Research Statement

 

My interest of field has been in the realm of pharmacoepidemiology, evaluating post-marketing data and applying larger data to understand a problem and explore possible solutions. I plan to approach off-label use with comparative effectiveness methodologies by expanding on previous subject knowledge, applying it to more of a robust data, and providing confirmatory conclusions for controversial data. My long-term research goal is to quantitatively and qualitatively enhance our current understanding of antimicrobial exposure response relationship in patients with bacterial infections. I plan to encompass the three interrelated domains of pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacoepidemiology in my research. I can improve patient care by developing individualized patient care strategies to improve health outcomes. In summary, my research is to define the right antimicrobial at the right dose for the right patient. One of my career goals is to continue to enhance my methodological skills with other statistical software and build a large, robust, and generalizable database to increase public health awareness in the field of infectious diseases and antimicrobial utilization. In addition, I plan to collaborate with others in the pharmacokinetics background to translate their work into patient centered outcomes.

My primary academic interests are optimizing therapeutic options for patients’ bacterial infections and developing stochastic models to better understand learning in infectious disease pharmacotherapy. I view myself primarily as a pharmacotherapy specialist in Gram-positive bacterial infections, as well as on broad comparative interests that reach into other disciplines such as Gram-negative bacterial infections. Seeking to frame interesting questions that come from clinical practice has always been my passion. I have never been afraid to question where the intriguing data lies on a treatment recommendation. At the same time, my hypotheses are always derived from the paucity of evidence and supported by previous subject knowledge. I have developed this mental discipline acquired during my postgraduate residency training in both my drug information experiential rotation and during my residency research project. My most satisfying projects often being with a vague question that I insistently post to my students: “Where does the data come from?”

Broadening the focus on safety and effectiveness in post-marketing data by performing high quality pharmacoepidemiology research and improving evidence-based practice has been my research goal. I plan to evaluate newer antimicrobials using registries or private/public databases to determine if the safety and effectiveness is the same compared to the clinical trials. Furthermore, it would more interesting to evaluate off-label indications and discuss the effectiveness and safety of these specific populations. Potential funding organizations may be pharmaceutical companies to start an investigator initiated project or some pharmacy organization foundations e.g. American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists. Seasoning my methodological skills with collaboration and publishing my research findings in a national/international meeting and peer-reviewed journals can potentially have impact on patients’ health. We need larger and robust data to make scientific discussions more precise and efficient. This will support clinical decision to optimize clinical outcomes while minimizing unintended consequences of medication utilization.