Han Feng

His Story

Han Feng received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Shenandoah University's Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy. Dr. Feng completed a PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency at Memorial Hospital - University of Colorado Health in Colorado Springs, Colorado and a PGY2 Medication-Use Safety Residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. Following residency training, Dr. Feng joined the pharmacy department at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center serving as a medication safety pharmacist before relocating to the District of Columbia area where he served as a Quality and Safety pharmacist at Children's National Medical Center.

Dr. Feng currently serves as a supervisory pharmacist for medication safety at the National Institutes of Health's Clinical Center located in Bethesda, Maryland.

Facility

The NIH Clinical Center is one of 27 different Institutes and Centers, and is the research hospital for the National Institutes of Health. At the NIH Clinical Center, clinical research participants—more than 500,000 since the hospital opened in 1953—are active partners in medical discovery. The original Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center is a 14-story, 2.5-million-square-feet building made from seven million bricks, with more than 5,000 rooms, nine miles of corridor, 15 outpatient clinics and a Department of Laboratory Medicine housed in a space the size of a football field. The newest addition is the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center which has 200 inpatient beds and 93 day-hospital stations. In all, the Clinical Center served over 5,000 new patients yearly across almost 3,000 inpatient admissions and 68,000 outpatient visits in 2021.

Recent Significant Projects

Recently, I served as a speaker at a virtual public meeting on the potential for medication error risks with investigational drug container labels hosted by the Food and Drug Administration and the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA. The opportunity to collaborate with pharmacist colleagues from other research facilitites to highlight the variability in investigational drug labels that greatly increase the risk of errors was both enlightening and fulfilling as a medication safety pharmacist. This project paves the way to address medication-use safety not only after a medication reaches the market, but even during its research and development.

Current Involvement in ASHP

I currently serve as a member of the ASHP Section of Inpatient Care Practitioners’ Educational Steering Committee. This opportunity to serve has allowed me to collaborate with experts throughout the country. I have been able to assist in the creation of both a podcast and a webinar.

Why did you become involved in ASHP? 

I completed rotations at ASHP as a student and then again as a resident, which offered me the unique opportunity to witness firsthand the breadth of work that ASHP and members participate in to advance our profession. Following the example of my colleagues and mentors, I pursued service in ASHP's section advisory groups. I am excited for this opportunity to help advance the profession and add to our collective knowledge.

Advice for Someone New to Specialty Area 

Be patient! The world of healthcare and pharmacy practice is an evolving field, and there are plenty of opportunities for improvement to both the quality and safety of our practice. The tasks may seem never-ending and the challenges insurmountable, but each victory impacts countless lives. Specializing in medication safety also means specializing in changing practices, policies, and cultures - all of which take time. So, do not become distressed if the change takes time; the end results are worth the journey.

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

ASHP brings together pharmacists and technicians from all backgrounds to teach and learn from one another. The ability to network, learn, and collaborate with fellow pharmacists and technicians practicing in health systems throughout the nation is invaluable.

What is the value of ASHP for the profession?

The wealth of knowledge - both the explicit and implicit - shared between the staff and members continuously prove to be an invaluable resource. Being a member of ASHP allows all of us to learn from our past and shape our future.