PQA created its Postdoctoral Fellowship program in 2012 and welcomed its first fellow in 2013. This annual fellowship produces the next generation of leaders in health care quality through a full-time, 12-month program. PQA fellows collaborate across the organization and with a wide variety of stakeholders at a national level to impact the quality of care patients receive with an emphasis on the quality of medication use.
PQA’s 13th class of postdoctoral fellows joined this summer. For more than a decade, PQA’s 16 fellows have worked side-by-side with staff to help the organization grow and stay relevant for a rapidly changing health care environment. As part of PQA’s 20th Anniversary celebration, this blog explores the program’s creation, growth and success.
Advancing PQA’s Mission and Success
More than a training opportunity, the fellowship is a strategic investment in PQA’s mission and the future of quality medication use. PQA CEO Micah Cost shares his insights:
“The PQA fellowship is one of the most important investments our organization makes in the future of health care quality. This program offers highly skilled and talented individuals the opportunity to actively contribute to our mission and strategic priorities as members of the team, while simultaneously helping them to develop their own technical expertise, thoughtful leadership, and professional voice.
“Fellows bring fresh energy and perspective to our work and extend our organization’s capacity. Perhaps most importantly, the program fosters lifelong relationships and creates champions for quality medication use. Our fellows become leaders across the health care system and stay connected to PQA long after their fellowship ends.”
Creating a Program for Medication Use Quality and Value-Based Care
While the program has become a cornerstone of PQA’s commitment to producing the next generation of leaders in health care quality, it began with a simple vision. Founding PQA CEO Laura Cranston recalls the vision for creating the fellowship.
“The impetus for creating PQA’s fellowship program was to provide an opportunity for recent pharmacy graduates to be exposed to not only association management opportunities as a nontraditional career path, but equally as important to provide them training and education into the field of quality measure development.”
As PQA’s Associate Director for Quality Strategy in 2012, Sam Stople played a leading role in establishing the program.
“At the time, the world of pharmacy felt somewhat disconnected from what was happening in quality measurement and value-based payment. We saw the fellowship as an important bridge between those two worlds, giving a rising generation of pharmacists the technical grounding to engage directly in measure development and health services research, rather than leaving that work to be done without a pharmacy voice. We wanted to develop leaders who could carry that connection forward into the future.”
New and Valuable Career Paths and Opportunities
Alumni have carried the fellowship’s impact throughout the health care system, while others have continued advancing PQA’s mission from within the organization.
Laurin Dixon, PQA’s first postdoctoral fellow in 2013-14, is now Vice President for Operational Excellence at Centene and serves on the PQA Board of Directors.
“As a student pharmacist, I was drawn to PQA because it sat at the intersection of clinical care, quality measurement, and government programs – where pharmacy could shape better outcomes at scale.
“My fellowship spanned quality measurement, implementation of education and clinical programs – including medication synchronization, and association management, a combination that proved invaluable. Through those experiences, I learned how to build consensus, manage complex partnerships, and translate measurement into impact, which eventually led to roles overseeing national clinical and quality programs to impact patient care.”
Chris Kotschevar, PQA’s Director of Stakeholder Engagement, was a PQA fellow in 2020-21. He is one of five former fellows now on staff at PQA.
“I was drawn to PQA’s ability to make concrete progress towards value-based care, what I saw as the not-so-distant future of health care. By not focusing on policy, but rather on quality measurement, PQA was closer to the care process than other associations, and that was where I wanted to be sitting after graduation.
“The fellowship taught me much of what I use now on a day-to-day basis that is not covered in a PharmD program, including how quality incentives drive care improvement, the impact of partnerships to innovate care delivery, and the interworking of the Star Ratings program. These, among other key lessons, are what I draw from regularly in my current role.”
PQA’s 20th anniversary celebrations are made possible in part by the generous support of Lilly USA, Merck, Pfizer, PQS by Innovaccer, AdhereHealth, Centene, Elevance Health, Humana, Kroger Health, Inmar, McKesson, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, American Pharmacists Association, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, National Association of Specialty Pharmacy. PQA does not endorse, recommend or favor any product, service or organization that is a sponsor.