Center for Pharmacy Practice Innovation

Rana Amayreh joined VCU's Ph.D. in Pharmacoeconomics and Health Outcomes program in the fall of 2022 after finishing both her bachelor's and master's degree in pharmaceutical sciences in Jordan. Prior to joining VCU, Rana worked as a staff pharmacist for two years and as well as a licensed health insurance agent for an insurance company. Rana writes, "My passion for research motivated me to continue my Ph.D. degree."

Research interests: Women's health care issues; to bring better understanding of the value and contribution of pharmacists to quality of life. 

Through the VCU School of Pharmacy Pharm.D./Ph.D. dual degree program, Emily Ko joined VCU's Ph.D. in Pharmacoeconomics and Health Outcomes program as a Pharm.D. student in the fall of 2020 and officially enrolled in the Ph.D. program in 2022. Emily will work with Teresa Salgado, Ph.D. to examine the primary care and oncology specialties' interplay at Bon Secours-Mercy Health, particularly in the acute management of hyperglycemia during chemotherapies.

Research interests: the patient care process delivered to the oncologic community and survivors; care transitions between specialties; pharmacist services within an  interprofessional care process in managing complex anti-cancer therapies

Working under the advisorship of CPPI director, Teresa Salgado, Ph.D., Birari successfully defended her master's thesis titled "The Effect of a Pharmacist-Physician Collaborative Care Model in Diabetes Management in Primary Care" in May 2024.  

Birari is currently working towards her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, continuing research in Health Outcomes.

Research interests: Research that improves societal health while addressing the several disparities in care delivery and access to treatments with a particular interest in health outcomes and medication adherence pertaining to oncology. 

Working with CPPI core faculty member David Holdford, Ph.D., Vasco Pontinha completed his Ph.D. in pharmacoeconomics and health outcomes in August 2022 - where he developed group-based trajectory models to identify patterns of long-term medication adherence and implemented machine learning algorithms to evaluate value-based health care policy. 

Before accepting his current full-time faculty position at VCU Pharmacy in August 2023, Pontinha served as Director of Health Economics and Outcomes Research at Stage Analytics, leading a team of health economists, epidemiologists and public health professionals helping clients develop, support and communicate the value of their innovations – throughout the entire product development process.

Working with CPPI director, Teresa Salgado, Ph.D., Radwan focused her dissertation on measuring preferences for chemotherapy discontinuation due to chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) among patients with metastatic breast cancer. Funded through Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center and the American Cancer Society, Radwan used stated-preference instruments - best-worst scaling and discrete-choice experiment - to measure priorities and preferences for treatment discontinuation due to CIPN among patients with metastatic breast cancer. 

Along with her dissertation, Radwan has authored or co-authored five journal articles in the areas of pharmacy practice and oncology as well as published and presented 12 abstracts at national (ASCO, ACCP, AACP, APhA, ASHP) and international (ISPOR) meetings.

She is currently working to finalize and submit three manuscripts based on her research for journal publication. Along with Salgado, they will continue their efforts, working to create a decision aid tool for those experiencing neuropathy to be used in clinical practice.

Research interests: patient/physician communication, pharmacist impact on patient quality of life, quality of care, health outcomes

Poster presentations while at VCU:

• Predictors of Obtaining Cholesterol Screening in the United States: Data from the 2014 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. APhA Annual Meeting 2021, March 2021 (presented virtually).
• Characterizing the Scope of Practice and Evaluating Performance of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) Performed by Health-System Pharmacy Interns Based on Student Pharmacist Viewpoints. ASHP Annual Meeting 2020, December 2020 (presented virtually).
• Predictors of Pharmacists’ Job Satisfaction: Analysis of the 2018 Virginia Pharmacist Workforce Survey. ACCP Annual Meeting 2020, October 2020 (presented virtually).

Working with CPPI director, Teresa Salgado, Ph.D., Tyler Wagner completed his Ph.D. in pharmacoeconomics and health outcomes in August 2023 - focusing on the crucial role of pharmacists within primary care teams. 

His study examined pharmacists impact on diabetes quality measure achievement and demonstrated a significant higher proportion of primary care patients meeting diabetes control quality measures compared to patients receiving standard of care.

Now, as Associate Director of Research for the National Pharmaceutical Council, he conducts research on drug pricing, cell and gene therapies, health equity, value assessment and real world evidence.

Poster presentations while at VCU:

• Impact of clinical pharmacy services on the achievement of vaccine-related quality measures in primary care. APhA Annual Meeting 2021, March 2021 (presented virtually).
• Characterizing the scope of practice and evaluating performance of entrustable professional activities (EPAs) performed by health-system pharmacy interns based on administrator viewpoints. ASHP Annual Meeting 2020, December 2020 (presented virtually).
• Impact of clinical pharmacy services on the achievement of diabetes- and hypertension-related quality measures. ACCP Annual Meeting 2020, October 2020 (presented virtually).
• Impact of Work Experience on Pharmacy Students’ Perceived Confidence and Performance in Pharmacotherapy Courses. AACP Annual Meeting 2020, July 2020 (presented virtually).
• Impact of a four-day class schedule on first-year students’ stress and professional engagement. AACP Annual Meeting 2020, July 2020 (presented virtually).
• Increasing Pharmacy Student Knowledge and Confidence in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and Others (LGBTQIA+) Patient Care Through Skills Laboratory-Based Exercises. AACP Annual Meeting 2020, July 2020 (presented virtually).
• The Comparison of SGLT2 Inhibitors and DPP-4 Inhibitors on Health Care Expenditure and Utilization in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. ISPOR Annual Meeting 2020, May 2020 (presented virtually).