A typical day for Christina Pornprasert, PharmD ’14, is actually anything but typical. Aside from teaching in the classroom as an assistant clinical professor in the UConn School of Pharmacy, she is a population health clinical pharmacist at Hartford HealthCare Integrated Care Partners (HHC ICP), a physician-led clinical integration organization.
A native of Connecticut, Pornprasert graduated from UConn in 2014 with a doctorate of pharmacy and a business minor. She then completed a post-doctoral pharmacy residency at VA Connecticut Healthcare System followed by a specialty residency in ambulatory care at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Currently at HHC ICP, Pornprasert is responsible for population health management, the key to accountable care and health reform as demanded by new payment incentives focused on value-based care. She supports the care management team to ensure patients receive appropriate preventive, chronic, and transitional care. She also provides medication therapy management consults and direct patient care for high-modifiable risk patients through home visitations. She says “An interdisciplinary team gives patients the best chance of a favorable outcome. Providers are starting to realize that they need pharmacists to help meet their quality and cost metrics during this value-based healthcare transformation.”
Pornprasert describes that managing the escalating costs of treating chronic diseases requires partnering with data analysts. She works closely with the data analytics team to identify opportunities related to prescribing practices. “Health systems and payers are interested in population health because of this shift we’re seeing from fee-for-service to pay-for-value. The end goal is to improve outcomes, increase patient safety, and decrease cost. We need both clinical data and claims data to do this.”
Among her outreach efforts is the development of asynchronous webinar videos for providers, which grant them credit for continuing medical education. These videos raise awareness on cost saving opportunities, new guidelines, and high risk medications with the goal of improving medication-related metrics. She has also developed chronic disease state management algorithms to further facilitate evidence-based prescribing.
Pornprasert feels she has an immediate rapport with the next generation of pharmacists, especially while precepting them during their rotations at HHC ICP. “I’m a recent graduate, so students don’t feel intimidated to ask me questions. They appreciate that I have an intimate understanding of their curriculum from a student perspective.”
In what spare time she has, Pornprasert is a self-described ‘foodie’ and an avowed fan of Food Network. While some would relish meeting LeBron James or Lady Gaga, she’s proud to list Giada DeLaurentiis, Rachel Ray, Tyler Florence, Paula Deen, Bobby Flay, Robert Irvine, and Alex Guarnaschelli among the world class chefs with whom she has rubbed elbows. Finding a great restaurant is a high point of any time she can carve out of her busy professional schedule, and if it means a little bit of travel to get there, so much the better.
