Pharmaceutical Policy
The Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science in the UK College of Pharmacy and the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Kentucky are collaborating to offer an innovative program in pharmaceutical policy leading to the Doctor of Philosophy degree.
What is Pharmaceutical Policy?
Pharmaceutical Policy involves applying the methods and techniques of public policy planning and analysis to issues involving pharmaceuticals, pharmacy, pharmacists and pharmacies, and related topics.
Need and Rationale for the Specialty
Health care today is faced with the multiple challenges of limited resources, increasing expenditures, increasing expectations, greater complexity, costly new technology, and for some populations, limited health care access. Health care leaders in both the public and private sectors need rigorous, methodologically valid and ethically sound information that can guide them in making rational health policy.
The need for professionally trained pharmaceutical policy analysts has never been greater, as pharmaceutical policy issues become larger and more complex. Our society is accustomed to extensive drug use. In 2001, US physicians prescribed nearly 3 billion prescriptions costing in excess of $150B. In 2005, global drug expenditures surpassed $600B.
But the cost is not just in dollars. In 1997, researchers projected that up to 140,000 deaths are caused annually in the U.S. by adverse events due to legally prescribed medications. Published estimates for the rate of hospital admissions due to adverse drug reactions range from 3-28%, and as many as 30% of all hospitalized patients experience an adverse drug event during their hospital stay. Nearly half of these adverse drug events are potentially preventable; thus, there is an urgent national imperative for rational and improved medication use.
The current biotechnology explosion and the focus on genomics to unveil new approaches to therapeutics highlight the increasing need for well informed professionals to work in all areas related to the assessment of the risks and benefits associated with medication use, and the development of policies to promote appropriate medication use and curtail inappropriate use. In addition to the above there are many more pharmaceutical policy related issues; for example, government regulation of pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical company costs associated with bringing a new product to market, direct advertising of prescription medications to consumers, and "importation" of prescription medications by consumers, cities and states. Hence, there is a tremendous need in the pharmaceutical industry, government agencies, academia and the private health sector for well-trained PhD graduates who have a strong background in both policy planning and analysis as well as an understanding of the unique regulatory and marketplace environments applicable to pharmaceuticals to address these vital issues in an informed fashion.
Prior Experience
In 1995 the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science in the UK College of Pharmacy and the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration partnered to create the Doctor of Pharmacy/Master of Public Administration (PharmD/MPA) dual-degree program designed to train pharmacist-clinicians in public policy. As of 2005-06, fourteen students have completed this dual degree program. While this program can partially meet a practical policy vacuum in the professional world, it is not intended to develop doctoral level research skills. Hence, the next step in the College of Pharmacy/Martin School collaboration has been to prepare researchers to address the policy needs in the pharmaceutical world at a more rigorous level by training PhD graduates in pharmaceutical policy.
Institutional Priority
Public policy is an institutional priority area identified in the University of Kentucky's Strategic Plan. This priority area emanated from "A Report from the Task Force on the University of Kentucky Futures: Faculty for the 21st Century".
Hence, the development of a PhD program in Pharmaceutical Policy is consistent with this priority. The relationship between the University of Kentucky's College of Pharmacy and Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, two of the most highly rated programs at the University, provides an ideal opportunity to train PhD students and to undertake the research that is needed to enhance pharmaceutical policy decisions. The establishment of this program will make the University of Kentucky the first institution in the country to formally link a public policy program and a pharmacy program to provide doctoral training in pharmaceutical policy.
Structure
Since the pharmaceutical policy research agenda has an interdisciplinary emphasis, it is essential to train individuals who possess varied expertise. To begin this initiative four Martin School faculty members (Drs. Seok-Woo Kwon, James Marton, Eugenia Toma and Sarah Wackerbarth) have been extended joint faculty appointments in the College of Pharmacy, and six College faculty members (Drs. Karen Blumenschein, J.S. Butler, Joseph Fink, David Nau, Donald Perrier, and Douglas Steinke ) are jointly appointed as faculty in the Martin School. This multidisciplinary team has backgrounds and expertise in decision science, economics, econometrics, government regulation of pharmaceuticals, health economics, health insurance, political science, public policy formulation and evaluation, organizational capital, health law and regulation, and various facets of pharmacy.
Coordinator
Jeffery Talbert serves as the coordinator of this PhD program. Jeffery Talbert is a tenured associate professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science. Prior to joining the College of Pharmacy in 2007, Professor Talbert was Department Chair of Health Management and Policy at the University of North Texas, and was a Professor of Public Policy at UK from 1995 to 2005.
Outcome
The Pharmaceutical Policy PhD program will offer a research degree in pharmaceutical policy with special emphasis on pharmaceutical social science issues, including policy analysis and policy processes with majors/minors in health economics, methodology, health policy, and regulation. This PhD program will prepare graduates for careers in research and teaching involving pharmaceutical policy with special emphasis on pharmaceutical social science issues, such as:
- Industry structure (discovery, supply and distribution of pharmaceuticals)
- The effect of community, hospital and other pharmacists in the production of health
- Patients' behavioral response to pharmaceuticals (e.g., compliance, demand, health-seeking or health-destroying behavior, etc.)
- Effects of advertising of pharmaceuticals
- Prescription benefit program management and financing
- Effects of health finance (e.g., type of payment, government regulation, HMO, etc.) with special reference to pharmaceuticals
- Methodology of analysis of pharmaceutical trials (e.g., controlled experiments, regression, selection effects, hazard models, etc.)
- Legal and regulatory framework for distribution and use of medications
- Pharmacist labor markets
- Pharmaceutical needs assessment.
A graduate of this PhD program might pursue any of the following careers:
- Government policy-making in the area of pharmaceutical production, distribution and regulation
- Faculty careers in colleges of pharmacy, thereby increasing the social science strength of pharmacy research and teaching
- Management or research positions in the pharmaceutical industry
- Careers similar to those pursued by PhD graduates of programs in policy, political science, or economics when those programs are empirically oriented and the students choose to focus on pharmaceutical topics.
Backgrounds of Students
It is anticipated that this PhD program will be of interest to students with academic backgrounds in pharmacy as well as such diverse fields as anthropology, biology, business administration, communication, dentistry, economics, epidemiology, gerontology, health administration, medicine, nursing, public health, political science, psychology, public administration, public policy, social work, sociology and other majors.
Possible Funding
The following has been proposed. All students with a professional health science degree will receive a minimum base stipend of $22,000 per year and are eligible for an additional $6,500 by accepting a Teaching Assistantship. All students are expected to apply for fellowship funding. External Fellowship Funds awarded to the student will be directly added to the student's stipend up to the annual maximum stipend allowed which is $34,000. Students entering the program through the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration (MSPPA) or students without a professional health science degree entering through the Pharmacy Practice and Science Department will receive the same stipend as other Public Administration students in the MSPPA, which currently is $15,000.
- Contact information — Jeffery Talbert Ph.D., office phone: 859-257-2910, email: jtalb1@email.uky.edu