School of Pharmacy Hosts Managed Care Program

By Kukla Vera on July 16, 2009 2:56 PM

The USC chapter of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy held a two-day conference at the USC Orange County Center in Irvine on June 19 and 20.

Nearly 90 students and professionals attended the event that provided an overview of the evolving field of managed care with perspectives covering the history of the industry, current opportunities and the impact of likely health care reform under the Obama administration. Students had an opportunity to mingle with presenters as well as peers from universities throughout the West.

Featured speakers at the conference represented a broad spectrum drawn from industry and academia, including many USC alumni.

Vinson Lee, an associate scientist at Genentech, opened the conference with an overview. He was followed by Richard Bullard of PRx, Craig Stern of Pro Pharma Pharmaceutical Consultants, Yong Kim of Kaiser Permanente and Steve Gray, another Kaisre representative. Lee, Stern, Kim and Gray are graduates of the School of Pharmacy.

In addition to the main presentations, the conference provided break-out session opportunities for participants to discuss various managed care topics. Leaders of these sessions included Susie Park, a faculty member at the USC School of Pharmacy, Tom Wang of SYNERGI Technologies, Patty Gray of Kaiser, Shetal Desai, another faculty member at the School of Pharmacy, and Nhu Tran, a USC-Amylin Pharmaceutical fellow in pharmaceutical economics. Park, Wang, Gray and Tran are alumni of the school.

The program was organized by USC chapter leaders Michael Pazirandeh, president, and Melody Chien, president elect. Pazirandeh and Chien are current students in the school’s PharmD program and hope to pursue careers in managed care.

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