What is ADVANCE?
ADVANCE is an online continuing professional development platform designed to transform pharmacy practice by developing pharmacy professionals and supporting achievement of their professional goals.
ADVANCE helps users meet their requirements set forth by licensing boards, employers, and schools or colleges of pharmacy, growing clinical competencies, honing personal characteristics, and bolstering well-being.
Employers and schools and colleges of pharmacy can subscribe to the service on behalf of their pharmacists and student pharmacists and use it to track and accelerate the development of their team.
Who can use ADVANCE?
At this time, ADVANCE is available by invitation only. Pharmacists and student pharmacists whose employers or schools or colleges of pharmacy have a subscription for ADVANCE will receive an email with a unique product key that grants that individual access to create a professional development plan. Soon, we hope to make ADVANCE available to individuals who wish to purchase access for themselves.
Is my data secure in ADVANCE?
ADVANCE is committed to protecting the information of all of our users. The security of information in ADVANCE is our highest priority. Data in all stages of storage and transfer in the ADVANCE architecture is secured using healthcare industry-standard encryption. Our security features include:
- Data encryption both in transit and at rest
- Data access is highly restricted and accessible only by authorized users
- ADVANCE tracks and logs user access and change history for auditing and analysis
- Privacy policies that govern transparency around what data can be shared
Does ADVANCE use two-factor authentication?
Yes, ADVANCE uses two-factor authentication as an added, optional way to protect your account from unauthorized logins. Two-factor authentication adds additional security to your account by requiring not only your username and password, but also a 6-digit code from your mobile phone. If your password is compromised, your account will be inaccessible without the unique code sent to your phone.
If you have access to other users’ data (e.g., team managers, team members, mentors), two-factor authentication will be mandatory starting December 13, 2021. Until then, you can click to skip the set-up process.
For all other users, two-factor authentication will be optional.
Helpful hints:
- Be sure to use a mobile phone number, so you can receive the authentication code via text message.
- If you need to change the mobile phone number, visit the “Settings” section after you’ve logged in.
- Once you’ve set up two-factor authentication, you will need to enter an authentication code each time you login
Who will see the information in my Plan?
ADVANCE provides subscriptions to pharmacist employers and schools and colleges of pharmacy (collectively referred to as subscribers) to help them and their respective populations manage professional development.
As part of their subscription, the subscribers can populate the plans of their employees and student pharmacists with required activities. ADVANCE allows the subscriber to see information related to the user’s completion status for those subscriber requirements. Additionally, ADVANCE shares aggregate reports with subscribers that provide averages and insights across their whole population.
ADVANCE does not share individual-level data with pharmacist employers for anything other than those related to subscriber requirements. This means your employer will never know how you individually score yourself in any part of the EVALUATE step, see your career goals or other analysis, or know what activities you’ve added to your individual Plan.
For student pharmacists and others who are affiliated with schools or colleges of pharmacy, ADVANCE may share information from your individual Plan with your school that will help faculty members and school administrators track your progress against requirements.
Your information will only be provided based on our User Agreement and strict data usage guidelines.
What is a Pathway?
Pathways are part of the secret sauce of ADVANCE!
- Pathways help you purposefully grow within a key area of pharmacy practice. They are created by experts in the field and include curated activities that will help you maintain or enhance your skills.
- Pathways begin with the completion of an assessment. ADVANCE customizes activities that are added to your Plan based on your answers to the assessment. This means you only spend time learning things you didn’t already know, which helps propel your career forward.
- Pathways are the easiest way to fulfill the baseline continuing professional development requirements for your annual Plan because they include at least one activity in each of the core Plan areas of Patient Care, Management, Leadership, Community Service, Scholarly Activities, and Well-Being.
Despite all they have to offer, Pathways are not required. Users can bypass the step to select Pathways by clicking the “Next” button on that screen.
Why should I use ADVANCE?
If you are a pharmacist or student pharmacist, ADVANCE can help you with your professional development, helping you balance your required training with your interests and goals. We offer you an easy-to-use online planning tool that will guide you through the process of creating your professional development plan and then help you complete it with to-do lists and alerts. We’re with you every step of the way as you advance your professional life!
If you are a pharmacist employer or school or college of pharmacy, ADVANCE can help you develop your pharmacist employees or student pharmacist population. Not only can we help ensure that your population meets your training requirements, we can provide actionable insight into their strengths, skills, and well-being.
What does ADVANCE cost?
For pharmacist employers and schools and colleges of pharmacy, ADVANCE pricing will depend on the size and composition of your population. Contact us for a demo and a custom quote. Contact Us
ADVANCE is not currently available for purchase by individual pharmacists, but if you’d like to alerted when it becomes available, sign up on our Registration page.
What is the ADVANCE privacy policy?
