Medication safety, particularly in the outpatient setting, is a critical and pressing public health issue. Older adults, who take many prescription and OTC medications, are required to self-manage their complex medication regimen, frequently without family support and potentially with physical and cognitive impairment. As a result, adverse drug events are frequent, costly, and potentially life-threatening. The overall goal of my research stream is to improve medication safety in the outpatient setting. I take a systems approach and partner with health systems and community pharmacies to develop and evaluate interventions to reduce adverse drug events and improve safety.
I have published over 70 papers on medication safety topics ranging from the impact of technology implementation, to the effect of subjective workload, to barriers to health care provider collaboration. I have been funded by AHRQ to test a systems redesign intervention to improve OTC medication use (R18 HS024490, R18 HS027737) and to evaluate CancelRx, a health IT functionality to reduce medication discrepancies (R21 HS025793).
When I’m not working, I spend time with my husband, four children, and two dogs. I love to cook yummy meals, host potlucks in my backyard, and travel to interesting locales.
Complete list of published work in MyBibliography.