ACCP members William L. Baker, Michelle Z. Farland, and Asad Patanwala were selected by the 2012 ACCP Awards Committee to receive the College’s prestigious 2012 New Investigator, New Educator, and New Clinical Practitioner Awards, respectively. The awards will be presented in Hollywood, Florida, on Monday, October 22, 2012, at 9:15 a.m. during a special session of the 2012 ACCP Annual Meeting.
The New Investigator Award recognizes an ACCP member who has made a significant impact on an aspect of clinical pharmaceutical science. The awardee must have been a member of ACCP for more than 3 years; must have completed his or her terminal training or degree less than 6 years previously; and must have a research program with a substantial publication record that includes a programmatic theme or an especially noteworthy single publication. William L. Baker Jr, Pharm.D., BCPS (AQ Cardiology), is an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy and a clinical specialist in internal medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center. He also serves as a senior research scientist at the University of Connecticut/Hartford Hospital Evidence-Based Practice Center in Hartford, Connecticut. Dr. Baker’s research focuses on cardiovascular medicine and comparative effectiveness. At the time of his nomination, Dr. Baker had published 38 peer-reviewed research papers. His articles have been published in high-impact journals including Annals of Internal Medicine, Diabetes Care, Journal of Hypertension, and Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, as well as Pharmacotherapy, The Annals of Pharmacotherapy, and others. In addition, Dr. Baker has written 23 review articles, 3 case reports, and 2 book chapters. He has served as the primary investigator (PI) on several projects focused on cardiovascular therapeutics or comparative effectiveness, including a $200,000 federally funded grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and five non-federally funded projects totaling more than $414,000. Although his work has been largely devoted to cardiovascular-related issues, one of his nominators called attention to the breadth of his comparative effectiveness research:
Dr. Baker has engaged in several funded projects on the impact of ACE inhibitors or ARBs on cardiac outcomes, the impact of medications on movement disorders, and the impact of medications on psoriasis. These projects center on determining comparative effectiveness and his contributions are strong. In summary, Dr. Baker has established a wonderful research program that has answered numerous research questions.
Dr. Baker will deliver the annual New Investigator Award Lecture during the October 21 Special Session in Hollywood.
The ACCP New Educator Award is given to recognize and honor a new educator for outstanding contributions to the discipline of teaching and to the education of health care practitioners. The awardee must have been a Full Member of ACCP at the time of nomination and a member at any level for a minimum of 3 years; in addition, the awardee must have completed his or her terminal training or degree less than 6 years previously. Michelle Z. Farland, Pharm.D., BCPS, CDE, is an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy, Knoxville campus, where she also serves as a clinical specialist in Ambulatory Care. Dr. Farland serves as course codirector in two required courses and course director for an elective course in the university’s Pharm.D. curriculum. She also precepts a full cadre of Pharm.D. students, as well as PGY1 and PGY2 residents, in ambulatory care throughout the year. Dr. Farland has been a leader in implementing team-based learning within the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. In her role as a course codirector, she has incorporated many innovations. University of Tennessee Associate Dean Debbie Byrd commented in her letter of support,
The required courses are taught via synchronous videoconference distance education between our Memphis and Knoxville campuses, and Dr. Farland coordinates these courses with her co-directors on the Memphis campus. Despite the distance, and her status as a junior faculty member, she has successfully transformed the Medication Therapy Management (MTM) course’s content and teaching methods. She has incorporated pharmacy residents in this course as well, introducing them to more active Team Based Learning (TBL) and giving them the opportunity to develop their own teaching skills as future educators.
One of Dr. Farland’s students in the MTM course was quoted as saying,
[MTM] recitation really helped with making me change my way of thinking when looking at patients…. I find myself constantly in MTM mode when at work and I completely enjoy it.
Dr. Farland has also become engaged in the scholarship of teaching through publication in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and presentations of her work at several annual meetings of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.
The New Clinical Practitioner Award honors a new clinical practitioner who has made outstanding contributions to the health of patients and/or the practice of clinical pharmacy. The awardee must have been a Full Member of ACCP at the time of nomination, as well as a member at any level for a minimum of 3 years; in addition, the awardee must have completed his or her terminal training or degree less than 6 years previously. Asad (Sid) Patanwala, Pharm.D., BCPS, is a clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice and science and a clinical pharmacy specialist in emergency medicine at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona. Shortly after assuming his faculty position, Dr. Patanwala developed a new service within the emergency department (ED) at University Medical Center. He initiated a direct patient care and consult service for the ED staff, including nurses, residents in training, and attending staff. This on-site pharmacist activity now provides direct consultation to patients in the ED for more than 50 hours a week. In addition, the program works with the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee of University Medical Center regarding ED-related medication issues, including evaluation of new pharmaceutical agents and development of a revised computerized physician order entry set to improve patient safety. Dr. Harvey Meislin, head of the University Medical Center’s ED, wrote in his letter of support for Dr. Patanwala’s nomination,
Overall, this program that has been initiated by Dr. Patanwala has become an essential part of the daily practice of emergency medicine in a very busy level one trauma center. The relationship between physicians and pharmacists has never been better; we constantly depend on one another. This relationship has extended into both the academic and research environment. As I understand it, the new clinical practitioner award is to recognize and honor a new clinical practitioner who has made outstanding contributions to the health of patients and/or the practice of clinical pharmacy. Dr. Patanwala meets every aspect of this award. As the department head of Emergency Medicine for more than 30 years, the involvement of the emergency pharmacy program has made a contribution unlike any other.
Dr. Patanwala has published and presented on the impact of ED clinical pharmacist contributions to improving patient safety and reducing medication errors, including presentations at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians and publications in the Annals of Emergency Medicine and the Journal of Opioid Management.
The members of the 2012 ACCP Awards Committee were Mark Garrison (chair), Robert MacLaren (vice chair), Catherine Crill, Leslie Hamilton, Dwight Kloth, Molly Leber, Shawn McFarland, Judith Smith, James Tisdale, and Nathan Wiederhold.