, you know, even in academia, when it worked, I was in the women's SIG for AACP. So I was always very passionate about women in pharmacy and women issues. Um, so the kind of the stars just aligned. Um, so I think. You know, when setting out I actually did not. And plan this, but if, if you were, I think, you know, finding something that's really meaningful to you, that's really the main thing.

If it's, if it's hard, then it probably doesn't, it's not going to work. You know, it has to just come naturally 

[00:12:31] Mike Koelzer, Host: your attraction to women's issues comes from, do you think? Where did your extra passion come even as far back as pharmacy school and so on? No, I 

[00:12:43] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: probably my family, um, probably, you know, my parents, um, maybe even, but yeah, definitely my parents are always pushing that, you know, that men and women are equal.

I can do everything. I had brothers and, um, you know, I could do whatever my brothers wanted to do. I, you know, I could do too. And, um, you know, Making sure that I was able to, you know, believe in myself. I think probably, yeah. I came from probably my family. I would say that was something that they always made.

Sure I believed in it. I know my father was. You know, my father's generation, a lot of the women just got married and my mother, my parents' generation, um, they didn't go to school. And my dad was always big on saying, you know what, as the woman, you have, his sisters all went, were educated and, you know, went to school and he was very, you know, a big believer in education.

And that, that was something that women had to do before. Thinking about it. You know, marriage or other things, 

[00:13:45] Mike Koelzer, Host: right. Do you have sisters? 

[00:13:46] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: No, I am not one girl. One 

[00:13:48] Mike Koelzer, Host: daughter. Yeah. And the rest of our brothers. How many brothers do. I have two brothers. Okay. I was going to ask to compare against your sister, like, well, is she, you know, is she doing that?

But there's no one to compare it to. Yeah. Yeah, 

[00:14:01] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: no, I don't have a sister, but, um, I have, my mom has a lot of sisters, but I didn't, my mom came from a family of 10. So she had to, she has a bunch of sisters. 

[00:14:11] Mike Koelzer, Host: That's awesome. That's awesome. I come from, uh, there's 12 of us kids and my wife comes from 13, so, wow.

[00:14:18] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: Wow. That's amazing. I know. I just found out you have 10 kids. 

[00:14:22] Mike Koelzer, Host: We have 10, so yeah, 

[00:14:23] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: amazing. Yeah. Big families. I always wanted more. I saw my mom who had a large family and so, um, that was something that. I wanted to have a lot of kids. Cause I came from furry, which isn't, you know, it's the average I would say.

Um, but I, but yeah, I definitely, I like having a lot of, you know, the big, the big families are fun. 

[00:14:45] Mike Koelzer, Host: That's awesome. Good for you. So, Susie, I'm going to go down the road of this group because you've had so much exposure. It's good for you. And people have learned about all those wonderful women and what their goals are, but let me go on the other side a bit here.

I want to dig into the behind the scenes of pharmacist, moms. We're going to get down to the nitty gritty of this. You start this going online and. All of a sudden this thing, it must be a kind of balloon. And what are your thoughts when that 

[00:15:18] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: happens, but then, you know, really excited to, um, I think I started to feel really excited about all the things that we could do.

Um, and then when things were getting done, It got me more excited and more pumped. And, um, you know, when the group grew and it just kept growing and it's still growing, 

[00:15:37] Mike Koelzer, Host: But is it just what you could do or is there any pride or I'm pretty cool because I've got this big group going, tell me there's some of that there, because I know that's what I would be doing.

And maybe it's because I don't see a big need for, you know, a fat men's group or something like that, but there's, but there, there has to be, there's gotta be some like, like pride there, like I'm cool at this. It's all about what the group is going to be able to do now that you have numbers. 

[00:16:06] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: Yeah. That's kind of what it is, what it's become.

