Clinical Informatics Pharmacist – Data Analytics

REQUIRED EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in pharmacy

• Two years of IS-related experience working with Electronic Medical Records (EMR) (e.g., Epic, Pearl, McKesson, Cerner, eClinicalWorks, Allscripts, GE Healthcaretc), or has pharmacy informatics residency or fellowship training
• Must possess sufficient educational background and/or experience to conduct clinical application analysis and/or programming of intermediate to complex systems, analysis of clinical workflows, and system adoption strategies. Experience building and implementing EMR protocols in a multi-facility hospital and clinic environment.

LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS OR CERTIFICATIONS

• Licensed to practice pharmacy in the state of Texas, or eligible. Licensure must be obtained within 90 days of the start date

 PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Epic Willow, Beacon, and/or Clarity Certification

• Doctor of Pharmacy degree, Master degree

• Completion of ASHP accredited PGY2 pharmacy informatics residency program, informatics fellowship, fellowship in data analytics, or equivalent informatics experience.

• Epic Systems, Inc. proficiency or certification in medication management modules (e.g., Willow Inpatient, Ambulatory/Inventory, Epic Clarity/Caboodle, or Beacon)

   

• Advanced proficiency in SQL (Oracle/OCI preferred), Tableau, Excel, and working with large relational databases (Epic Clarity/Caboodle).

• Strong understanding of 340B program compliance, hospital and ambulatory pharmacy operations, and medication utilization.

• Demonstrated ability to manage complex projects, prioritize tasks, and deliver accurate, actionable insights under tight timelines.

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain data insights to both technical and non-technical audiences

JOB DESCRIPTION

This position is responsible for the design, configuration, implementation, optimization, maintenance, and support of intermediate to highly complex clinical systems related to pharmacy in compliance with all applicable regulations and organizational policies. In collaboration with Pharmacy Services and Information Services, Pharmacy Informatics Specialist participates in the analysis, design, implementation, education, and support of computer application systems (e.g., Epic, PACMed, Carousels, Robot, Pyxis, etc.); determines business requirements and user needs in developing solutions.

Additional Details:

The Clinical Informatics Pharmacist - Data Analytics, reporting to the Pharmacy Informatics Officer, is responsible for developing and implementing analytic strategies utilizing statistical techniques to evaluate clinical and financial outcomes of pharmacy-related healthcare programs. This position sits at the crossroads of clinical pharmacy, finance, and data analytics, supporting strategic decision-making through analysis of key performance indicators, formulary data, patient demographics, outcomes, and other critical metrics. The role requires strong analytical skills, proficiency in SAS and SQL, experience in relational databases (Epic Clarity/Caboodle), data warehousing, and advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office tools to ensure efficient data processing and impactful presentation of findings. The analyst will independently lead projects and collaborate closely with finance, pharmacists, procurement and healthcare professionals to deliver insights and recommendations that enhance medication therapy management and promote cost-effective healthcare planning.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

• Manage initiatives & projects of significant complexity and risk. Provide leadership to assigned delivery teams. Provide input to prioritized roadmaps, develop work estimates, and ensure successful delivery to support strategic planning and initiatives, improve organizational performance, and advance progress towards UTMB Pharmacy goals.

• Organize and assess data reporting requirements, maintains data programs to meet all required data submissions to external regulatory agencies and stakeholders.  

• Validate all work through reasonability checks; comparisons to historical results and benchmarks; end user validation processes; and other processes established by the team.

• Identify variation in resource utilization, use data mining and visualization techniques to understand variation.

• Use a variety of database and statistical tools, internal and external data sources, modeling techniques, interpretive judgment skills, and presentation techniques to deliver actionable information and intelligence to decision makers. 

• Provide relevant and appropriate consultation to the department including, as appropriate, oral and written presentations at meetings or to leadership.

• Complete all documentation of data structures; measures and metadata; assumptions and models; reports and analyses; user-focused aids and training materials; and other documentation as required.

