Julie Pawola

Julie’s Story

Dr. Pawola received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2001 and completed a pharmacy practice residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in 2002. For 9 years she worked as an inpatient pharmacist in general surgery and solid organ transplant and then transitioned into her current position on the pharmacy informatics team.

Dr. Pawola is currently the Vice Chair of the Pharmacy Informatics and Technology Section Advisory Group (SAG) on Professional Development. Dr. Pawola and her colleagues are working on developing a glossary of informatics terminology to make the vocabulary consistent across the Section. As part of this SAG, she had the opportunity to evaluate the Partners in E curriculum along with other resources that are available to educate pharmacy students in the field of informatics and technology. Dr. Pawola became involved in ASHP because of the opportunity to work with her pharmacy informatics and technology colleagues across the country, engage in current and future initiatives within the profession, and to advance her leadership skills.

Facility

UW Health is the academic health system associated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It is compromised of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics (UWHC) a 648 bed regional referral center which includes UW Health at the American Center, a community based health and wellness facility, the American Family Children’s Hospital and the UW Health Rehabilitation Hospital. The health system includes 90 regional locations, six regional cancer centers along with the UW Carbone Cancer Center and approximately 65 outreach clinics. It is compromised of the academic health care entities of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; UW Medical Foundation, UWHC and UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

Significant Projects

In her role as an informatics pharmacist, Dr. Pawola has the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of projects. She is currently working on developing an interface from the electronic health record (EHR) directly to the automated compounder pump to enhance the parenteral nutrition medication use. Additionally, she is enhancing the clinical decision support tools within the EHR that are used by antimicrobial stewardship pharmacists to streamline workflows and building an electronic trigger tool to identify pediatric patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) to decrease the prevalence and intensity of AKI in this patient population.

Advice for Someone New to Your Specialty Area

“I would advise anyone new to pharmacy informatics and technology to always challenge themselves to learn new skills and not place boundaries on what they can accomplish. I would encourage them to join state and national organizations to learn from and network with other colleagues in this specialty area.”

ASHP’s Value to Members

“ASHP is shaping the future of the pharmacy profession within health systems. It is essential to be actively involved in this organization to support the advancement of our profession and to engage pharmacy leaders across the country.”

“ASHP is an essential component of the pharmacy profession for a wide variety of its members including students, technicians, practitioners, and managers. The organization is working on numerous initiatives which are invaluable for the future of the profession and will raise the level of pharmacy practice, including obtaining pharmacist provider status.”