Yeah, I'm pretty, I would say I was probably more on the shy side, so, um, I w. Taken aback when all of this happened. Um, and then, um, one of my friends who's in the group, she was like, no, you got to start posting and you've got to let people know you on social media. And, um, so she's tried to help me become more comfortable with that.

But, um, you know, I was never really comfortable even. I mean, I didn't like to post. Pictures of my kids and things like that. Now, now my big gun too. But, um, you know, for quite a few years I was just pretty, you know, I had my profile and, you know, I, wasn't a big social media person and now I have, you know, yeah.

Thousands and thousands of followers, 

[00:16:54] Mike Koelzer, Host: and that's a big decision to make, let your kids, and in your case, because there's a lot of people that don't, but in your case, the question was always going to be there because of the pharmacist moms. So you had to make that decision, whether to bring your kids along for the ride or not, you know, in the, in the social media, 

[00:17:09] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: Yeah, definitely.

Definitely with the pharmacist moms group, I feel like we're finally able to hear from everybody and hear everyone's voice and not just certain people who attend meetings. And, um, so it's been, it's been great to bring back to the profession. Did you have 

[00:17:24] Mike Koelzer, Host: any group before hitting the internet or was that your first launch into getting even a small group of people?

Like had you already had a little group together because of your. Speaking and that, or was the seed of that group, truly social media that got it up even to three or four people from the start 

[00:17:46] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: as my one and only, this is my first and only baby. 

[00:17:48] Mike Koelzer, Host: So you didn't have like a 10 person email group or something that you would talk about about mother issues?

No, 

[00:17:56] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: no, not at all. And that's why that night I couldn't sleep. I was like, I need to find somebody to talk to at Lido. Let me. I see, and that's kind of what happened, but no, I D I did. And I mean, I have my friends and things, but like I said, I really wanted to have people in, um, from, from my pharmacy.

[00:18:14] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah, that's cool. And, you've done a lot of papers too, haven't you? A lot of, like, what does that mean? Like peer reviewed papers. Like you, like, people can look at them and comment like a science paper. 

[00:18:25] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: Definitely. So, so basically when you write, um, you know, especially in academia, after, right.

For promotion or for tenure, and, um, there are different journals and the journals are rated. So for example, getting a publication in the New England journal of medicine, It ranked a lot higher than some small journal that maybe only a few folks have heard of. So first of all, there's different ranks, but peer reviewed is basically you submit it for review.

Um, there's people who moderate it, look through it kind of, um, you know, will determine if it will be accepted if it needs some revisions and then will be accepted, or if it's just rejected outright. And so, um, It's a, it's a lengthy process and, um, you know, but it, but it's definitely, um, the only way to be published.

Um, if you, if you know, if you want it to be taken seriously for an academic 

[00:19:20] Mike Koelzer, Host: career. Yeah. I don't have peer review. I just surround myself with my employees and I pay them to laugh at me and people be kind and things like that. I always enjoyed that as an independent pharmacist, getting together with our county board basically, which was a subsidiary of our state board, but it was always neat to have peers that weren't your work peers or your employees.

You could, you know, be more honest when you. Talk about the admins then do you break that up with them? Are they helping you do certain things or is it just like whoever gets to it first or have you started to actually segment your responses and so on to the social group? 

[00:20:06] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: Yeah, so they assist in different areas.

So some of 'em assist with posting, some of them assist with anonymous posts, some of them assist with moderating, you know, this needs to be removed or, um, so yeah, everyone kind of has. 

[00:20:20] Mike Koelzer, Host: Do you have a, like an official meeting or do you just talk this over online or how do you 

[00:20:24] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: do that? So we have another group that meets once a month.

We meet virtually once a month and that's our, that's our, yeah, that's our advisory board. So that kind of helps with different things that, um, you know, topics that might be coming up or things that we're planning. 

[00:20:39] Mike Koelzer, Host: How many of you in that. Um, purpose seven, like you don't want more. That's like how it ended up, you 

[00:20:45] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: Now, that's just how it ended up.

