Rotation 8: Drug Information with Lexi-Comp

Posted by Emily at Monday, March 14, 2016

Having been the UMHS drug information for over two years, I was worried that I wouldn’t have much left to learn during my required P4 drug information rotation.  However, my preceptor’s role as a DI pharmacist in this practice setting was wildly different from what I’d seen as an intern, so there were plenty of new experiences to be had!

I worked from home during this rotation and met with my preceptor at local coffee shops about three times per week to review my project assignments.  My preceptor primarily works with Lexi-Comp’s drug interactions database, so I worked drafting monographs for newly discovered drug interactions.  Just as it was fascinating to see early drafts of prescribing information during my time at FDA, it was very cool to see my monographs added to the interactions database to be accessed by pharmacists far and wide, and to realize that database information doesn’t just rain down from the pharmacy heavens but is instead researched and developed by real live pharmacists.  I also got to work with the pharmacogenomics database, one of my personal interest areas.  This rotation was a great crash course in scientific statistics – something I can always use a refresher on!

Overall, I learned more than I expected to during this rotation block, and was surprised at how challenging it could be to focus while working from home.  I’m looking forward to being back in a more traditional practice setting for my ninth and FINAL rotation, ambulatory care.