Chase Reece, BSHP '24

This week I continued working on the literature review focused on collaborative drug therapy management and then spent time looking into potential collaborators and resources at the University to help with a project on addressing the impact of breast cancer treatment costs among women in rural areas. At the beginning of the literature review, we faced some challenges with our search being too narrow. We primarily were instructed to focus specifically on the perceptions of physicians and pharmacists towards CDTM; however, there have been few recent studies conducted specifically on this topic in the United States. After meeting with the College of Public Health librarian, we were able to broaden our search enough while still ensuring the articles were relevant to our topic. Although there is an existing body of literature on this topic, the majority of articles are from the late 2000s and early 2010s due to the increase in medication therapy management (MTM) after Medicare Part D was established. Since then, CDTM has still not been widely utilized because of existing barriers due to regulations and lack of reimbursement mechanisms. So far, 13 articles have been identified and an annotated bibliography has been created. These results will be shared with the project lead to obtain feedback and future direction.

While performing the search for potential research collaborators, a comprehensive list of potential contacts was created, including their department, specializations, and areas of interest. A wide variety of faculty were identified that focused on areas from health economics to rural health. Overall, it is important to have individuals with different experiences and expertise when forming any research team to ensure that a well-rounded group is established.

The main competencies met this week are the following:

• 1.1.3: Identify existing and available resources, policies, programs, practices, and interventions.
• 1.1.5: Recruit and or engage partners and stakeholders
• 1.2.3: Conduct a literature review
• 1.2.4: Procure secondary data
• 1.2.5: Determine validity and reliability of secondary data
• 1.2.6: Identify data gaps