BERWYN, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–AscellaHealth, a national Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) serving commercial, Medicare and Medicaid segments, is proud to announce that through its longstanding relationship with the University of Rhode Island (URI) College of Pharmacy, the AscellaHealth Fellowship is actively supporting an innovative two-year program with advanced training in health outcomes research for a Pharm.D. graduate. Designed to provide essential research and analytic skills to complement clinical knowledge, the URI master’s degree program will merge coursework in pharmacoepidemiology and pharmaco-economics with real-world research projects and experiential learning with Ascella, including an on-site component.
URI College of Pharmacy Dean Paul Larrat says, “We’re thrilled to offer the AscellaHealth Fellowship and to work with such visionary colleagues to teach future pharmaceutical leaders to understand clinical, cost and quality of life outcomes as an essential aspect of pharmaceutical and policy decision-making. While there is a documented need for this level of expertise, the pool of pharmaceutical executives with advanced training in health outcomes research is inadequate. This deficit could potentially lead to sub-optimal access to pharmaceutical interventions and higher costs. We are grateful to AscellaHealth for recognizing this issue and stepping up to meet this challenge.”
He explains that past URI experience with corporate externships shows that students learn from experienced mentoring and real-life practice, and corporate collaborators benefit from enhanced recruitment in a competitive employment market.
The AscellaHealth Fellowship supports this two-year program for students who will be selected based on merit, with staggered funding in-hand prior to offer and concurrent with tuition payment practice.
Dea Belazi, president and CEO, AscellaHealth, says, “Given the caliber of URI College of Pharmacy and the qualifications of its Pharm.D. graduates, we are pleased to support this formal training in health outcomes research for aspiring managed care leaders. URI programs are highly recognized for training and launching a new generation of health care professionals, although enrollment in this program has been under-represented by Pharm.D. students. This advanced degree and fellowship will serve to fill that gap and lead to improvements in getting the right drugs to patients at the right time.”
The first AscellaHealth Fellow Kanya Shah, 2019 graduate of URI College of Pharmacy, states, “I’m honored to receive this opportunity to apply what I’ve learned in school to a real-world setting. I’m drawn to the health economic and epidemiology side of the healthcare field and have seen how impactful cost is on medication utilization. I see this fellowship as a way to help patients improve their health and quality of life by facilitating access to medication they might not otherwise get.”
About AscellaHealth
AscellaHealth, a national PBM serving commercial, Medicare and Medicaid segments offers high quality prescription drug management services along with other customizable services, such as carved-out specialty pharmacy services and cost-savings discount programs through its unique and proprietary service that extends discounts on prescription medications to customers more than any other PBM in the industry. Visit www.ascellahealth.com.
Contacts
Nicole Dufour
CPR Communications
ndufour@cpronline.com
201.641.1911 x 54