Dr. Juliana Chan is a clinical associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Pharmacy and in the College of Medicine in the sections of Digestive Diseases, Nutrition, and Hepatology. She earned her B.S. degree in pharmacy and her Pharm.D. degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy (MCP). She completed a Pharmacy Practice Residency (PGY1) and a Specialized Residency in Gastroenterology and Hepatology (PGY2) at the University of Michigan. She is a Board Certified Ambulatory Care Pharmacist who teaches and conducts research in gastroenterology and hepatology with a focus on viral hepatitis.

During the past decade, Dr. Chan had many opportunities to serve in several clinical capacities. In 2002, she established the first hepatitis C pharmacist-managed clinic at the University of Illinois Medical Center (UIMC) Outpatient Care Center, which was subsequently dedicated as the Bobbie and Marvin Fink Liver Clinic. She was the primary care provider for patients with hepatitis C when referred by the hepatologist to initiate hepatitis C therapy. Dr. Chan was responsible for all patient assessment and education, as well as for ordering and monitoring pertinent laboratory tests, providing therapy and dosage adjustments, and managing adverse drug effects associated with hepatitis C medications. The pharmaceutical care she provided allowed her to focus her efforts on maximizing the benefits of liver drug therapy, reducing complications and adverse effects, improving patient outcomes, and decreasing overall health care costs.

In 2007, Dr. Chan was named the assistant director of clinical pharmacy in ambulatory care at UIMC. Her clinical skills and expertise in creating the hepatitis C service revolutionized specialty pharmacy services at UIMC. Under her direction, rheumatology, neurology, and gastroenterology specialty pharmacy services were created, which mirrored and modeled the hepatology service she had established. In addition, during her tenure as assistant director, she focused her research efforts on pharmacy administration, including the management of Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS), quality improvement, and medication safety.

Because of Dr. Chan’s success in creating the pharmacist-managed hepatitis C clinic in early 2000, she was selected to spearhead the development of a novel telemedicine clinic at UIC. Established in 2010, the hepatitis C telemedicine program provides direct patient care to about 300 inmates with viral hepatitis within the Illinois Department of Corrections by video conferencing; Dr. Chan is currently the clinical pharmacist who oversees this program.

Dr. Chan has given many invited national and international presentations on gastrointestinal and liver topics, published her research in peer-reviewed professional and scientific journals, and written several book chapters. She has also presented many papers on pharmacy administration with a focus on REMS, specialty pharmacy services, and quality improvement initiatives involving the Joint Commission requirements; these presentations have occurred at the University HealthSystem Consortium, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and ACCP.

Through the years, Dr. Chan’s career has been enriched with several challenges and successes. She states that two individuals were of great influence to her, responsible for getting her to where she is today. The first is Professor Marion Hoar, her pharmaceutics professor at MCP, who taught her that perseverance is the key to success. Dr. Chan fondly recalls days in the pharmaceutics lab, making suppositories during intensely hot summer months. She felt punished and wondered “why me?” of all students chosen to make suppositories, a “not-so-nice” dosage form to be compounded in 90-degree weather. Although Dr. Chan pled with Professor Hoar to assign another item to compound, she was unsuccessful. Professor Hoar kept telling her “to keep trying and do not give up so easily.” He always pushed students to their limits and never gave them an easy answer; instead, he encouraged and nurtured self-thinking, pushing his students out of their comfort zone. It certainly was a journey, going through the pharmaceutics course. Professor Hoar, however, taught her that determination and “giving it your all” would make everything worthwhile. Professor Hoar’s constant guidance afforded her many “aha” moments…including a successful outcome when congealing a suppository, even in the warm weather.

The other individual who molded Dr. Chan into who she is today is Dr. Rosemary R. Berardi, professor emeritus of pharmacy at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy. During Dr. Chan’s PGY1 residency program in 1998, she was introduced to Dr. Berardi, who identified herself as the GI/liver clinical pharmacist who was encouraging/soliciting residents to be on her clinical service. Dr. Chan states that the first words of Dr. Berardi were, “If you want to learn and teach, then select my rotation,” and that afterward, the professor left her curriculum vitae (CV) on the table and exited the room. Dr. Chan was petrified as she thought, Who would be “crazy enough” to be a clinical pharmacist specializing in constipation and diarrhea? However, at the same time, she was intrigued as she perused Dr. Berardi’s unique CV and, without hesitation, selected her GI/liver rotation. Because this occurred during the first 2 months in the PGY1, Dr. Chan quickly realized that GI was more than bowel excretion. Dr. Berardi modeled the persona of an excellent clinician who treated every patient as though he or she were her own “mom or dad” and encouraged Dr. Chan to “always think outside the box!!!” Dr. Berardi’s mentorship solidified Dr. Chan’s desire to pursue a PGY2 residency in GI/liver under her guidance. Dr. Chan has no regrets about the day she was selected to develop her knowledge and skills under Dr. Berardi’s tutelage. She truly believes that many of her academic accomplishments were achieved through Dr. Berardi’s guidance, mentorship, and, most importantly, friendship, through the years. Dr. Chan readily credits Dr. Berardi with her contributions to pharmacy and for being the thought leader in the gastroenterology and hepatology pharmacy world; without her being the “mother” and “creator” of this unique and specialized area, many of us would not be where we are today.

Dr. Berardi introduced Dr. Chan to ACCP and the importance of committee work. Dr. Chan maintains that without Dr. Berardi, there would be no GI/Liver/Nutrition PRN today. Dr. Berardi established the ACCP GLN PRN and invited Dr. Chan to be one of the founding members in 1999. Since then, Dr. Chan has been actively involved in national organizations, devoting most of her time and energy to ACCP. Among her contributions to ACCP are serving as a reviewer for annual and spring meeting abstracts for ACCP, for Pharmacotherapy, and for the Pharmacotherapy Preparatory Review Course on Gastroenterology Disorders. For the Clinical Administration PRN, she has served as a co-chair on the Programming Committee and has established the Scholarship Committee. She was also selected to be the GLN PRN secretary/treasurer for 2012–2013. In addition, she has been invited to write the Viral Hepatitis section for the ACCP Pharmacotherapy Self-Assessment Program in the ACCP Ambulatory Care New Practitioner Survival Guide/Resource Manual and will be an item writer for the GI/liver content in the ACCP National Student Competition. Dr. Chan follows Dr. Berardi’s example and is giving back to students, residents, and junior faculty by participating as an ACCP CV reviewer, National Resident Advisory Committee mentor, and Teaching and Learning Academy mentor. She encourages all trainees to join ACCP early in their career, telling them that this organization will help them grow professionally.

Dr. Chan gives credit to ACCP and states, “Being a member has allowed me many opportunities never thought of more than a decade ago.” Dr. Chan believes her success in the practice of pharmacy is directly because of those who taught and mentored her when she was a student and resident. To be successful in the ever-evolving health care system, Dr. Chan advises students and residents to (1) seize every opportunity when it appears; (2) accept criticism to decrease your blind spots, even if not presented in a constructive way; and (3) never be afraid/reluctant to voice your thoughts and/or opinions because you never know. Dr. Chan’s motto is, “Ask and you may receive, give and you will receive.”