Pharmacy Students and Assisted Living Residents: A Healthful Combination and Team Alice Senior Center Medication Safety Program

Kathleen Cameron, BSPharm, MPH, has more than 25 years of experience in the health care field as a pharmacist, researcher, and program director focusing on falls prevention, geriatric pharmacotherapy, mental health, long-term services and supports, and caregiving. Cameron is Senior Director of the NCOA Center for Healthy Aging, where she provides subject matter expertise on health care programmatic and policy related issues and oversees the Modernizing Senior Center Resource Center.

Janel Bailey Wheeler received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Xavier University of Louisiana and immediately pursued a career in retail pharmacy with Eckerd Drugs.  She later accepted a position with Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy and developed an ambulatory care practice site in a community setting where she provided Medication Therapy Management (MTM) services and developed an ADA-Recognized Diabetes program.  She later transitioned practice sites to an ambulatory care clinic.  In addition to her work at the clinic, she also provides services to residents of an assisted living facility in Orleans Parish.  Dr. Wheeler is also the Director of the Xavier University PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency Program and served as the former Director of the PGY-1 Community Pharmacy Residency Program.  She has taught numerous topics including, but not limited to Endocrine Disorders, Smoking Cessation, Immunizations, MTM and served as an experiential preceptor to IPPE and APPE students.

Dr. Wheeler holds membership in numerous professional and social organizations.  In 2007, Dr. Wheeler was named to the St. John the Baptist Parish School District’s Hall of Distinction which honors outstanding alumni and was Preceptor of the Year in Ambulatory Care at Xavier University of Louisiana in 2006, 2008 and 2013.

I am a Senior Research Scientist at the University at Buffalo Primary Care Research Institute. My research focus is in primary care geriatric health services research specific to medication safety and deprescribing and patient/caregiver empowerment to guard against medication harm. My work is embedded in Team Alice, a nationally unique, multi-stakeholder deprescribing group that evolved from the Alice Story, a real case derived from the tragic death of Alice Brennan triggered by preventable medication errors and system failure. Team Alice consists of academic, primary care, regional health information partners, and an active group of patient stakeholders. I have been a leader in the older adult patient stakeholder engagement efforts and serve as the coordinator of Elder Voices. I am committed to pursuing patient-driven deprescribing research that will increase shared clinical decision making that can potentially reduce medication burden and improve the quality of life for older adults. My research interests are empowering older adults and their caregivers to be instrumental in health system change that will advance patient-centered care. This includes research in the area of social determinants of health with comprehensive screening to improve health care delivery that is responsive to the needs of the individual patient.