Pharmacists and Advocacy for Patients in Pain | TWIRx

Todd (0:30)

Wait, why do I always say that?

This is This Week in Pharmacy. It's like two this's's. This is this. This is TWIRx. Welcome to the show, a very special show today, with my friend, Pharmacy 50 Most Influential, for I think it was the Alumni 2025 class, Shane Jerominski. How are you?

Shane Jerominski (0:51)

What's going on, Todd? How are you? Nice to see everybody.

Todd (0:55)

Hey, we have two returning guests to the Pharmacy Podcast Network. And it wasn't called TWIRx back then.

I didn't have my own podcast until I had TWIRx, because the network was supposed to be off by itself, and I was supposed to have hosts come in and talk about specific things. So I get my very first podcast of doing this 17 years back in 2023 And Claudia and Bev, you haven't been on TWIRx, but you were on other shows that we've had. So welcome back to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.

Bev Schechtman (1:29)

Thank you. Thanks for having us.

Todd (1:32)

Claudia.

Claudia Merandi (1:35)

Thanks for having us back.

Todd (1:37)

Absolutely. All right. I want to start with the two of you. Bev, you were the first guest that I had back, you said, in 2020 It's making me feel old because of how fast time's going.

But set the stage for us. Tell us who you are, a little bit about yourself and your relationship and partnership with Claudia.

Bev Schechtman (1:58)

My name is Bev Schechtman. I am the Vice President of The Doctor Patient Forum. I first reached out to Claudia in 2017 We both have Crohn's disease and she was on a Crohn's group on Facebook after a horrific hospital stay where I was denied opioids for kidney stones because of a question I answered on the opioid risk tool about pre-adolescent sexual abuse. They use that to deny me opioids in the hospital for kidney stones. I reached out to Claudia.

The Dill Punish Pain Rally started from that, and then where we had rallies in all 50 states. Then the Doctor Patient Forum, I think it started 2019, something like that, the non-profit.

I do a lot of the research and the back-end stuff, a lot of the putting together the videos, taking clips, listening to all the CMEs, and Claudia does a lot of front-face stuff on social media where she gets to get attacked and I get to sit back and not get attacked.

Todd (3:00)

Listen, Claudia is like a social media slash media, and it wasn't even called social media when Claudia first started doing this. You are a powerhouse when it comes to media, even if you weren't talking about pain management, if you were out talking about, you were one of TMZs, reporters or something like that, you're just a good reporter of what's going on, and you do it with passion for patients. So give an introduction of yourself and what you do.

Claudia Merandi (3:34)

I think I'm so passionate because I'm a theater kid, and I think theater kids are always going to be a little more passionate than people who, I spent a lot of time in the theater and I'm an Italian Scorpio, so I am 100 percent passionate about what we do. There's a growing suicide list. I went on social media, 2000, gosh, I think it's 2017, and I announced I would organize a national protest for people who couldn't get their pain treated. Fast forward to today. We have about, I don't know, altogether people who follow us on TikTok, Facebook, probably 700,000 who follow our efforts. We've got chapters in all 50 states, and I am primarily the spokesperson, so I'm the person that people see on a regular basis. And I think, you know, why we're all here today is because of a video that I made several weeks ago.

My job is to make videos, get the message out there. You know, I don't have an easy job. I have the job of telling people to make Oxycontin great again, which is triggering for a lot of people, but we've got to stop the bleeding. So my videos can be extremely controversial to people, and I understand there's some big feelings with my videos. But I made a video in response to what I'm seeing on social media with a lot of the younger PharmDs, and it was just very scary to me, a bit appalling because so many of the younger PharmDs were boasting about not dispensing pain medication. And I had texted Bev and I said there's a theme here. They're never talking about withholding abortion medication or suboxone. It was always confined to, this is why I'm not going to fill pain medication. But there was a sense of arrogance in some of the younger PharmDs. But let me say one thing, I have immense respect for the pharmacist role in medicine.