Nick Gazda

His Story

Dr. Gazda received his pharmacy degree from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Pharm.D. 2016; M.S. in Health System Pharmacy Administration 2018.

Dr. Gazda is the Assistant Director Specialty Pharmacy Services at Cone Health; Assistant Professor of Clinical Education UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

Facility

Cone Health is a non-for-profit large regional health-system located in the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina and headquartered in Greensboro, NC. Our brand promise – We Are Right Here With You – is shared by our more than 13,000 employees, 1,800 physician partners and 1,000 volunteers. Cone Health has over 100 locations including 5 hospitals, three ambulatory care centers, three outpatient surgery centers, five urgent cares and more than 120 physician practices. Cone Health provides primary and specialty care through Cone Health Medical Group and Triad Healthcare Network.

Recent Significant Projects

I have been intimately involved in helping grow specialty pharmacy services at Cone Health. We have obtained specialty pharmacy accreditation with both URAC and ACHC. We continue to build our presence in specialty clinics across the system including establishing embedded clinical pharmacists with collaborative practice agreements with our physicians. We are also continuing to grow our residency programs where I am involved with our HSPAL and PGY1 Community programs. 
Initial Involvement in ASHP

I am currently Vice-Chair for the Section of Pharmacy Practice Leaders (SPPL) Advisory Group on Business Development and System Integration. I have been involved with ASHP since pharmacy school and have been involved with the SPPL since starting my HSPAL residency at Cone Health. I was also involved in the inaugural year of the Section of Specialty Pharmacy Practitioners. 
Why did you become involved in ASHP? 

ASHP is a wonderful network of progressive pharmacy practitioners. It is energizing to be apart of initiatives and groups with likeminded pharmacy leaders across the nation. ASHP pushes best practices in health system pharmacy and has been an essential part of my professional growth.

Advice for Someone New to Specialty Area 

Specialty pharmacy is a fast-paced, competitive, and high touch area of clinical practice. Strong specialty pharmacy programs require a wide range of team members with skills in specialty disease states, community pharmacy and insurance billing, and navigating high touch and high cost therapy areas. Building services that are patient centered, with customer service and clinical education in mind, are extremely important to provide the best care to patients and make the biggest impact. 

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

As mentioned, ASHP provides phenomenal professional growth opportunities through networking, mentoring, and leadership opportunities. ASHP is my go to organization to seek guidance on initiatives at my system or simply seek professional advice. The different resource centers and ASHP Connect community is also a great place to keep up with current developments and ensure you are utilizing evidence based practices in both clinical and leadership programs.

What is the value of ASHP for the profession?

ASHP is a leader in advocacy for the profession of pharmacy. Whether on operational issues, payor policies, or advocacy for advanced roles for pharmacists and technicians, ASHP has a strong team to influence change in the profession of pharmacy. What's more is that ASHP leans on its members to guide the organization's direction on policy issues. This ensures they are making suggestions that are representative of the opinions of health system pharmacy as a whole.