• Collaborate with Pharmacy Finance and Supply Chain teams to analyze actual vs. budgeted drug spend, model year-end projections, and support variance analysis across facilities.

• Lead the development and automation of data pipelines to support timely reporting and data-driven decision-making.

• Interpret government and externally reported healthcare regulations, including measurement programs, and translate requirements to shape analytics deliverables.

• Continuously develop knowledge and understanding of the landscape of analytics applied in the business domain(s).  

• Lead operational improvement initiatives, including facilitation and development of operational scorecards as well as provides guidance to stakeholders regarding performance measurement tools.

• Work with internal stakeholders and external customers to identify metrics to report on and to develop appropriate report format. 

• Utilize SQL and other query tools to analyze large quantities of data, from multiple complex internal and external sources to glean understanding, derive actionable insights into organizational performance and the external environment, and measure progress toward strategic initiatives.

• Apply knowledge of healthcare industry and clinical or business workflows to inform solution design and development, through working collaboratively with business, clinical, and operations leaders to evaluate sometimes complex requests; conduct critical thinking to define and address their needs; and propose solutions to meet their needs.

• Responsible for development and dissemination of analyses, assisting users of information at all levels of the organization with expert interpretive assistance. Leveraging knowledge and skill with a variety of analytic tools, design, create, maintain powerful visualizations and models that illuminate opportunities to support strategic planning and initiatives, improve organizational performance, project future demand, and advance progress towards UTMB Pharmacy goals.

• Lead the development and delivery of training relevant to area of expertise.

• Actively mentor and teach other colleagues (formally and informally) by contributing experience and insight to the team and to UTMB Pharmacy department. 

• Develops and maintains strong knowledge of the industry related to the department and policy landscape and provides subject matter expertise for both internal and external stakeholders as needed. Learn the business processes, workflows, value streams and key challenges.  Develop a strong understanding of the patient journey and perspective.

• Accurately and promptly analyzes the impact of information technology in clinical, financial, and operational processes. Communicates issues and topics with appropriate stakeholders.

• Participates in interdisciplinary and process improvement teams to manage enterprise clinical information systems and technology. Serves as a pharmacy informatics and technology resource to individuals and teams throughout the facility.

• Coordinates and facilitates on-going information system evaluation, including user accuracy, data integrity, and system reliability.

• Develops and implements action plans as needed to support user accuracy, data integrity and system reliability.

   

• As assigned, facilitates communications between vendors, Pharmacy Informatics team, and other stakeholders.

• Maintains current knowledge of trends and advances in the fields of Pharmacy Practice, Operations, and Informatics/Technology. Aware of new developments in hardware and software technology, operating systems, applications, operational analysis, and protocols.

• Maintains current knowledge of Pharmacy practices, regulatory standards, organizational policies, and procedures related to clinical practice, legal implications of clinical information systems, and organizational direction to support users and process teams.

• Performs related duties as required.

KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS/ABILITIES

Willing to assist and help train co-workers with software problems or issues
Requires strong analytical, organizational, communication and creativity skills in providing the necessary support of complex medication software systems.
Strong technical, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills and interpersonal skills.

WORKING ENVIRONMENT/EQUIPMENT
•    Standard patient care equipment, related supplies, office equipment and mechanical devices.
•    Work environment is in a comfortable indoor area. Occasional lifting may be heavy and awkward, over 50 lbs.
•    Vision, hearing, talking, and sense of touch abilities must be adequate to enable one to perform tasks quickly and accurately such as reading small print, reading from monitoring equipment, defining details, sending, and receiving clear and accurate verbal and written communication.
•    Frequent periods of concentrated or focused attention will be needed to interpret visual, auditory, and sensory inputs.
•    Alertness and careful attention to detail will be required.
•    Must be able to perform fine hand manipulation when using computer keyboard.
•    May be required to be on standby and work extended shifts in situation deemed necessary by Pharmacy Director or designee.
•    May be exposed to such occupational hazards as communicable diseases, bloodborne pathogens, ionizing & non-ionizing radiation, hazardous medications, and disoriented or combative patients or other.