Fei Wang

Fei's Story

Dr. Wang received her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, Masters in Pharmacy Administration, and a post-baccalaureate Pharm.D. degree from St. John’s University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in New York followed by an ASHP-accredited residency, specializing in Adult Internal Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. She is a board certified pharmacotherapy specialist since 1998, a tobacco treatment specialist (TTS) since 2014, and a certified UMass TTS Trainer in 2017. Dr. Wang is a 2008 elected Fellow of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, a past President of the Connecticut Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and past director of the UConn Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Residency Program and co-director of the Hartford Hospital PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency Program with Emphasis in Primary Care.

In her current role at UConn, she has teaching responsibilities for the professional program in the dermatology, endocrine, and cardiovascular modules, including an elective course in ambulatory care that emphasizes different practice models, building a business proposal for a new service, and exploring pharmacist compensation and practice sustainability. Her practice and teaching site is in a safety-net primary care clinic which provides patient-centered care to a medically under-served urban community in the greater Hartford County. Her scholarly interest engages in practice-based and health services research collaborations and her activities in this area include improving medication therapy management services with a focus on value-based care, health outcomes research, reducing tobacco-related health disparities, providing skills-based education, and delivery of team-based care. Her publications over the past 10 years have focused on diabetes and/or practice-based research questions that address gaps in knowledge or care.
   
As Co-director of the faculty-led Education Abroad Program in Traditional Chinese Medicine since 2011, Dr. Wang has mentored students, promoted study abroad, strengthened global awareness and provided opportunities for interaction among members of the University and international learning communities. Under her leadership, she has developed new initiatives that include hosting exchange students and faculty from Peking University School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
   
Dr. Wang is the recipient of the 2015 University of Connecticut Robert L. McCarthy Faculty Service Award, 2013 Preceptor of the Year Teaching Award, 2010 and 2011 AACP Wal-Mart Scholar Faculty Mentor award, 2011 Connecticut Society of Health-System Pharmacists (CSHP) Meritorious Achievement and 2007 Pharmacist of the Year Awards.

Dr. Wang has been an active member of ASHP and regular attendee of the ASHP Annual Meetings. Dr. Wang has notably contributed to poster sessions and has been an annual meeting abstract reviewer (2010-2014). She has also served ASHP in the following capacities: ASHP Section Advisory group on Compensation and Practice Sustainability (2016-2017), ASHP, Section Advisory group on Membership & Marketing (2011-2012), ASHP Section Advisory group, Educational Steering Committee (2012-2013), ASHP State Delegate (2007-2010), faculty coordinator, and ASHP Local Clinical Skills Competition (2016). She has served as past president of the ASHP state affiliate organization, CSHP (2009-10) and as a board member of CSHP (2006-2011). Dr. Wang also contributes to the following national and state organizations: AACP, CPA, and CSHP.

Facility

Dr. Wang’s experiential practice site is in a hospital-based primary care clinic affiliated with Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut. It is a major academic teaching site for the University of Connecticut Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Nursing. Dr. Wang is the only pharmacist embedded in the practice. As a member of the care team, she provides patient-centered support to patients and staff to ensure medication efficacy and safety and to enhance value-based and outcomes-based care. She established a comprehensive medication therapy management and a tobacco treatment referral service and contributes to the design and implementation of new initiatives and outcome measures of programs targeting population health. Dr. Wang mentors and precepts pharmacy students and residents and strongly supports their role as active members of team-based care participating as pharmacist-extenders in providing patient-centered pharmaceutical care.

The practice provides comprehensive care and support services to a predominantly medically under-served Medicaid and Medicare (75%) and uninsured (25%) ethnic population. Over 75% of the patient population are Hispanic (predominantly Puerto Rican), with 70% Spanish-speaking only. The practice provides services to 5,573 unique individuals with an average of 5 annual visits per patient. Patients who come to the clinic are individuals with medically complex needs, many of whom need to see specialists. The vast majority of patients are not coming for preventive care. Instead, they're on complicated medical regimens with multiple chronic problems. The practice offers urgent care and chronic care services staffed by 5 full-time board-certified general internal medicine physicians, 36 UConn internal medicine residents, 1 clinical pharmacist, 2 nurse practitioners, 4 registered nurses, 1 social worker, and 12 support staff.

Recent Significant Projects

Recent advancements towards value-based care and changes in the U.S. health-care delivery model have provided incredible opportunities to integrate and expand the pharmacist’s patient care roles to team-based care particularly in the ambulatory care setting. Dr. Wang was recently awarded a 2-year grant from the State of Connecticut Department of Public Health from 2017-2019, for a new major initiative to reduce tobacco-related health disparities in the medically underserved community through the engagement of a novel model of care. UConn School of Pharmacy will take a leadership role in supporting community-University partnerships with 2-large community-based organizations (Hartford Hospital Brownstone Clinics and Community Health Services Inc), an independent pharmacy chain (Arrow Pharmacy & Nutrition Center), and UConn School of Computer Science and Engineering, to engage in a systems-level change and build on cessation capacity though the development, integration, and delivery of skills-based education, team-based care, and exploration of a sustainable model through billing and reimbursement. Pharmacists have the potential to close gaps of care and are in a great position to assist in tobacco cessation as a community-wide approach to increase preventative screening, and address patient engagement in tobacco cessation.

Advice for Someone New to Specialty Area

 "For new practitioners, get involved and engaged early on in team-based care to build on your role and develop relationships to effectively deliver clinical pharmacy services. It takes time to integrate seamlessly with the team. Be involved professionally and keep abreast of current health care policies that will impact your role and responsibilities. Don’t reinvent the wheel, reach out to the ASHP professional network and look for mentors and resources to build on a successful practice and demonstrate your contributions and value to team-based care."

Value of ASHP

"I am impressed with the global reach of ASHP. It has name brand recognition and a reputation for providing an excellent forum for networking opportunities, career growth, and continuing education for pharmacy professionals. International pharmacy communities use ASHP as a benchmark for enhancing practice skills. In the 5 years I have been attending the annual Forbidden City International Pharmacist Forum held in Beijing, there has always been an American delegation representing ASHP – really impressive global impact and I am truly proud to be a part of this professional home."