Nau has authored over 50 peer-reviewed articles in addition to co-authoring the book “Quality & Safety in Pharmacy Practice.” His work has facilitated increased engagement of pharmacists within quality and value-based delivery of health care. He received his pharmacy degree from ONU, an MS degree from the University of Toledo and a PhD from the University of Florida. Nau is a Professor of Social & Administrative Sciences at the Raabe College of Pharmacy at Ohio Northern University. He held tenured faculty and administrative appointments at several Colleges of Pharmacy prior to joining ONU in July 2020. He is also the President of APhA’s Academy of Pharmaceutical Research & Science (APhA-APRS).
Category 1 Award:
Individual Award for Career Achievement
David Nau, PhD, RPh, FAPhA
was the founding President of Pharmacy Quality Solutions (provider of EQuIPP) and also served as a senior staff member of PQA where he was responsible for development of quality measures related to medications.
Category 2 Award:
Group Practice–Health System–Health Care Corporation
Ohio Health
is a private, not‐for‐profit, health system in central Ohio, serving patients in 40 counties through 14 hospitals, hundreds of physician practices, and 10 free‐standing emergency departments. In addition, the OhioHealth Pharmacy Services program also includes home infusion, three community pharmacies, investigational drug service, six hospital infusion clinics, and 14 anticoagulation clinics.
One of OhioHealth’s newest and most successful pharmacy programs is the OhioHealth Population Health Pharmacy Services (PHRxS). Contained within the larger Pharmacy Services Team at OhioHealth, PHRxS is a highly effective team of 15 pharmacy staff members who care for multiple populations (Primary Care Network, OhioHealth’s Direct to Employer Network, OhioHealth’s Clinically Integrated Network and Accountable Care Organization, and the Ohio- HealthyTM Medical Plan) with the primary goals of improving patient outcomes and reducing total cost of care (TCOC) with a patient‐centric experience. This highly dynamic team has delivered tremendous quality improvement and financial savings to patients, providers, employers, payors, and the OhioHealth organization since 2018. The services offered by PHRxS include Medication Therapy Disease Management, Diabetes Prevention, Diabetes Management, Asthma Management, and Benefits Management Consulting and Solutions. The team has demonstrated strong medication outcomes, not only representing disease state improvements, such as with diabetes and asthma, but also with reduced utilization (ED and admissions) and prevention of adverse events. The medication therapy disease management program includes high-risk patient management, a pharmacist consult service, and transitions of care. This program alone achieved $1.6 million in cost avoidance in reduced ED utilization, hospital admissions, disease progression, and acute disease related events between July 2018-July 2019. The PHRxS benefits (pharmacy & medical) management and consulting solutions have achieved $2 million in direct medication cost savings for 2019-2020 through formulary and utilization management.
In a relatively short time, the OhioHealth PHRxS team has delivered significant TCOC reductions through cost avoidance ($1.6 million), direct cost savings ($2 million), and per member per year costs ($200 per member per year savings for asthma program). This success strongly rep- resents the practice of pharmacy as the account- able owner of the medication use process. As demonstrated by these robust outcomes, patients, plan sponsors, and the OhioHealth system have received significant benefit through pharmacists and certified technicians optimizing the medication use process, driving improved outcomes and lower overall health care costs.
Category 3 Award:
Nonprofit Organization–Association–Public/Private Partnerships
ONU HealthWise
is a pharmacist-led, interdisciplinary practice of the Raabe College of Pharmacy at Ohio Northern University (ONU). The practice embodies the ONU mission which includes a call to prepare students for “service to their communities” and for academic programs to engage co-curricular programming to complement didactic education.
The practice emphasizes the University vision of civic engagement and high-impact learning by strategically seeking community partnerships to “expand opportunities to serve the local communities.”
ONU HealthWise is a unique collaboration of health care services that serve the surrounding community as well as the ONU campus. These health care services include a campus-wide employee/ student health and wellness clinic, rural mobile health clinic, student-led health outreach services, a community pharmacy, a telemedicine call center (the Pharmacy Services Center) and a drug and health information center. The Raabe College of Pharmacy along with the campus student health center and the departments of nursing, exercise physiology, and medical laboratory sciences provide the interdisciplinary workforce needed for successful programming in collaboration with area health departments and agencies. Internally, pharmacy staff and college faculty oversee the different service units and the coordination of services has eliminated duplication of efforts, enhanced the effectiveness of each individual service unit, provided data for demonstrating the improvement of the medication use process, and contributed to research in the area of public health and pharmacy practice, including publications and presentations.
2020 Innovation in Pharmacy Practice Lecture
Delivered by:
Amy Beatty, PharmD, MBA, BCPS
Senior Director of Pharmacy Services
OhioHealth