Biography
Dr. Aka has completed her Pharm.D. at the age of 26 years from Howard University College of Pharmacy in Washington, DC, and is completing her postdoctoral studies as a Health Outcomes Research Fellow at Howard University. She has published abstracts, oral, and poster presentations at various conferences in disease management and innovative delivery of care sevices. Jennifer has traveled to Pretoria, South Africa to deliver research in infectious disease and has an interest in enhancing care for the underserved and minority population. Her current interest is in diabetes care management and to improve both national and international healthcare.
Abstract
The American Diabetes Association recognizes that elevated hemoglobin A1c directly correlates with increased diabetes-related complications and mortality. Pharmacist-led medication therapy management has proven effectiveness in controlling hemoglobin A1c, and achieving both positive clinical and economic outcomes. However, there is a scarcity of research on medication therapy management in the Medicaid population. Studies have demonstrated that the Medicaid population has the highest risk of developing diabetes-related complications and disease-related death. The objective of this study is to determine the clinical and economic outcomes of implementing a pharmacist-led medication therapy management diabetes program to enhance care for high-risk Medicaid beneficiaries. Methods Participants that will be included in this quasi-experimental study are members of a DC Medicaid Health Plan. The Medicaid health plan members will be followed for a period of 12 months at the health plan's wellness center. The participants will be managed in a collaborative fashion by an interdisciplinary health care team. The pharmacist will integrate appointment-based medication therapy management services (this includes comprehensive medication review, medication counseling, and blood glucose meter teaching) to each participant. The inclusion criteria will include at the point of recruitment: ages 18-75; or diagnosis of type 1 or 2 diabetes with hemoglobin A1c >9; or utilizers of 4 or more prescriptions; or have had a recent 30-day readmission to the hospital. The data collected will be electronic medical records, and both prescription and hospital visit claims data. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe the population. The statistical analysis used will be the difference-in- differences approach with a multivariate regression analysis to evaluate the impact of the pharmacist intervention on the primary outcomes, after adjusting for other covariates. The primary outcomes will be the effect on 1) hemoglobin A1c, 2) hospital readmission rate, and 3) total health care utilization.
Biography
Sarika Reghunadh has completed her PhD at the age of 28 years from Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, India and postdoctoral studies from university of Utah, USA. She has published more than 12 papers in reputed journals. Research interests includes polymeric nanomaterials and microspheres for drug delivery applications and polymer synthesis.
Abstract
Curcumin is a natural hydrophobic polyphenol obtained from rhizome of the plant Curcuma longa or root turmeric. Curcumin possess anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and anti-cancerous properties. Despite of its therapeutic efficacy and safety, curcumin has not been widely utilized for treatment owing to its less bioavailability. The reasons for reduced bioavailability of curcumin are poor absorption, rapid metabolism and fast elimination. In order to improve the therapeutic efficacy, bioavailability and to overcome the aforementioned shortcomings, curcumin should be protected from degradation and metabolism. In the present study, curcumin is conjugated to gum arabic, a highly water soluble polysaccharide to enhance the solubility and stability of curcumin. Gum arabic-curcumin (GA-Cur) conjugate is charcterised by 1H NMR, fluorescence and UV spectroscopy studies. GA-Cur conjugate self assembled to nano micelle owing the hydrophia-hydrophobic interactions in aqueous medium. Hydrodynamic diameter of the miceles were analysed by dynaminc light scattering. The micelles exhibits size of 270 ± 5 nm. Spherical morphology of the self assembled conjugateis evidenced by field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The self assembly of the amphiphilic conjugate into micelle in aqueous medium significantly enhances the solubility and stability of curcumin in physiological pH. The anticanceractivity of the conjugate micelles is found to be higher in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells than in human breast carcinoma (MCF-7) cells. The conjugate exhibits enhanced accumulation andtoxicity in HepG2 cells due to the targeting efficiency of the galactose groups present on gum arabic. This GA-Cur conjugate is a promising drug delivery system.