Ann Kerschen, PharmD
Medication Management Specialist
Ann Kerschen job-shadowed doctors and nutritionists. She thought about many other healthcare jobs. She considered majoring in math, physics, psychology and biochemistry. She played with the idea of being an ophthalmologist.
Then she shadowed her step-cousin, a hospital pharmacist in Reno, Nev. She really liked what she saw and, during her undergraduate work, pursued a job at the University of Nevada, Reno, Campus Pharmacy.
“Pharmacy seemed to combine all of my interests and allowed me to communicate with patients and really do something to help them,” she says.
Kerschen was born in Schenectady, N.Y., but has lived in Tucson for more than 15 years and Reno, Nev., for six years. She plans to stay in Tucson for the time being, though she may eventually move back to Reno, where her mother lives.
“I knew that The University of Arizona was a highly ranked college of pharmacy,” Kerschen says. “I also grew up in Tucson until I was 15 and my father is a professor of engineering at UA, so it was natural for me to come back to Tucson.”
Eventually the 2006 graduate may study to become a board-certified pharmacotherapeutics specialist, but right now she happily works as one of six medication management specialists at UA College of Pharmacy’s Medication Management Center (MMC).
As a medication management specialist, Kerschen calls Medicare patients across the country to discuss their diseases and medications with them. Often she finds a change that needs to be made to the patient’s medication regimen. She contacts the patient’s prescriber in those cases to recommend the change. Most of the time, she says, the prescriber accepts the recommendation.
“The MMC is a brand new type of pharmacy setting,” she says. “I am very interested in disease state management, especially diabetes, and I really enjoy talking with patients and helping them with their medication regimens. The MMC is a great opportunity because I am able to apply my interests and help the lives of many patients nationwide.”
In 2007, Ann Kerschen developed a 2.5 hour Continuing Education program, "Medication Therapy Management in Community Pharmacy," that has been presented in 16 cities across the U.S., Kerschen has presented her program in a number of those cities.