Brodowy named director of UCSF Medication Outcomes Center

Bret Brodowy, PharmD, a leader in hospital pharmacy practice and management, has been named the new director of the Medication Outcomes Center in the School of Pharmacy’s Department of Clinical Pharmacy. The appointment was effective August 12, 2013.

Established in 2007, the Medication Outcomes Center conducts medication-related research and evidence-based analyses to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of medications and models of hospital pharmacy services.

Recent examples of Center analyses include appropriate switches of intravenous to oral medications to reduce cost and improve safety, the appropriate use of medications for the prevention of stress ulcers in the critical care setting, and the impact of bar code technology on medication administration errors.

Brodowy most recently served as director of the UCSF pharmacy at the Mission Bay campus, where he oversaw the state-of-the-art automated medication dispensing facility. He had previously been Director of Pharmacy of the UCSF Medical Center from May 2011 to April 2012, and led the medical center's successful implementation of an electronic medical record, computerized provider order entry (CPOE), and bar code medication administration (BCMA).

“Bret brings a wide range of experience, knowledge, depth, and much wisdom to his new position,” notes Lisa Kroon, PharmD, chair of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy.

Brodowy joins the Center’s existing team of Candy Tsourounis, PharmD; Sheri Van Osdol, PharmD; and Lynne Bekeart, MPH/HSA. Working with Tsourounis, he will be responsible for improving the formulary/non-formulary review process in the medical center and supporting the Center’s role with the medical center’s Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee, assisting in the creation of pharmaceutical policies. He will work with Van Osdol on continuously improving medical center medication safety programs.

He will also help develop new approaches to ensuring patients get and use their medications safely and effectively as they transition from the hospital to home, where they receive pharmaceutical care at community pharmacies.

Brodowy will continue to teach doctor of pharmacy students and residents about the application of information technology to pharmacy practice. He is a co-investigator on the Partners in E project, where pharmacy students are educated on e-prescribing using on-line teaching modules that are being implemented as part of the core curricula at pharmacy schools across California. Students can then assist independent community pharmacies in the adoption and improvement of e-prescribing processes.

Brodowy earned a PharmD degree from the UCSF School of Pharmacy in 1983, where he completed a pharmacy administration residency in 1985.