Summer Internship in Medication Therapy Management
The Departments of Pharmaceutical Outcomes & Policy and Pharmacotherapy and Translational Research offer a summer internship in medication therapy management.
This internship is designed to offer an experience in developing research skills related to the implementation and evaluation of Medication Therapy Management (MTM) or Pharmaceutical Care (PC) programs. Both MTM and PC programs are designed to reduce health care utilization by improving the health of patients through pharmacist monitoring and interventions. More specifically, these programs are designed to decrease health care costs by optimizing drug therapy outcomes as a result of specialized monitoring and appropriate interventions by the pharmacist. Monitoring and managing drug therapy helps prevent more costly health care measures such as unnecessary drug and laboratory costs, decreased absenteeism from work, unnecessary physician visitations, reduced emergency department visitations, and decreased hospitalizations.
While PC programs have been in place for decades in community and institutional settings, the literature supporting their effectiveness has been mixed. Faculty and students at the UF College of Pharmacy have also implemented and studied pharmaceutical care programs in various community and hospital settings and in managed care settings for more than twenty years and is internationally recognized for their work in designing, implementing and evaluating PC programs. More recently, with the implementation of federal regulations that expanded Medicare to include an outpatient drug benefit, MTM must be offered to select Medicare Part D recipients. The UF College of Pharmacy has responded by implementing a MTM Communication and Care Center, which provides comprehensive medication reviews, detailed personal medication records and medication action plans to patients enrolled in Medicare Part D and Medicaid.
The demand for researchers who can evaluate and improve medication therapy management and pharmaceutical care programs has increased largely because of the renewed interest by federal and state agencies in preventing drug related morbidity and mortality. Clinicians with research expertise in this area primarily find positions in academia, managed care, pharmacy benefit managers, consulting companies, and federal and state agencies.
Successful applicants will work closely with faculty, graduate students, residents and fellows in ongoing research projects or the development of new research proposals at the MTM Communication and Care Center or at other settings. Each intern will have a faculty mentor. While the depth of involvement in research is limited due to the short time period of this internship, the faculty mentor will engage the student in a small project that can be completed during the internship and presented at a professional meeting. Activities assigned to interns might include
- Conducting background searches on specific topics relevant to ongoing studies
- Participation in data collection and analysis
- Participation in preparation of manuscript, meeting abstracts and presentations
The internship will provide a stipend of $4,327 for a total of 10 weeks. Start and end dates are negotiable. Students are expected to work full-time and participate in all Department activities. Students will also be required to present their work at a Department seminar and the College of Pharmacy Research Day. For application procedures and deadlines please visit the COP internship website.
Contact: Richard Segal, PhD
segal@cop.ufl.edu; phone: 352-273-6268