Matthew Malachowski

His Story

Matthew Malachowski, Pharm.D., BCPS graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 2006 and completed a general practice residency at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB) in 2007. Dr. Malachowski began practicing as a clinical pharmacist and preceptor in solid organ transplantation at UAB before being promoted to supervisor of specialty pharmacy services in January of 2016.

Facility

The University of Alabama Birmingham Health System is an academic medical center and integrated delivery network located in the medical district of Birmingham, Alabama. The system is centered around UAB Hospital, a 1,157 bed acute care facility buttressed by ambulatory clinics and outpatient services which provided more than 1.2 million outpatient visits last year.

Recent Significant Projects

Dr. Malachowski served as the Senior Clinical Staff member during the institution’s recent successful dual accreditation of two retail pharmacies, with a distinction in Oncology for the pharmacy servicing the Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Malachowski was the initial author of the organization’s Patient Management Program that he and his team designed to support the clinic pharmacists. He has a passion for collaborating with external market forces and like-minded organizations to improve his institution’s ability to care for their current and future patients.

Initial Involvement in ASHP

Dr. Malachowski is an active member of ASHP's Section of Specialty Pharmacy Practitioners and serves on the Section Advisory Group on Business Development. Dr. Malachowski attended ASHP Midyear in 2018 and helped his institution recruit another class of amazing pharmacy residents.

Why did you become involved in ASHP? 

Dr. Malachowski initially became involved in ASHP as a pharmacy resident and participant in UAB's residency program, and was fortunate enough to give back to the program as a preceptor. He enjoys collaborating with colleagues from different institutions with varied backgrounds and talents to develop creative ways to solve large, complex problems.

Advice for Someone New to Specialty Area

Dr. Malachowski suggests creating a short term and long term strategic plan with your leadership team and key stakeholders, along with measures of success and operational volumes that you can track regularly. He recommends setting expectations for the workloads of staff, and to push those expectations up and down the chain of command. He also recommends leaders try not to allow their program to become too tight or brittle. Envision where you would like your program to be six months in the future, and set aside small chunks of time each week to help make that vision a reality. While our “raison de vivre” is the care of our patients which takes place in the present, if your leadership team spends all of their time surviving the most recent emergency or living day to day, it will be difficult for your program and patient care potential to grow or become better than it is right now. Engage your front line practitioners, provide guidance but allow flexibility, create a system that standardizes the care process but individualizes the medicine, and trust your team.

What is the value of ASHP for the profession?

ASHP provides an outlet and a voice to the health system pharmacy practitioner, and is able to channel our collective will into an actionable force.