History of Conference

The Southeastern Pharmacy Residency Conference was the first of now six regional residency conferences in the nation. This unique program was conceived by giants in the profession including Fred Echol, Chuck King, Stoney King, Bob Lantos, Herman Lazarus, and Paul Parker whose idea to bring together the cutting edge concepts of hospital pharmacy practice through residency training culminated in the first conference on January 24, 1970 in Athens, Georgia. Having only 20 registrants from Alabama, Georgia, and Florida, at the first conference, the program has experienced sizable and important growth throughout its almost four decades. Last year, The Thirty-Eighth Annual Southeastern Pharmacy Residency Conference drew together over 500 attendees, of which 332 were residents presenting their research from nine southeastern states and Puerto Rico. Although residency training was focused on hospital practice in the past, today’s residents receive expertise from multiple settings including complex health care systems, managed care, and community practice.

The Southeastern Pharmacy Residency Conference is very proud of its distinctive history and its inspiration for subsequent conferences focused on the learning, outcomes and successes of residency education in pharmacy practice. The real history of this conference is written in the careers of those who have attended, learned something about the scientific method, learned to present themselves verbally before an audience of strangers, made friends, used contacts, and spent their lives helping patients make better use of their medicines.