Judith Jacobi, Pharm.D., FCCP, MCCM, BCCP, has been chosen by the Parker Medal Selection Committee as the 2024 recipient of the College’s Paul F. Parker Medal for Distinguished Service to the Profession of Pharmacy. After 38 years as a critical care pharmacist, Jacobi transitioned from providing bedside care in 2019 to providing expertise to organizations through scholarly work, volunteerism, and consultations. She is a contributing member of the GTMRx (Get the Medications Right) Institute Workgroup’s Practice and Care Delivery Transformation and Evidence-Based Resources Subgroup and treasurer of the National Coalition for IV Push Safety. She recently served as a senior consultant to Visante, focusing on the safety of medication administration through IV, clinical pharmacy practice models, and COVID-19 therapy.
Paul Parker was one of clinical pharmacy’s most influential proponents. Before his death in 1998, Parker spent 24 years as director of pharmacy at the Chandler Medical Center/University of Kentucky in Lexington. His innovations included developing decentralized pharmacy services, placing pharmacists in the hospital’s clinical areas, and developing the nation’s first pharmacist-staffed drug information center. Parker’s vision for pharmacy practice was passed along to the more than 150 residents and fellows who trained in the Kentucky program during his tenure. These disciples included many of today’s leaders in clinical pharmacy who continue to pass along his wisdom and vision to their trainees and colleagues. The Paul F. Parker Medal recognizes an individual who has made outstanding and sustained contributions to the profession that improve patient or service outcomes, create innovative practices, affect patient populations, further the professional role of pharmacists, or expand the recognition of pharmacists as health professionals.
The Parker Medal Selection Committee chose Jacobi as the 2024 medalist on the basis of her longstanding commitment to the pharmacy profession as a clinician, scholar, educator, and leader.
Dr. John W. Devlin, a professor in the Department of Pharmacy and Health Systems Sciences at Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, and associate scientist and critical care pharmacist in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, wrote in his letter supporting Jacobi’s nomination:
In 1982, Dr. Jacobi was the first critical care pharmacist at Methodist Hospital, and one of the first in the country, to directly engage with physicians and other ICU professionals to optimize pharmacotherapy in the complex critical ill population. As a pioneering ICU pharmacist, Dr. Jacobi helped define the role of the critical care pharmacist and became a role model for pharmacists around the country (and world) who were interested in delivering direct patient care in the ICU and justifying their role to pharmacy and hospital administrators.
In her letter of support, Dr. Amy L. Dzierba, a critical care clinical pharmacist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, wrote:
At the time I write this letter, Dr. Jacobi has over 100 manuscripts with most appearing in high impact journals, over 200 invited presentations, and 100 abstracts/poster presentations demonstrating her commitment to the advancement and innovative approach of critical care pharmacotherapy. Dr. Jacobi has consistently demonstrated, through her research, how to improve the quality of care and outcomes of a vulnerable patient population by asking and answering significant clinical questions and disseminating the results.
In addition to Jacobi’s published manuscripts, presentations, and posters, she has chaired and co-chaired numerous clinical practice guidelines, including the Glycemic Management Guideline Committee (co-chair, American College of Critical Care Medicine), the COVID Therapy Strategic Education Task Force 2020 (chair, Society of Critical Care Medicine), and the Leadership, Empowerment, and Development Program Task Force and Committee (co-chair, Society of Critical Care Medicine). She has also served as principal investigator on many research activities, including Zanamivir IV Emergency Use Protocol and Project Mercury, a retrospective observational study assessing the use of drotrecogin alfa (activated) in adult patients with severe sepsis.
Not only has Jacobi made sustained contributions to the clinical pharmacy profession and patient populations, but she has also made significant contributions to pharmacy education and training. Throughout her career, Jacobi served as program director for critical care pharmacy PGY2 residents and precepted many PGY1 pharmacy residents and students. In her supporting letter, Dzierba also shared:
Dr. Jacobi has positively influenced and educated numerous pharmacy students, first and second year pharmacy residents, as well as medical and surgical attendings, residents, students, nurses, dieticians, and respiratory therapists. Dr. Jacobi has taken an innovative approach to advancing pharmacists and other healthcare professionals through leadership, mentorship, and workplace relationships. She was a key contributor to the establishment and expansion of SCCM’s Leadership, Empowerment, and Development (LEAD) program that empowers clinicians to enhance their professional development and ultimately drive organizational success and improve patient outcomes. Dr. Jacobi has rooted herself in strong, lifelong mentoring relationships throughout her tenure as a critical care pharmacist. She established a pharmacy second year postgraduate training program and served as the program director for 29 critical care pharmacy residents. It is evident that Dr. Jacobi’s work with learners in pharmacy and other healthcare professionals further extends the impact and sustainability of advancement of critical care and improved patient outcomes.
