At home, Abrons serves as Co-Director of University of Iowa Mobile Clinics. In this role, she and her students have been able to provide services for local populations who have little access to healthcare since 2016. Abrons received her pharmacy degree from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and a Master of Science in Social & Administrative Sciences in Pharmacy from University of WisconsinMadison. Prior to returning to her home state of Iowa, she was a Clinical Assistant Professor at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Albany, NY.
Currently, Abrons serves as the Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of Student Pharmacist International Activities at the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy where she focuses on writing and editing competences, and global health for underserved populations. Abrons is an editor of the University of Iowa, Teaching Cases and the Active Learning Exercises for the APhA Pharmacy Library. She served as author and editor of the Peripheral Brain for the Pharmacist and as associate editor and on the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. She also provided editorial support for Pulses and Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning. In 2016, the University of Iowa honored Abrons with the Academic Teaching Advisory Council’s Innovations in Teaching with Technology Award. She also received the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy’s 2018 Teacher of the Year Award.
Category 1 Award:
Individual Award for Career Achievement
Jeanine P. Abrons, PharmD, MS, FAPhA
is a leader in working with medically underserved populations both at home and abroad. Globally, her efforts center around partnerships primarily in the Caribbean country of Dominica, where she collaborates with local eco-based practitioners, social entrepreneurs, the Ministry of Health, and a private pharmacy.
Category 2 Award:
Group Practice–Health System–Health Care Corporation
University of Michigan Health
The University of Michigan Health (UM Health), advances health to serve Michigan and beyond – pursuing excellence every day in three hospitals, 125 clinics and home care operations that handle more than 2.3 million outpatient visits a year, as well as educate the next generation of physicians and health care providers.
The University of Michigan Medical School is one of the nation’s biomedical research powerhouses, with total research funding of more than $500 million. UM Health has a long-standing history with embedding clinical pharmacists in primary care clinics to aide in chronic disease management such as diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. This pharmacists’ care model began in 1999 at one primary care clinic and has since expanded to all 14 primary care clinics, as well as select specialty care clinics.
In 2016, UM Health established a partnership with a regional supermarket with retail pharmacy chain to extend our primary care clinic model into the community environment. In 2018, the UM Health Hypertension Pharmacists’ Program was selected as a top program in the US and invited to undergo an extensive evaluation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC found that patients who received care from the pharmacists achieved better blood pressure control within 3 and 6 months of starting the program than those who did not participate. The CDC also found that patients in the program received better medication management as evidenced by more frequent adjustments to their hypertension medications than those not in the program. These positive outcomes were achieved with less primary care physician (PCP) visits creating better access for UM Health’s PCPs. Based on UM Health’s HTN model, the CDC developed an Implementation Guide to share with other health care practitioners which is now available on the CDC website. The UM Health program pushes innovation to meet the needs of its patients with the ever-changing climate, ensuring that pharmacists continue to play a vital role in hypertension management.
Category 3 Award:
Nonprofit Organization–Association–Public/Private Partnerships
University of Pittsburgh, in collaboration with Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association, Pennsylvania Pharmacists Care Network, and Value Drug
share a deep commitment to serving the public through partnerships, education, and research.
In 2008, PittPharmacy set out to transform the way people receive care in their local community pharmacy. Their team members transformed individual pharmacy practices, but for viable, scalable and sustainable impact, they knew transformation was needed across a wide geography of communities. Widespread transformation could only be sustained where the community pharmacy business model included payment for high-quality patient care services. They set a goal to transform community pharmacy practices throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by building a statewide pharmacist practice network connecting pharmacists, payors, and health practitioners.
The Pennsylvania Pharmacists Network Development Task Force was created by Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association (PPA) and chaired by Melissa McGivney, PharmD, from PittPharmacy. In 2015, the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Care Network (PPCN) was formally established as a business within PPA. In 2017, PPCN signed its first payor contract for patient care services. Together with their partners, CPESN USA, Value Drug, and STRAND Technologies, they built the interest, training, and partnerships necessary to recruit 170 community pharmacies into PPCN. Since 2017, their network expanded to include four health payor patient care contracts serving over 100,000 patients.
The ongoing cycle of learning the needs of patients, practitioners, payors and the community continued in 2018. Kim Coley, Joni Carroll, and Melissa McGivney (PittPharmacy) received a Eugene Washington Engagement Award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute entitled “A Statewide Community Pharmacy Research Network that Aligns Patients, Pharmacists & Researchers” to formally establish a research network affiliated with PPCN pharmacies and the patients they serve.
Additionally, the Academia-CPESN Transformation (ACT) Pharmacy Collaborative was established through the success of PPCN’s partnership with all colleges/schools of pharmacy in Pennsylvania. This collaborative now includes 93 schools/colleges of pharmacy across the country whose deans have committed to prioritizing and supporting community pharmacy practice transformation at their institutions. The time for community pharmacy practice transformation has never been more critical for patients or the profession. Community pharmacy practice is the front door to health in our communities. The Network is proud to share how their vision and commitment beginning over 13 years ago, has resulted in patients receiving care in their local communities from pharmacists who now have a business model to provide care on an ongoing basis. There is still more work to be done. Their collaborative team is committed to continuing to pursue practice advancement, payor collaborations, advocacy and research for years to come.
12 Lessons learned:
1. Document the Need and Interest.
2. Working across pharmacy partners - including academic and system partners amplifies the reach.
3. Gather input and learning nationwide. It leads to innovation locally.
4. State Department of Health/CDC grants are important connectors to funding AND state leaders.
5. Bridging the profession together – moves us together!
6. Creating educational opportunities can facilitate practice transformation.
7. Practice design and documentation come BEFORE payor contracts.
8. Document your care. Share your success. We all move faster when we learn together.
9. Students can be leaders and teachers to support practice transformation.
10. A practice network can be a research network.
11. Research grants lead to practice change.
12. Real change takes all of us: A common vision and a willingness to steadfastly work toward achieving that vision – and celebrating along the way.