Jon Easter has joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as the director of the Center for Medication Optimization through Practice and Policy and a professor of the practice.
The center, which is embedded within the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education and launched in April 2015, seeks to solidify the role of pharmacy practice within value-based health care payment and care-delivery models by building a hub to support internal and external collaboration, research and education.
Easter said CMOPP will develop a robust, real-world-practice research capability by securing a variety of grants, facilitate strategic collaborations with interdisciplinary partners to accelerate impact and advance education of students through curricular transformation and experiential learning.
“The goal is to demonstrate the positive impact of medication optimization on patient care and health care quality and on reducing the total cost of care,” Easter said. “With the emergence of value-based payment models, there’s an incredible opportunity to educate policymakers, payers and health care systems on the impact of new pharmacy models in ambulatory care, community pharmacy and transitions of care. It’s also important for students to learn how policy shapes health care so we can better prepare them for these new delivery models while also developing leaders to advocate for positive change.”
Easter said the center will accomplish these goals by focusing on three areas: collaboration, research and education. Prioritizing in these areas will produce the needed evidence to integrate medication optimization into value-based care delivery and payment models.
Associate Professor Joel Farley, Ph.D., served as the interim director of the center until Easter joined the School in January.
“We see a big opportunity to improve the use of medications in the U.S.,” Farley said. “There is consistent evidence that less than half of patients on chronic medications adhere to their treatment regimens. These patients are at higher risk for adverse drug events which can lead to expensive hospital admissions, emergency room admissions and adverse clinical outcomes.”
Easter spent more than 19 years at GlaxoSmithKline, where he primarily worked in the health-policy arena. He led a team that facilitated the adoption of evidence-based quality measures, informed development of new value-based reimbursement programs and drove improvements in care delivery through better coordination and medication management. He championed GSK’s involvement in North Carolina First in Health, one of the nation’s leading patient-centered medical home projects.
Easter also co-authored a prescriptive analytics pilot through collaboration with Community Care of North Carolina that aimed to improve patient care through better medication management. He was also involved with replication of the Asheville Project, a recognized model for care coordination to improve patient outcomes for chronic disease.
Easter will be teaching his first course in the fall on the evolution of the health care system in the United States, a required course for second-year students. He said he is excited to bring his knowledge and experience into the educational realm, especially to UNC.
“A key motivator for me to transition from industry to the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy is the student interaction,” he said. “I truly hope that I can translate my health care and policy experience to students so they can, in turn, advocate for better practice models and lead the U.S. to a better health care system.
“Dean Blouin’s strong leadership was also a key factor in me making the move to UNC,” Easter said. “This center was his vision, and I am looking forward to carrying it out.”
Easter also said Farley and Associate Professor Mary Roth McClurg, Pharm.D., M.H.S., have been critical to CMOPP’s progress.
“The work Joel did to establish this center was critical, and we are working closely together to expand upon his efforts,” he said. “Mary has been instrumental in our three-way collaboration, she has provided key insights on integration with curricular transformation, and she is helping to drive key research with the ACCP grant.”
“Although I went to pharmacy school at the University of Georgia, I am passionate about the University of North Carolina. I am a North Carolina native, and my wife, Anne, graduated from the J-school at Carolina,” he said. “We have a lot to be proud of at this university and within our great state.”