Shields Health Solutions Awards Two Resident Research Grants to Advance Health System Specialty Pharmacy

STOUGHTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Shields Health Solutions (Shields), the premier specialty pharmacy accelerator in the country, is proud to award resident research grants in the amount of $5,000 to supplement two existing initiatives advancing health system specialty pharmacy in 2024. This marks the fourth consecutive year Shields has offered grants to qualified health systems in the interest of furthering health system-based specialty pharmacy. Recipients of this year’s grant include Jason Au, PharmD from the University of Southern California Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Jennifer Chang, PharmD and Tiffany Tsai, PharmD of UC Davis Health.

“By enhancing specialty pharmacy services, we can help health systems deliver high quality and cost-efficient care for complex patients,” said Brian Smith, Chief Pharmacy Officer at Shields. “Our research grant program has supported innovation by numerous residents in health system-based specialty pharmacies over the past four years, and we are proud to add this year’s recipients to that list.”

Jason Au, PharmD at the University of Southern California Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences earned a grant for his project titled Impact of Medication Therapy Management Services in a Specialty Pharmacy Settings. Nazeli Bairamian, PharmD, Co-investigator, Havan Truong, PharmD, Residency Site Coordinator and Co-investigator, Richard Dang, PharmD, Residency Program Director, and Allison Chacon, PharmD, Residency Program Coordinator, supported the retrospective, observational study, which aims to identify barriers to implementing Medication Therapy Management (MTM) services in a specialty pharmacy workflow. It also seeks to measure revenue generated from billed MTM services, patient satisfaction, and the provider acceptance rate.

Jennifer Chang, PharmD and Tiffany Tsai, PharmD of UC Davis Health earned the research grant for their project titled Impact of Integrated Clinical Pharmacy Services on Patient Outcomes in a Cardiac Rehabilitation Program. This study, with support from Claire Yang, PharmD, Co-investigator, and Javier E. Lopez, M.D., Director of UC Davis Health Cardiac Rehabilitation Program, aims to evaluate how pharmacists may impact patient outcomes and characterize the type of interventions made in a cardiac rehabilitation program at a large academic medical center. Drs. Chang, Tsai and Yang also hope to establish the benefits of utilizing the clinical specialty pharmacy services model in a variety of institutional settings to improve patient outcomes, resolve medication-related complications and ultimately reduce systematic morbidity and mortality.

About Shields Health Solutions

Shields Health Solutions (Shields) is the premier specialty pharmacy accelerator in the country. The Shields Performance Platform, an integrated set of solutions, services, and technology, is intentionally designed to elevate payer and drug access for specialty pharmacies, elevate health outcomes for complex patients, and elevate growth throughout the entire health system. As the foremost experts in the health system specialty pharmacy industry, Shields has a proven track record of success including access to over 80 percent of all limited distribution drugs (LDDs) and most (health insurance) payers in the nation; and a clinical model proven to lower total cost of care by 13%. In partnership with more than 80 health systems across the country through national-scale collaboration, Shields has a vested interest in delivering measurable clinical and financial results for health systems. For more, visit our blog and follow us on social media, @ShieldsRX, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube. Shields Health Solutions is a wholly owned subsidiary of Walgreens Boots Alliance and employs nearly 2,000 people across the country.