Magaly Rodriguez de Bittner has no shortage of titles: president-elect of the Maryland Pharmacy Association, chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science at University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, associate professor and mentor. The list goes on.
At heart, she is an advocate for the community pharmacist, a health care professional whom she believes to be the critical link between a patient?s drug therapy and better, effective health care.
“A pharmacist is the only health care provider that is really accessible to the patients within the community,” she said. “A doctor of pharmacy has six years of education, and we have a breadth and depth of knowledge about medications about how they work.”
Through her work with U.Md., Rodriguez de Bittner initiated P3 Maryland, a research program in which pharmacists offer clinical services to diabetic employees of Western Maryland Health System in Cumberland.
In P3, it?s the pharmacist?s job to know the depth of the patient?s condition, said Harry Schiff, executive director of the state Pharmacy Association. “They are to ensure the patients follow the directions of the physicians and make them know that their disease ? if unchecked ? has serious consequences.”
So far, 125 patients have participated in P3, and Western Maryland Health System has seen a decrease in health care costs because its employees are being more proactive about their disease, Rodriguez de Bittner said.
“This will save insurers and employers, since the cost of medication is slim compared to the cost of emergency rooms,” Schiff added.
David Knapp, dean of the School of Pharmacy at U.Md., has worked with Rodriguez de Bittner for many years.
“She is a great mentor for newer faculty and newer practitioners,” he said. “With that great compassion in helping develop their careers, she transfers that passion to other people.”
The lack of a business model for compensating pharmacists for expanded clinical services has been a challenge to the pharmacy profession in this area. Rodriguez de Bittner said that as the leader of the Pharmacy Association, she would work to build a new business model while changing the perception that a pharmacist only sells drugs.
“When a patient walks into the pharmacy, they are not expecting to receive [clinical] services,” she said. “The perception can be changed that consumers can receive advice and access to better health care.”
