Author: Erin Wilson | August 23, 2024
Rising third-year pharmacy student Chenwei Yan has many areas of interest— rare diseases, medication safety, preventative care, and increasing access to health care— which make her pursuit of a dual degree in pharmacy and public health a perfect fit. She grew up knowing she wanted a career in health care, decided on pharmacy after finishing her undergraduate degree, and was drawn to the University of Minnesota as a large research institution.
“I want to do pharmacy because I’m interested in the chemistry of everything behind it, but I’d also like to get involved with patient care and making sure that everyone has access to taking their medications safely, which is why I'm also interested in public health,” Yan said. “I think that's a priority task in the field… so that's a great overlap.”
Interdisciplinary work has been woven throughout her time in the PharmD and public health programs, during which she has also participated in case competitions as a member of the Interprofessional Education Scholars Program. Recently, she wrapped up an internship with the Office of Academic Clinical Affairs (OACA), in which she and two medical school students worked with Hennepin Pediatric Mobile Health to analyze children’s vaccination completion rates and any barriers to preventative health families may be facing. Yan and her peers helped design questions for assessment interviews with community partners, inquiring about what they considered important to community health and resources they provide to aid their communities in achieving that. Yan also helped craft surveys for mobile health patients and input the results into databases for the mobile health team to distribute amongst their patients. Their project was recently accepted to NEXUS, a conference centered on interprofessional practice and education, where the group will present data in a lightning talk session this September. She said the internship, with its hands-on experience in the community, was a good match for her blend of interests and a “great supplement to [her] current experience,” which is more clinical.
Yan said interprofessional collaboration has enriched her time in the PharmD and public health programs.
“I didn't [previously] really understand much of other perspectives in health care– how they take care of patients, how they care for members in the community– I think it's always great to learn how they do it,” she said. “I just really enjoy doing interdisciplinary work with other people.”
In addition to preventative care, decreasing health care barriers, and ensuring patients take their medications safely, Yan has a special interest in rare diseases, which she started researching during her undergraduate years. After joining the college, she continued that research with her undergraduate mentor, Dr. Reena Kartha, a professor in the Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology Department. Between joining Kartha’s lab and attending Rare Disease Day at the Center for Orphan Drug Research, she’s had the opportunity to learn a lot about rare diseases during her time in the program.
“Although it sounds like a minority population, it can be very impactful if those patients receive the proper care,” Yan said. “I think that's what drew me into the rare disease space.”
As for her future, Yan envisions herself working on medication safety or on policy relating to it.
“What drove me to pharmacy is my goal of making sure people are taking their medication safely, either in my own work trying to verify that people's prescriptions are right, or also on the policy level,” Yan said. “I think there are things to do on that, making sure that people have safe access to medication.”
Update since this story was published: Yan has been selected by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) as one of 28 students across the country to be part of the second cohort of the AACP Aspiring Academics Program. Read more here.