Yeah. Um, we could entertain others, you know? Um, I haven't, but at this point it's, it's been seven. So I 

[00:20:53] Mike Koelzer, Host: think back to when my dad was on the school boards and different things, it was true. Like a monthly meeting, you know, you'd get together once a month and stuff. Is this one of those where you say it's a monthly meeting, but you're shooting stuff back and forth all the time because of the ease of the.

[00:21:07] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: Yes. So we actually have a chat group too. So yeah, we were chatting often. Yeah. It just makes everything easier, you know? It's yeah. You don't have to wait until the monthly meeting. 

[00:21:18] Mike Koelzer, Host: Do you separate that meeting into any. Past, present and future. I know that your goal of having this group to represent the most pharmacists, do you talk about this with those seven?

Are these thoughts of your own that go there? 

[00:21:35] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: I mean, we, we talk about it, but then yeah, a lot of it is just kind of my own passions and, you know, thoughts that I, you know, my plan is to really push this group to become the largest group in, in pharmacy and the largest voice for pharmacists. If you 

[00:21:51] Mike Koelzer, Host: had to, if you weren't poking around this through the week, if someone said you've got to do something else, how many hours would you say you need right now to do this effectively?

Like if you were billing by the hour, how many hours would you say per week that you would need to stay on top of things? 

[00:22:13] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: Well, it depends on your it's a standard, right? Um, for me, I would say 24 7 because. Don't shut down, you know, um, I would love to, it's always around, you know, people are on the internet all the time.

[00:22:28] Mike Koelzer, Host: When people start realizing though that you weren't 24 7, let's say all of a sudden there was a limit on your time for some reason, when would they start noticing that you were. Up to where you have been for the last six months on this. Like, let's say, I said, Susie, you're going to be in this cabin and there's no internet access.

And for some reason you have to be there. You're only allowed to come into the library, you know, so often and use the internet. That's the only time you can do it. How often would you need to go visit that library? Or how many hours per week would you have to be there before people started saying, Hey, something's up?

Something's up with Suzy? Yeah. I 

[00:23:17] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: think people notice right. Pretty closely. So I'm around Thanksgiving. Actually. My father-in-law had a heart attack and. Mia for a little bit. And then people were messaging me and then they're like, why aren't you responding? And then I'm like, you know, then a couple of days, you know, and I'm like, I'm really sorry.

And just been really backed up and, you know, and then everyone's like, oh, I'm so sorry. And, um, so it, it has happened before, but, but yeah, you're right. Life happens and things happen and you know, I can't be available 24/7. Yeah. Some great admins and moderators that I, you know, that really help. And they'll, they'll take the wheel for me when I'm, when I am busy with, you know, different things, right.

If I want to go to a cabin, you know, or just a life in which different things happen. If 

[00:24:02] Mike Koelzer, Host: You went to this library, let's say two hours a day. Would that be enough before people would, like, if you went to the library, like on, if you went to a library, like on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, like from noon until two, would that be enough time?

So people wouldn't be asking what's happened to Suzy kind 

[00:24:19] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: of, I feel like people would notice 

[00:24:20] Mike Koelzer, Host: they would north because it's not like later at night and stuff. Right? 

[00:24:23] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: Yeah. Like I get messages all the time. I really do. I mean, if you check my inbox, it's just, it's always full. And I apologize. Because sometimes I miss them too, because.

There's a lot of them, it's always on. 

[00:24:35] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah, exactly. When you get to the biggest organization, this is going to multiply by 10. So how do you handle that then? Our a hundred whatever, with 

the 

[00:24:44] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: help of my other admins, like I said, so there they are helping, they're working with me closely and you know, so it's not, it's not a one, it's not a one man show, you know, we're really evolving to become.

An organization, you know, if I'm not available, then so-and-so is available or so-and-so is available. 

