Carmen Gust

Her Story

Dr. Gust completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin—Madison and then worked as a pharmacy technician for many years at various hospitals throughout the country before beginning pharmacy school at Creighton University School of Pharmacy and Health Professions. She graduated with her PharmD in 2019 and followed pharmacy school with a PGY1 residency at UMass Medical Memorial Medical Center outside of Boston and then completed a PGY2 Health-System Pharmacy Administration and Leadership residency at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis. While completing her PGY1 she helped implement and staff Massachusett’s first COVID-19 field hospital and published a paper in AJHP about implementing pharmacy services. Additionally, during her PGY2 she obtained her BCPS and also had the opportunity to help lead a COVID-19 mass vaccination clinic at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and vaccinate more than117,000 Hoosiers. She was honored as a Healthcare Hero for the state of Indiana at the Indy 500 for her work at the mass vaccination clinic. Dr. Gust is currently completing the PLA program through ASHP and completing certificate programs for Pharmacy Revenue Cycle Management and the Well-Being Ambassador Program. Outside of work, she is a board member for Girls on the Run of Northeast Wisconsin and fulfills the role of secretary for this program.

Dr. Gust is the System Clinical Pharmacy Coordinator at ThedaCare, a not-for-profit health system serving more than 600,000 residents in Northeast and Central Wisconsin. Her primary responsibilities currently include leading the P&T Committee and formulary management, department cost savings and containment, medication teaching, the monthly pharmacy lecture series, biosimilar conversion, COVID-19 algorithm creation and management, APPE precepting and laying the groundwork for a new PGY1 residency program.

Facility

For more than 110 years, ThedaCare has been committed to improving the health and well-being of the communities it serves in Northeast and Central Wisconsin. The organization delivers care to more than 600,000 residents in 17 counties and employs approximately 7,000 health care professionals. ThedaCare has 180 points of care, including eight hospitals. As an organization committed to being a leader in Population Health, team members are dedicated to empowering people to live their unique, best lives. ThedaCare also partners with communities to understand needs, finding solutions together, and encouraging health awareness and action. ThedaCare is the first in Wisconsin to be a Mayo Clinic Care Network Member, giving specialists the ability to consult with Mayo Clinic experts on a patient’s care. ThedaCare is a not-for-profit health system with a level II trauma center, comprehensive cancer treatment, stroke and cardiac programs, as well as primary care.

Recent Significant Projects

The significant projects Dr. Gust has been involved in recently are biosimilar conversion, COVID-19 algorithm development and creation of a pharmacy lecture series.

For the biosimilar conversion project, the pharmacy department has successfully converted all applicable biosimilars at the oncology center. They have achieved more than 70% conversion rate for one of the biosimilars and more than 85% conversion of the others. Currently they are working on converting the infliximab biosimilar across the system.

When Dr. Gust arrived at ThedaCare in August of 2021, she developed both the inpatient and outpatient COVID-19 algorithms, and maintained their changes throughout the pandemic.

Finally, in an effort to create more internal learning opportunities for the pharmacy team, she created the Pharmacy Lecture Series. She organizes lectures to be given monthly to the pharmacy team that include various topics. 

Involvement in ASHP

• ASHP member  
• SPPL Advisory Group for New and Emerging Leaders
• ASHP mentor 
• ASHP BCPS Recertification Field Tester
• ASHP House of Delegates alternative delegate
• Currently completing the Pharmacy Leadership Academy, the Pharmacy Revenue Cycle Management Certificate and the Well-Being Ambassador Certificate
• Attendance at local, regional and national ASHP conferences

Why did you become involved in ASHP? 

Dr. Gust first became involved in ASHP when she was a pharmacy technician, prior to beginning pharmacy school. She became involved to learn more about programs for the technicians she was leading at the time. Once she progressed to pharmacy school, she became more involved in ASHP in serving in chair positions for her school's local SSHP chapter. She utilized many of the services offered to students concerning residency and attended Midyear two years while in pharmacy school. She also presented posters five times at ASHP Midyear and took advantage of all of the amazing programing at ASHP Midyear. Overall, her initial involvement was motivated by gathering information for applying to and obtaining a residency position and is now being utilized to enhance her networking and lifelong learning.

Advice for Someone New to Specialty Area 

In those new to leadership, Dr. Gust would recommend a focus on continued learning. It may be easier in leadership than some other pharmacy specialty areas to get complacent in your ongoing education, but it is necessary to continue to operate at the top of your abilities and provide the best for the teams you serve. There are always new programs, webinars or books to read that provide information on leadership. She would also advise that it is a long career and to be patient. She recommends being selective in the leadership advancements. Make sure it feels like the right fit. Doing so will provide career satisfaction and fulfillment.

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

ASHP's conferences provide unmatched networking and programming. There is such a wide variety of information provided at their conferences that everyone will find something that suites their interests. Additionally, ASHP is constantly coming out with new programing to provide to their members (CEs, webinars, white papers, certificate programs, etc.). She has taken advantage of many different types of programming and has found it exceptionally beneficial for her development and career.

What is the value of ASHP for the profession?

ASHP provides incredible advocacy for our profession. We have fantastic representation at our state and national level due to the funding and resources provided by ASHP. This advocacy enables our profession to have a louder voice and has been successful in getting many things passed that are advantageous to progressing our profession and protecting our pharmacists.