Another pharmacist awarded Harkness Fellowship
The Harkness Fellowship
Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy
are offered by the US
Commonwealth Fund — a private foundation established in 1918
by Anna M. Harkness with the “broad charge to enhance the
common good” and which now supports independent research
on health and social issues. The fund provides support for fellows
to study how the US approaches health policy issues, to share lessons
learnt from their home countries, and to develop a multinational
perspective and network of contacts to facilitate policy exchange
and collaboration that continues beyond the fellowship.
The fund’s programme areas include improving health insurance
coverage, access to care and improving the quality of health care
services. Its programmes also focus on specific groups, including
underserved populations, young children, and the frail elderly. The
fund has this year added two UK fellowships, also for travel to the
US, supported by the PPP Foundation. |
Rachel Elliott, clinical senior lecturer at the University of Manchester school of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences, has been awarded a Harkness Fellowship by the US Commonwealth Fund.
The Harkness Fellowships in Health Care Policy provide a unique opportunity
for mid-career health services researchers and practitioners from the
UK, Australia and New Zealand to spend up to 12 months in the US, working
with health policy experts and conducting original research. Dr Elliott
is the third UK pharmacist to be given this award.
Dr Elliott hopes to spend a year looking at the economic impact of policies
to improve adherence to medicines based in a US academic institution.
She believes that adherence is of crucial importance to health care in
terms of public health, patient safety and health care financing. “My
position is that lack of understanding of adherence undermines efficiency
of public health policies. Furthermore, policies to improve adherence
may be at odds with health policies promoting greater patient choice,” she
says.
She hopes to examine the relative importance to patients of factors such
as cost, risk/benefit of medicines, perception of disease severity and
the patient-professional relationship in one particular disease group,
such as hypertension. She believes that the potential findings will contribute
to the formulation of policies for both government and professional bodies.
Dr Elliott has been based in the drug use and pharmacy practice group
at the University of Manchester since 1996. She is currently clinical
senior lecturer and programme director for the MSc/diploma in clinical
and health services pharmacy.
“
I am very excited to have the opportunity to work in the US with leading
experts in health care policy, health economics and medication use research,” Dr
Elliott says.
The award runs from September 2004 to September 2005. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal