Albany, NY – August 1, 2016 – Erika Swits, a Doctor of Pharmacy graduate and member of the ACPHS Class of 2016, was recently awarded a $2,500 scholarship from the New York State Health Information Management and System Society (HIMSS).
The applicants for the scholarship – which included medicine, law, MBA, and Ph.D. students from a dozen schools across the state – were judged largely based on a 500 word essay related to challenges facing the health care industry.
In awarding Erika (pictured here with her father, David) the lone scholarship reserved for a professional or graduate student, HIMSS organizers noted her essay’s “completeness of thought, writing quality, relativity, and creativity.”
Erika’s scholarship essay was in response to the question: What do you see as the biggest health care industry hurdle(s) in the delivery of healthcare in the US today and why? An excerpt from her essay is below:
The largest hurdle the United States will have to overcome in order to improve on quality outcomes is to create a more unified system with smooth transitions between care. The lack of care coordination, interoperability and communication between systems is the largest hurdle in the delivery of health care in the United States.
“My interest in health information technology was piqued during a business class I took at Union Graduate College [now Clarkson University] and while working at Albany Medical Center for the past four years,” said Erika. “I believe pharmacists can play a critical role in helping optimize the use of health information technology.”
Erika has accepted a position with Coram CVS/Speciality Infusion Services and will begin working there following her pharmacy board exams. She will also continue her relationship with HIMSS by attending monthly board members and working with the organization’s pharmacy committee.
In addition to her Pharm.D. degree from ACPHS, Erika has a bachelor’s degree in biology from St. Lawrence University and an MBA in Health Care Management from Clarkson University. The MBA was obtained through the joint Pharm.D.-MBA program offered by ACPHS and Clarkson.