Carrie Martin Blanchard, Pharm.D., M.P.H., has joined the Division of Practice Advancement at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as a research assistant professor. Blanchard’s primary role will be as a member of the School’s Center for Medication Optimization through Policy and Practice where she will lead the educational and research development for the center.
Balnchard’s research interests focus on how to implement and scale medication optimization services and value-based care models. Blanchard said she is passionate about learning how these innovations can impact health outcomes, solve current public-health issues and lead to policy change. Her work includes researching the use of frameworks to guide implementation and evaluation, the selection of effective implementation strategies and the measurement of implementation outcomes of interest, such as adoption, feasibility, acceptability, fidelity and sustainability.
Her expertise and experience in applying implementation theories and principles to pharmacy practice have led to national and international recognition. Dr. Blanchard has been invited to conduct multiple workshops at national conferences with topics including defining a usable innovation utilizing an implementation science framework, measuring an organizations readiness for implementation and operationalizing improvement cycles as an effective implementation strategy. She has also presented her work at national and international implementation science conferences.
Before joining the faculty, Blanchard was the inaugural postdoctoral research fellow in Implementation Science at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in partnership with the National Implementation Research Network. Throughout her fellowship, she was extensively involved in the American Colleges of Clinical Pharmacy Comprehensive Medication Management in Primary Care grant. Under the direction of the principal investigators, Blanchard assumed multiple responsibilities, including conceptualizing and applying principles of the active implementation framework to the study, training and coaching clinical pharmacists in improvement cycle methodology and developing and validating implementation outcomes, such as a fidelity self-assessment tool. She used mixed methods approach to achieve and answer her research questions of interest including focus groups, cognitive interviewing, semi-structured interviews, cocreation, as well as survey design and validation. Her training included a unique combination of working with pharmacy practice experts and with leaders in the field of implementation science.
Blanchard holds a Masters of Public Health in Health Policy and Management from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is a registered pharmacist in North Carolina and graduated from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Prior to pharmacy school, she conducted research at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases were she completed the prestigious Postbaccalaureate Intramural Research Training Award program. Additionally, she holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Wake Forest University.