[00:25:01] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. Um, cause I noticed when we were setting this up, I think that you said one of the admins was going to maybe schedule this for something in, how do they know your schedule? And they're able to put certain things in there just to share 

[00:25:15] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: a Google 

[00:25:16] Mike Koelzer, Host: calendar.

They'll see the times that you're able, but then they can pick up on the Minuscules of actually filling out a form or whatever. I've got a group on LinkedIn. LinkedIn was a little bit trickier years ago before Microsoft bottom. And, um, they've had their struggles with ease of use and so on, but I started back then it's called independent pharmacy owners on LinkedIn.

So we've got about like 9,000 members on there, but mine was strictly the opposite of yours. I didn't mind knowing that I wanted to use it for something in the future. I was an independent pharmacist. So I cared about that. I can't say I cared about really other independent pharmacists that much, as long as it brought me along for the ride, but I knew at some point it's like, all right, if I can get the group, get it going.

I can use it for something down the road. And then 12 years later now I'm using it more probably for the podcast interaction and posting some of those new shows and things like that. When you're at some of these national shows, are you a local celebrity then with the pharmacist moms? 

[00:26:25] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: That's nice of you to say I don't, I wouldn't say I'm a celebrity, but you know, I enjoy meeting other pharmacists, moms, and I, you know, we're all one in the same, I think, you know, it's interesting to hear everyone's story and, um, I, I truly enjoy just connecting with others.

Um, you know, when I meet them, Um, especially when I talk about the different things that some of the stories that I hear, you know, that I want to bring out to. All right. I 

[00:26:50] Mike Koelzer, Host: got to come on, ask it then anybody asks you for your autograph. 

[00:26:55] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: That's funny. No, that's really funny. No, 

[00:27:00] Mike Koelzer, Host: I, no. One's asked you for your autograph 

[00:27:02] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: yet.

No, that's really that. That would be. 

[00:27:05] Mike Koelzer, Host: Yeah. I might be the first, if I, if I ran into you, I'd ask you for your autograph. 

[00:27:10] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: We do take selfies though. I take a lot of selfies with a lot of 

[00:27:14] Mike Koelzer, Host: I'm dating myself. That's the new thing. No, I guess people still do autographs, 

[00:27:20] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: right?

Some of their baseballs, autographs and stuff. You know, when we go to a game, can 

[00:27:27] Mike Koelzer, Host: I take a selfie with you, Susie? That kind of thing, right? Yeah. That, 

[00:27:31] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: that I do a lot of when I go to a lot of these meetings, you have a lot of fun with that. No, that's fun. That's, you know, it's funny. The whole point is that I want to.

All of our faces out there, you know, um, it's people talking about women in pharmacy and, and all of 

that. 

[00:27:48] Mike Koelzer, Host: I dunno, I'd be perturbed if the little people came up and wanted a selfie with me. Oh my gosh. I pretend to be that way. 10 years from now, you're the biggest group in pharmacy. And so on. What do you see your day looking like at that point, have you gone strictly to being the leader of this group or are you still doing your pharmacy job?

Whatever it would be at that 

[00:28:14] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: time? I think eventually I think that this would become a full-time job. Role for me. Um, you know, just being that there, there are a lot of things out there that we, that we need to do that we need to, I don't know if you want to use the word fix or. You know, change, but, um, I think we, we need to begin to work on, work on those.

If 

[00:28:34] Mike Koelzer, Host: tomorrow you could do this, full-time the pharmacist moms, would you do it 

[00:28:41] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: and not work outside of it? Yeah. Well that is work. I was going to say it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. So I think I wouldn't be myself, either. You 

[00:28:51] Mike Koelzer, Host: didn't enjoy it. So you could call it almost like a network, but you wouldn't do it.

Another pharmacy thing though. 

[00:28:57] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: If I was going to do that full-time then, you know, I can do, I mean, I kind of am doing it almost. Full-time already. So, and so is the accreditation council for medical affairs and we offer certification and training to individuals who are physicians, pharmacists, PhDs, who work in the pharmaceutical industries.

