This Profile in Personalized Medicine highlights Charles Wall, DPh, owner of Heartland Apothecary located in Knoxville, Tennessee. A PCCA member since 2009, Charles graduated from Samford University for both his undergraduate and pharmacy school education.
 

How did you start compounding? What led you to PCCA? 
After being in sterile IV pharmacy for the first 15 years of my career, I completed the nuclear pharmacy program at Purdue University and needed my practical hours. I trained at a nuclear-medicine site that also made a few compounds a day and found this model interesting. When I started the pharmacy, I intended to open as a nuclear site first and add compounding to our pharmacy services later, but due to the market, I flipped the model and started compounding first and never looked back. I had known about PCCA for a long time and reached out to Tim Adams of PCCA Outside Sales with some general questions, and we just took it from there. 

What was your toughest patient problem? How did you solve it? 
We had a patient with recurrent vaginal yeast who was unresponsive to commercially available products. So we worked with her health care provider to develop a suppository that included four antibiotics and antifungals that we recommended based on her lab test results. After two rounds of therapy, the patient reported improvement and the symptoms have subsided. The patient is experiencing a reduction in pain as well as other issues. We used PCCA formulas and combined a couple in order to offer the patient ease of application, and the results have been well received.

What has been your most satisfying patient experience? 
Extending the life of an elderly canine patient who was experiencing seizures. She enjoyed a year of nearly seizure-free life.

What is the biggest “aha” moment you’ve had as a member of PCCA? 
The exposure to others who practice at the cutting edge of the profession. Seeing others approaching this niche area and using it to springboard onto other things and not be boxed in .

What is your favorite PCCA base, and why? 
LoxaSperse® . It has so many useful applications and great results. One patient in particular had issues absorbing drugs. We tried several different capsule formulas and fillers, and we achieved adequate absorption by adding a low percentage of LoxaSperse to the formula. The resulting levels have stabilized, and the patient is now enjoying better quality of life.

What is your favorite PCCA educational event, and why? 
In my first C3  compounding course at PCCA, I made some lifelong friends and was exposed to more about compounding than I ever would have expected. 

When was the last time a patient thanked you? 
It seems almost daily we hear from patients on hormone replacement therapy about how it has improved their lives and their spouses’ lives. 

What is the one thing you would say to new compounders? 
I preach it to students in each pharmacy school rotation: Use the profession as an entry to other things you enjoy — be it investing, another hobby or another profession. Pharmacy compounding allows you to grow quickly, so use that opportunity early, and you will reap many benefits later.