January 2023 Diplomat Spotlight: Jorge Farias
Diplomat at Western University
How did you become involved in AMCP?
I first became involved in AMCP when I was a P1 while attending pharmacy school at the University of Southern California. I was eager to learn about different career paths for pharmacists and knew very little about managed care. As a P2, I began volunteering on the educational committee for our student chapter and over the years grew an interest in pursuing a managed care pharmacy career.
What interested you the most about managed care and ultimately led you to pursue a career in managed care pharmacy?
Managed care pharmacy incorporates evidence-based strategies in the delivery of healthcare to ensure optimal outcomes while using health care resources in an efficient manner. These principles can be applied to almost any area of healthcare and is becoming more and more important in today’s environment of a strained healthcare system with limited resources.
What was your first job or position in managed care?
My first job in managed care was as a Senior Pharmacy Account Specialist for Sanofi. In this role, I worked mainly with retail pharmacy chains to educate pharmacists on new pharmaceutical products and vaccines from Sanofi. Our team developed tools and resources to assist the community pharmacist with medication therapy management, diabetes care, immunizations, and patient counseling activities.
What does a typical day or week look like in your current role?
Currently, I am a Field Medical Outcomes & Analytics Director for Pfizer. This is a field based medical role in which I am focused on developing partnerships with health systems and medical groups to identify opportunities for health outcomes and quality projects. My typical week involves a lot of relationship building, meeting with key stakeholders at different sites of care to identify needs around improving patient care, closing quality gaps, and addressing population health issues. I collaborate closely with our field medical and account management teams on projects that help advance the quality of care being delivered to patients and demonstrate the value of Pfizer products, so that involves a lot of coordination internally with other Pfizer colleagues also. When I am not in meetings, I am reading up on new guidelines, real-word studies, or other clinical data that is relevant to the disease states that I work in.
What type of interactions have you had with your AMCP student chapter or school of pharmacy?
I’ve had a chance to work closely with the AMCP Student Chapter at Western University of Health Sciences School of Pharmacy over the last few years as their AMCP Diplomat mainly as acting as an outside advisor. We have ongoing meetings to discuss goals and activities of the student organization and ways for growing student membership. I also actively participate in several events throughout the year such as P&T competition judge, roundtable talks, and presentations on various topics (e.g. real-world evidence).
Words of advice?
Have a curious mind and never stop learning. Continuous learning is a necessary part in acquiring critical thinking skills and developing future opportunities for growth. Change is inevitable and you don’t want to be left behind, keep up to date with trends so that you can deliver value in your industry. As you develop new knowledge and skills, you will uncover new opportunities and solutions to problems. Find people who will support you in your journey and pay it forward with those that are seeking help.