Michelle Link Patterson

Her Story

Dr. Michelle Link Patterson received her Pharm.D. degree from Thomas Jefferson University’s Jefferson College of Pharmacy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2015. She worked as a community pharmacist in southeastern PA for Giant Food Stores for three years before pursuing a PGY1 residency position. As a community pharmacist, Dr. Patterson focused on educating patients about chronic diseases such as diabetes and on education regarding immunizations. During that time, Dr. Patterson served as a lab instructor for the P3 pharmacy students at Jefferson College of Pharmacy as well as volunteered weekly at Community Volunteers in Medicine in West Chester, PA. Dr. Patterson completed an ASHP-Accredited PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency at Capital Health in Trenton, New Jersey. She is currently completing a PGY2 Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Residency at Temple University School of Pharmacy in Philadelphia, PA. Dr. Patterson is serving the Section of Ambulatory Care Practitioners Section Advisory Group for the first time this year. She also participates as a CV reviewer.

Facility

Temple University School of Pharmacy (TUSP) is located on the Temple University Health Sciences Campus (HSC), adjacent to Temple University Hospital (TUH) and its attendant clinics. Many faculty have practice sites at TUH and work in collaboration with clinical pharmacists and other practitioners. The setting of the HSC allows for a combined educational and clinical experience that is difficult to replicate in other environments. The partnership allows the resident to participate in diverse clinical and educational opportunities between the two institutions.

Recent Significant Projects

 Dr. Patterson completed acomputerized physician order entry (CPOE) build and implementation for an organization’s automatic therapeutic interchange policy. This project prevents medication errors and saves time for providers and pharmacists by allowing providers to order formulary medications automatically, rather than the two-step paper process that was in place. This project consisted of adding over 50 new order options to CPOE, simplifying the process from ordering to administration. An additional in-progress research project is aimed at determining if patients with higher adverse childhood event (ACE) scores will have more chronic medications prescribed compared to those who have lower ACE scores. Additionally, Dr. Patterson is assessing patient and system discrepancies in relation to medications prescribed.

Initial Involvement in ASHP

Currently, I am a member of the ASHP Section of Ambulatory Care Practitioners Section Advisory Group. I am also a CV reviewer for students and residents.

Why did you become involved in ASHP? 

 I first joined ASHP as a PGY1 pharmacy resident. After joining I attended my first Midyear Clinical Meeting in 2018 and became very interested in getting more involved with ASHP. My interest stemmed from a growing interest in clinical pharmacy and I have continued to increase my involvement.

How would you explain the value of ASHP to a friend or colleague?

I believe that there is strength in numbers. Because we have so many members and have such an impact on so many issues surrounding pharmacy, active involvement with ASHP is the easiest way to stay up-to-date, advocate for our profession, and develop professionally. Networking opportunities also allow pharmacists to connect with each other, collaborate, and grow.

Advice for Someone New to Specialty Area

My advice would be to remember that ambulatory care pharmacists, no matter what their specialty, will always have to be a jack of all trades. As a pharmacist, you have the insight and training to review medications and pick up on errors that have been missed by others. This can never be limited to one specialty because if there’s a problem, we need to solve it.

What is the value of ASHP for the profession?

The true value of ASHP is in advocacy and a push towards progress. The plethora of active ASHP committees shows that ASHP has the reach to guide our profession not only from a practice standpoint, but to work for better laws and protections for pharmacists and our patients.