When New Jersey native Dr. See-Won Seo completed her residency in North Carolina, she learned firsthand that pharmacy practice could be different than what she had known in the Northeast.
In North Carolina, pharmacists prescribed medications through collaborative practice agreements with physicians. That made sense to Dr. Seo – after all, she was a key member of the medical team with extensive knowledge of the medications being prescribed.
Then in 2013, she arrived in Albany, where pharmacists’ scope of practice is narrower, as it is in New Jersey. With her recent experience, she felt strongly about the inequity of pharmacists’ inability to prescribe medications, and it also seemed unfair to patients.
"I felt a duty to support things that I know pharmacists could do very well if given the chance,” Dr. Seo said.
And so began the associate professor’s dive into advocacy, work that had interested her back as a pharmacy student but that she has embraced with passion since joining the ACPHS faculty in 2013. Dr. Seo’s advocacy efforts have spread from the pharmacy profession to under-served patient populations, especially in areas like asthma and lung disease in which she has expertise. She has presented posters on advocacy at national and international pharmacy conferences. And she has spearheaded efforts to get ACPHS students involved in advocacy work, through creation of the student advocacy certificate program.
On Sunday, April 23, she received the Pharmacy Advocacy Award from the New York State Council of Health-system Pharmacists (NYSCHP) at their annual conference, held in Saratoga Springs.
“I’m very passionate about it,” Dr. Seo said, “so it’s nice to be recognized for something that I enjoy doing and also get the chance to talk to others about it.”
She also acknowledged ACPHS colleagues Dr. Jessica Van Acker, Dr. Kelly Bach, Dr. Kate Cabral and Dr. Jacqueline Cleary for their support and modeling passionate advocacy.
Shortly after basking in the award, Dr. Seo was back in the game. She participated in Pharmacy Lobby Day along with other ACPHS faculty and students on April 24.
“If we’re not going to advocate for ourselves as a profession, no one will do it for us,” Dr. Seo said.
A sampling of Dr. See-Won Seo’s current advocacy work
- Asthma Partnership of New York Advisory Committee
- Coalition for the Advancement of Pharmacy Practice - Interim President and Co-Lead for Government Relations
- NYSCHP Public Policy Committee
- American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Global Advocacy Task Force – Vice Chair