Informatics Pharmacist: Combining MSHI Degree With a PharmD

Informatics pharmacists play an integral role in a pharmacy team, interacting with staff pharmacists, clinical pharmacists, pharmacy management, quality control, information technology personnel and various healthcare professionals. Their job is to optimize health outcomes through the use of data, particularly as it relates to prescription medication administration.

By combining healthcare informatics with medication management in pharmacy practice, patient care can be enhanced, Barefield explained.

“An example would be alert fatigue,” she said. “An informatics pharmacist can examine alert overrides to eliminate alerts that are not pertinent to the patient or case. This could be in the CPOE software or for IV pumps, etc.”

Improving or establishing pharmacy-related metrics helps ensure safe clinical decision-making, she added.

“I think the most rewarding aspect is patient safety, knowing that you can help in preventing an adverse outcome,” Barefield said.

Graduates with a degree in healthcare informatics have a range of skills including change management, knowledge management and project management. Adding that skill set to a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree provides clinical skills related to medication safety and other specific medication-related data that can differentiate a graduate in a competitive labor market.

Laura Wood Castillo, a student in the PharmD/MSHI program, hopes to work for a major electronic health records company or for a hospital in their health information technology department.

“I have always loved technology and healthcare and I loved the idea of having the opportunity to fuse the two into one career,” she said.

Her primary goal as a healthcare informatics professional, she said, is to broaden the horizons for pharmacists and the roles they can have.

Fellow student Kaleb Adams has a similar goal.

“My primary goal in the profession is to work in an environment where I’m encouraged to explore how technology can help the pharmacy deliver the best care available to patients,” Adams said.

Adams, who was drawn to the informatics degree by the opportunity to learn more about the intersection of pharmacy and technology, hopes to work as an informatic pharmacist in a health system or get a job with EPIC, an electronic health records system.

“The pharmacy curriculum will prepare students for the clinical evaluation of data and the informatics curriculum will provide the students with the knowledge of required metrics to collect healthcare data,” Barefield said. “If you are interested in informatics, and do not wish to pursue a postgraduate residency, the dual degree will provide the education and training to qualify for an informatics position.”

The online dual PharmD/MS in Healthcare Informatics (PharmD/MSHI) offered by PCOM School of Pharmacy and Harrisburg University of Science and Technology provides PharmD students with the opportunity to obtain the skills needed to maximize the benefit of information technology in healthcare settings.

According to Barefield, students interested in pursuing this degree should have a basic set of skills to ensure the best chance of success.

“They definitely need to be detail-oriented, a team player, an independent worker and possess critical thinking skills,” she said.

Riya Farhin hopes to use the skills she has gained in the PharmD/MSHI program to analyze and integrate healthcare operating software into the pharmaceutical setting. She hopes to work as an IT pharmacist, informatics pharmacist or an informatics analyst.

“I think my PharmD/MSHI was invaluable in pursuing the very niche and specific career path that I am aiming for,” Farhin said. “It is providing me with the knowledge I need that will help me in hopefully starting a job right after graduating.”