Continuing Education

Although there are a myriad of functional medicine training programs available, most only offer CME – Continuing Medical Education, but not CPE – Continuing Pharmacy Education. This problem is part of the reason that FMPhA was initially founded! FMPhA Founder Lauren Castle started the Functional Medicine Facebook group after giving a CPE presentation at the Ohio Pharmacists Association Conference in April 2017, and started the FMPhA.org after giving a CPE presentation at the Michigan Pharmacists Association meeting in August 2017.

While FMPhA is actively working with organizations like IFM to offer CPE, there are now a number of virtual pharmacist-specific CE programs have become available over the years. Pharmacist CPE training programs on the topic of functional medicine can also be an excellent starting point before pharmacists foray into more advanced (and expensive) training or certifications. We all have to do CPE to maintain our license, so why not make it worthwhile and learn something that will truly change the way you practice pharmacy?

Here we list our top recommendations as well as ways to save on them by becoming an FMPhA member.

Virtual Options:

1. FunctionalMedicineCE.com – Founded by Melody Hartzler, FxMedCE is the premier CPE for Functional Medicine education. FxMedCE brings expert functional pharmacists like Lara Zakaria & Sarah Swidan, well-known practitioners like Carrie Jones, and top-tier educators like Thomas Guilliams together to provide a unique approach to clinical information and case studies, so that pharmacists can apply their learning in an understandable virtual format. FxMedCE offers both standalone one-day symposiums (7 hours) as well as an annual membership option with 2 hour monthly on demand lectures.
   FMPhA Member Discount: save 20% off with the code inside the FMPhA Membership, while friends of FMPhA can take 10% off with code FMPhA.
   
   
2. FreeCE Membership: This membership offers certificate programs for integrative topics such as the Supplementation Specialty Certificate and Cannabis Specialty Pharmacist. 
   FMPhA Member Discount: save 20% off FreeCE Membership, with discount codes inside the FMPhA Membership.
   
   
3. CEImpact: Functional Medicine addresses the root cause of chronic disease through lifestyle changes and appropriate medication use. This course addresses the six core principles of functional medicine and how pharmacists can apply tools to provide care for patients in this area. 
   
   
4. Thinking Outside the Vial Series – Taught by Lara Zakaria and Suzanne Keyes, and sponsored by NCPA, this series offers 9 hours of CE and kicks of with a free webinar, “Reimagining the Pharmacist’s Role in Functional Medicine“, before delving into 6 more topics that pharmacists need to know to integrate FM into pharmacy practice: GI, Diabetes, CVD, Hormones, Pain/Inflammation, and Allergies.
   FMPhA Member Discount: save 10% off each individual $75 webinar, or 10% off the complete $399 series with code inside the FMPhA Membership.

In person options: 

FxPharmacy Symposium – Held annually in September with rotating locations, this CE event is sponsored by Orthomolecular Products with CE accredited by FxMedCE. FMPhA has been attending since 2017, and now hosts a Friday FMPhA Meetup each year to bring members together prior to the Saturday Symposium. This is truly the premiere event for pharmacists in functional medicine!
FMPhA Member Discount: save $200 off registration with code in FMPhA Members Only page.

A4M World Congress – If you read our A4M blog, you’ll know that A4M is very inclusive of pharmacists in their educational offerings, particularly if you are a compounding pharmacist. While this isn’t a virtual option, the A4M World Congress event in December offers 19.5 hours of ACPE CE for Pharmacists, and you learn from some of the top names in Functional Medicine, like Terri Wahls, David Perlmutter, Deanna Minich, Andrew Heyman, Jill Carnahan, plus pharmacists like Sarah Swidan, Jim Lavalle, and Nayan Patel.
FMPhA Member Discount:  We offer scholarships for FREE tickets to World Congress or Spring Congress registration, and $750 off Modules.

We hope you found this guide helpful! If you know of additional functional medicine CPE opportunities, please let us know!

Consider joining FMPhA today to get access to these exclusive discount to make functional medicine CPE even more affordable.