Dr. Meghan M. Blais, cardiovascular critical care clinical pharmacist at Nebraska Medicine – University of Nebraska Medical Center, writes that in addition to Jacobi’s pioneering contributions to the clinical pharmacy field: “She continued to educate on a local level, serving as faculty at two pharmacy schools in Indiana, a preceptor to students and residents, and the program director for the critical care residency at Indiana University Health.”
She continues:
Dr. Jacobi’s mentorship has created a legacy through the careers of over 25 critical care residents and countless other pharmacy students and residents, including the future pharmacists I am privileged to precept in my current practice. Her training lineage includes pharmacists whose contributions to this profession include establishing new overnight critical care service lines, successful completion of further specialized research fellowships, serving as institution clinical coordinators, residency program directors, and even a director of a statewide poison control center, all in addition to precepting the next generation of clinical pharmacists. This stands as a testament to her unwavering dedication and significant influence in shaping the future of our profession.
Through her determination, work ethic, and leadership, Jacobi has furthered the professional role of pharmacists and expanded the recognition of pharmacists as health professionals. In her nomination letter, Blais described Jacobi as a leading pioneer:
There is no better way to describe Dr. Jacobi – she was a pioneer. A pioneer is someone first to explore or develop a new area of knowledge or activity. Dr. Jacobi’s career was filled with firsts. She was the first pharmacist to complete a critical care specialty residency in the United States as well as one of the first critical care pharmacists to achieve board certification. Today, there are over 4000 board-certified critical care pharmacists. In the early 1980s, she was one of the first pharmacists to work directly with physicians and the critical care team to manage patient care. Today, clinical pharmacists are a fixture within the interdisciplinary rounding team, often being directly called upon to optimize pharmacotherapy in the critically ill. She was a founding member of the Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacy (CPP) Section within the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM). Today, this section has nearly 3000 members and is the second-largest section within SCCM. In 2002, she authored the first clinical guidelines for the management of pain and sedation in the critically ill. Today, these guidelines are in their third edition and serve as a key resource to clinicians around the world. When she was elected and served as the President of SCCM in 2010, Dr. Jacobi was the first pharmacist to ever do so. Today, pharmacists account for four seats on the SCCM executive council as well as a recent Past President. Throughout her entire career, Dr. Jacobi has worked tirelessly to advocate for the pharmacy profession and the role of the pharmacist. She has consistently torn down barriers within medicine, creating new opportunities for pharmacist involvement spanning from bedside rounds to primary authorship of guidelines and novel research to leadership and governing responsibilities in large organizations. Her impact is far-reaching, and her role in pushing this profession forward cannot be overstated.
Jacobi has served as president of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and, as noted earlier in a nomination letter, president of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, where she was notably the first pharmacist to serve in that role. She is also a member of many editorial boards, including those for Critical Care Medicine, Critical Care Explorations, and the Journal of Critical Care. In addition to her leadership roles, Jacobi has been honored with numerous awards, including the Pharmacy Women’s Leadership Award from Pharmacy Women for Purdue, the ACCP Critical Care PRN Achievement Award, and the Preceptor of the Year award from Purdue University School of Pharmacy. She was awarded fellowship from ACCP in 1999 and the American College of Critical Care Medicine in 1991. She will be recognized as this year’s Parker Medalist at the Awards and Recognition Ceremony during the 2024 ACCP Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. The ceremony will be held Sunday, October 13.
The Parker Medal Selection Committee is composed of leaders from member organizations of the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners, together with past presidents of ACCP. Members of the 2024 selection committee were Terry Seaton (chair), Nancy Alvarez, Thomas Hardin, Jill Kolesar, Sandra Leal, Suzanne Amato Nesbit, J. Robert Powell, Steven Scott, Janet Silvester, and Linda Tyler.