The Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Economics & Policy has been awarded five grants from industry, the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health.

Jason Doctor’s $505,779 grant from the NIH is developing a laboratory-error detection system that is more accurate than lab experts in identifying mistakes in clinical laboratory data. His proposal is timely, given the recent Institute of Medicine Study that claims medical errors cost the United States between $17 and $29 billion a year. These errors, in part, are due to clinical laboratory analysis, which contributes 70 million errors each year.

“Ultimately, our study will develop an error-detection method that labs can use in daily practice,” said Doctor, the sole primary investigator on the project. “By reducing these errors, we’ll put a system in place that saves lives and substantial health care dollars.”

Doctor also is leading a $168,000 research project for the Centers for Disease Control that examines ways to help public health officials conduct better disease surveillance. Using a computational approach, this work points to ways to predict disease outbreaks.

Mike Nichol, the QSAD Centurion Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences, is leading two projects that are supported by Pfizer, including HEART (Healthy Employee Adherence Research Trial), which evaluates the impact of cardiovascular intervention programs, and a retrospective study evaluating the effect of Medicare’s Part D Prescription Drug Benefit on Medicaid-Medicare dually eligible beneficiaries. The combined total for both grants is $378,819.

“The HEART project is notable because we’re using a prospective randomized design to determine whether a combination of telephone messaging and educational materials is more effective than educational materials alone in encouraging medication adherence,” Nichol said. “Our focus on employees of relatively large U.S. firms will provide insight into behavioral effects on one of the largest insured populations in the country.

His other project looks at the effect of Medicare Part D on patients who are also eligible for Medicaid.

“This study will help develop models that predict future benefit structures and their consequences, particularly among those who have dual eligibility,” Nichol explained.

Dual eligibility provides an opportunity for patients to switch from one coverage to the other, resulting in profound effects on the cost structures of these programs. Nichol’s work will help identify predictive factors that can be used to better plan for future growth of these benefit structures.

Kathleen Johnson, holder of the William A. and Josephine A. Heeres Chair in Community Pharmacy, is the primary investigator on a $693,000 grant from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

Johnson’s work focuses on hemophilia and will examine treatment patterns, barriers to care and cost effectiveness of treatment courses. The study will draw patients from six treatment centers around the country, including two in California, and one each in Massachusetts, Texas, Colorado and Indiana.

“Our goal is to design a framework that indicates which interventions will produce targeted outcomes that improve health outcomes for the patient,” explained Johnson, who chairs the Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Economics & Policy. “Hemophilia is a disease that significantly impacts quality of life for patients. This study will identify the factors that can be modified to help these patients live fuller lives.”