Two from Class of 2021 receive prestigious fellowships

Two DKICP students from the Class of 2021 had a lot to celebrate after March Match results were announced. Karmen Wong and Sandy Li received fellowships at very prestigious post-graduate programs.

Karmen Wong has been accepted into the world-renowned Rutgers Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowship Program, based at Rutgers University in Piscataway, NJ. The program partners with leading pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies.

One of 159 PharmD fellows selected from 950 applications, she will take part in training to develop leadership in various areas of drug development, including clinical trial planning and execution, pharmacovigilance and safety, medical strategy and regulatory affairs.

“I remember meeting Karmen in her P1 year and she told me about her interest in industry,” recalls Lara Gomez, PharmD., and associate dean for academic affairs. “She and several students from the Class of 2020 established the Industry Pharmacist Organization (IPhO) student chapter at DKICP, which has been very successful. She was also an inaugural executive board member of the IPhO student chapter.”

Gomez notes that Karmen was selected to complete an APPE rotation with Eli Lilly this past year in the area of Diabetes Medical Development.

Qixin (Sandy) Li has been accepted into the Bayer and University of Washington Health Economics and Outcomes Research Fellow Program. This two-year program provides training and hands-on experience in a broad range of topics, and is structured to allow the fellow to gain proficiency in these areas of research as conducted in both the academic and pharmaceutical industry settings.

The first year will be spent at the University of Washington in Seattle, taking courses to satisfy the Master’s Degree requirements. The second year will be spent working at Bayer in Whippany, New Jersey, getting hands-on training and exposure to the process of generating and utilizing strategically focused health economics and outcomes research to support the development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products.

“Sandy is an excellent student pharmacist and I knew she would be competitive in either a PGY1 residency or fellowship,” says Wesley Sumida, PharmD., BCPS, and DKICP associate professor. “She was a member of the winning team for our local 2020 American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists Clinical Skills Competition with her partner Alan Trinh. Her research experience with Dr. Supakit Wongwiwatthananukit on the topic of opioid analgesics and with Dr. Deb Taira in the area of asthma helped her to further develop her skills.

“She ultimately found her passion in pharmacoeconomics and clinical trials,” he says, noting that her virtual poster submission was accepted for presentation at the ASHP 2020 Clinical Midyear Meeting. It was titled “Patterns and trends in opioid analgesic-prescribing rates among medical specialties and populations in Hawaiʻi”.

“She also enjoys statistics, which aligns well with her fellowship interests,” he adds.