ADVANCE collects information about your usage of the service as a part of our continuous effort to improve features and the overall user experience. The usage information that is collected may include your activity in the service and information about your device (e.g., its IP address, web browser and operating system, device model and manufacturer). Please review our Privacy Policy for more details.
How do I get an ADVANCE Plan?
Currently, ADVANCE is only available to employees and students through their employers or schools and colleges of pharmacy who have subscribed to our service. In the future, we plan to make ADVANCE available to individual pharmacists and students. Click here to be alerted when ADVANCE is available for you!
If you received a Welcome Email inviting you to sign-up for your ADVANCE account, please click the link in that email to begin the sign-up process. If you lost your Welcome Email, please contact our support team.
How do I update my Plan?
To update your plan, login using your email address and password. From your ADVANCE Welcome page, you can click on any section to update the information, or click continue on that page to pick up where you left off!
How often should I review my Plan?
We hope you will do it often! If you have any changes in your professional goals, employment or professional activities–it’s time to update your Plan. The DO section of ADVANCE is where you will track your progress toward Plan completion, so login regularly to check off your completed activities.
At a minimum, it’s a good idea to review your Plan at least quarterly even if you don’t think you have anything specific to update.
What should I do if my Plan is incorrect or incomplete?
Your Plan can be updated or completed at any time by logging in using your email address and password. The Welcome page will help you navigate to different sections of the system to develop and complete your Plan. Throughout ADVANCE, a green checkmark in the navigation bars indicates that the section is complete. However, you can update most sections of ADVANCE at anytime. The only items that cannot be updated are any Pathway-related or subscriber-required assessments, which can only be submitted once per year.
How long will it take to create my Plan?
Estimated time to create a basic Plan is approximately two hours – you even earn CPE credit for building your Plan.
What is the relationship between Pharmacy Profiles and ADVANCE?
ADVANCE leverages the infrastructure of the Pharmacy Profiles platform to provide an integrated experience between maintaining professional credentials and purposeful professional development. This partnership fuels the single sign-on between ADVANCE and Pharmacy Profiles and the flow of certain Profile information into your ADVANCE Plan.
Do I need to have a Profile from Pharmacy Profiles to use ADVANCE?
Yes, all ADVANCE users must sign-up for a Profile with Pharmacy Profiles as part of your sign-up process with ADVANCE. If you already have a Profile, you will skip that step when you sign up for ADVANCE.
Pharmacy Profiles is a trusted and verified repository of the nation’s pharmacist providers. It enables pharmacists and student pharmacists to manage their professional information all in one place – licensure, advanced training, certifications, education, employment, awards, publications, interest areas and more. There is no cost to set up or maintain your Profile.
ADVANCE and Pharmacy Profiles share information across the platforms to give you an integrated experience between maintaining your professional information and purposeful professional development.
Can I use ADVANCE to help manage my population’s training requirements?
Absolutely! ADVANCE developed our continuous professional development platform for pharmacy stakeholders such as pharmacist employers and schools and colleges of pharmacy. ADVANCE provides a single platform for you to assign and track the training requirements you have for your population. As a bonus, you can gain population-level insight into strengths, skills, interests, and well-being that could help direct your future training and support activities. Contact us for more information and a demo.
How do I change my email address or password?
To change your email address or password, please login to your Account and click the Account link at the top of the page. Complete the change form and click the save button. Please note that you use the same email and password to login to ADVANCE and Pharmacy Profiles.
How can I get help with my Plan?
We’re here to help! If you don’t see the response to your question in our Frequently Asked Questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us or call us at 1-800-237-2742.
Does my Plan need to include activities in all six areas?
Every ADVANCE Plan includes activities in six areas Patient Care, Management, Leadership, Community Service, Scholarly Activities, and Well-Being. By included activities in each area, you diversify your learning and ensure your progress to becoming a more well-rounded professional. You are able to add more activities in a specific area(s) according to your interests and goals.
What are the steps I need to do to create my Plan?
ADVANCE leverages an easy-to-understand, cyclical process that simplifies and structures the creation of a professional development plan unique to each individual user. ADVANCE takes each user through a five step process that builds upon ACPE’s Guidance on Continuing Professional Development, the FIP Statement on Professional Standards for Continuing Professional Development, and CCP’s Resource Document for Continuing Professional Development in Pharmacy. ADVANCE then uses intelligent analysis tools to recommend activities that meet each user’s goals, evaluation results, and requirements. Users are then able to refine the plan, track progress, and apply what they have learned. Learn more
Created by the American Pharmacists Association, ADVANCE is a continuous professional development planner and workforce development tool. It utilizes self-evaluation to provide intelligent recommendations for activities that will move individuals toward their goals while also meeting their licensure, employer, and school requirements.