What 

[00:29:19] Mike Koelzer, Host: is the relationship? And your husband is working there. Did you guys, did you start this? Tell me the background of both of you being there. So he, 

[00:29:28] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: he was the founder he started in oh, is that right? But there were others, there were other people involved as well and interesting, you know, with the advisory board and things in that area.

So his whole background is then in pharma for the majority of his career. Yeah. For me because of what I did. So when I, when I was working in pharma, I was actually doing a lot of the assessment. And then even when I worked in academia, I was doing assessment of all those individuals. So that's where I came in.

And so I work as the chief academic officer there. I took pharmacy students from Rutgers, from St. John. Receptor FTU Bottura college of pharmacy. So I am actually a preceptor of all four schools. My counseling has rotating students in and out, um, that, um, that I'm working with. Um, and there's other pharmacists there as well at the ECMA.

Um, but I'm the primary preceptor there. So. Kind of bringing in my academia as well. So that kind of just worked out that that was my area and then my husband's area as well, but that's how it fits 

together. 

[00:30:32] Mike Koelzer, Host: And it would not be fair to say that you and he started it. He started it with a group of like-minded individuals.

Would you consider yourself a founder also or not? You came in. Besides the time traveling or you're working from home or a coffee shop, or are you at the ACM Mae and where do you do most of your stuff 

during 

[00:30:52] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: the day you have an office there or whatever? I am there. Yeah. And then I'm also having a home office.

So, so kind of in my car everywhere. I mean, I'm a mom, so it was like I do, when I drop my kids off at Kumon, I start working, you know, at the Dunkin donuts next door. And how 

[00:31:09] Mike Koelzer, Host: often would you say that you're actually at HCMA during the week? Oh, you are okay. So Susie, if someone said you had to take a year sabbatical and probably not improve something with the pharmacist, moms, or, or anything really that has to do with pharmacy, what would you do right now?

But you could come back, you know, you'd come back a year later. What would you do during that year? Would you 

[00:31:34] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: say? I would travel with my husband and my kids. Yeah, we would travel all over. I will probably take them to a lot of places all over the world. So then I would like to 

[00:31:44] Mike Koelzer, Host: do, yeah, I'd leave a lot of my kids at home or maybe just some of my kids at home during the time, the ones that are more of a pain in the behind for me.

If someone said years ago, like you couldn't go into pharmacy or medical, where would you be? If you weren't medically ill, 

[00:31:57] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: There probably would have been a teacher. Yeah. Yeah. Even, I mean, right now, sometimes when I pick up my kids from school, like you though, I wouldn't mind having my summers off and being like a fifth grade history teacher, her, you know, something like that.

[00:32:11] Mike Koelzer, Host: I would not like to teach. I don't like that repetition of, of doing that, you know, over and over, but that gets hard for you. To do that or, or you teach the same thing over and over with a 

[00:32:21] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: history. Oh, I would love it. Yeah. I don't know. I love connecting with, with, I would connect with the kids and yeah, that probably doesn't speak to you, but yeah.

[00:32:31] Mike Koelzer, Host: Pleasure talking to you. Thank you. Yeah, it was great 

[00:32:33] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: to talk to you as 

[00:32:34] Mike Koelzer, Host: well. I'm coming for your autograph. If I ever see you at one of the things, we're probably not going to cross over because you probably don't get to the community pharmacist things, and I'm too dumb to be led into the pharmacy affairs, things like that.

But if we run into each other, I'm going to go old fashioned and get your autograph. Plus I don't really know how to do the reverse, you know, switch your phone over and do a selfie at the same time. Best wishes on everything. It's really going to take off because your spirit behind that is really going to move things.

So I wish you guys all the best or you ladies, I should say all the best. Thank you. Thanks so much. All 

[00:33:09] Suzy Soliman, PharmD: right, Susie, we'll talk again. Thanks for having me on the show. Thanks, bye.