title: Data analyst technician: an innovative role for the pharmacy technician.
abstract: The development of an innovative role for the pharmacy technician is described. The role of the pharmacy technician was based on a needs assessment and the expertise of the pharmacy technician selected. Initial responsibilities of the technician included chart reviews, benchmarking surveys, monthly financial impact analysis, initiative assessment, and quality improvement reporting. As the drug-use and disease-state management (DUDSM) program expanded, pharmacist activities increased, requiring the expansion of data analyst technician (DAT) duties. These new responsibilities included participation in patient assessment, data collection and interpretation, and formulary enforcement. Most recently, technicians' expanded duties include maintenance of a physician compliance profiling database, quality improvement reporting and graphing, active role in patient risk assessment and database management for adult vaccination, and support of financial impact monitoring for other institutions within the health system. This pharmacist-technician collaboration resulted a threefold increase in patient assessments completed per day. In addition, as the DUDSM program continues to expand across the health system, an increase in DAT resources from 0.5 to 1.0 full-time equivalent was obtained. The role of the DAT has increased the efficiency of the DUDSM program and has provided an innovative role for the pharmacy technician.
authors.affiliation: Drug-Use and Disease-State Management Program, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-Presbyterian, PA 15213, USA. ervinkc@msx.upmc.edu
authors.forename: K C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Ervin
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Skledar
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Hess
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ryan
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D019985:Benchmarking; D003625:Data Collection; D019468:Disease Management; D017723:Drug Utilization Review; D017598:Efficiency, Organizational; D006801:Humans; D007587:Job Description; D008510:Medication Systems, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D010414:Pennsylvania; D010607:Pharmacy Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D024382:Professional Role; D016730:Program Development; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013678:Technology, Pharmaceutical / Q000639:trends*