The EVERGREEN Medication Counseling Services (eGeneRx.com) is in a process of claiming as a business pioneer in medication services run by a clinical pharmacist (September 17, 2005).
Our founder is Mr. Winston Vo. Mr. Vo was a chemical engineer and was employed by Honeywell in Texas for its consulting and service group. He returned to school for an advanced degree in pharmacy (Doctor of Pharmacy). In an introductory course of the Pharmacy Practice, he was introduced to resources for drug therapy information. The information includes its pharmacology (medicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics), its side effects, and its interactions with other drugs. He raised a question in class of why the pharmacist has an indepth knowledge of drugs but didn’t take an active role in counseling medications for patients. He chose this topic for a graded Pharmaceutical Care Project (submitted in September 17, 2005) for this pharmacy course. In hospital, there are clinical pharmacists in charging of evaluating drug therapy for physicians. After discharged or in an outpatient clinic, there is no input of a pharmacist. An independent consultation of medications for patients is a necessary. There are limitations on this service. The medical records of a patient are confidential and could not be shared with other healthcare providers. And, it is hard to take physicians on phone to discuss about his patients’ disease and medications. Our founder had alternatives to fix those limitations. The pharmacist has some ideas about patient's disease after reviewing a list of patient's medications. She could interview the patient for more medical information to reinforce her analysis. She then writes up an indepth report and sends it to physician. Upon receiving it, the physician will response in a time frame depending on the seriousness of the treatment. There are two laws that were passed recently to boost the role of pharmacist in consultation: the Medicare Act 2003 which requires pharmacist to provide the medication consultation for Medicare patients that having two or more diseases; the second is the Prescription Part D (January 1st, 2006) that allows Seniors enrolling in some drug discount plans.
Beside submitting this medication consultation service to be graded for a required Pharmaceutical Care project, our founder also drafted a letter and collected other related research papers to send to his Doctor of Pharmacy Program director, Dr. David Tipton. It was in Octorber 11, 2005, just three months away from the effectiveness of Prescription Part D in January 1st, 2006. While searching for this project, he didn’t find any information on this medication consulting business as an independent and paid service run by a clinical pharmacist (only seen a clinical pharmacist consulting physicians in a hospital or in a clinic of group of physicians). “The Pharmacist Today”, a magazine of the American Association of Pharmacists, in September 2005 recognized Dr. Billie Minton, a Doctor of Pharmacy, as a pioneer and had an article on her medication consulting service. Not long ago, in 2002, she was recognized as a pioneer on this medicattion service by her alumna (Mercer University School of Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia). While in this same month (September 17, 2005), our founder, Mr Winston Vo, as being a first-year student of Doctor of Pharmacy at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania proposed this project but didn’t get an attention from his professor Dr. Vincent Giannetti as well as from his program director Dr. David Tipton.
In December 5th, our founder accepted a job (not an internship rotation) as a pharmacy intern at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. It was two weeks before the final exams, therefore, he failed two courses and was placed on probation next semester. In letters to the Student Standing Committee, he mentioned about his new job and his medication counseling business, but he didn’t get any attention or respond to those matters. He didn’t pass the probation period and was kicked out of pharmacy school in May 2006.
In November 12th, 2008 (3 years later) his pharmacy school (Duquesne University) announced to open a new division of Pharmacy Practice, Medication Therapy Management (MTM) program, as a pioneer to provide a medication counseling service to the low income people in Pittsburgh area giving its pharmacy students a hand on experience. The same service that our founder had proposed with a paid service for high income group.
Our Founder, Mr Winston Vo, graduated cum laude (ranked 98 out of 303 graduating engineers) from Vanderbilt University with a double degree in Chemical Engineering and Applied Mathematics in May 1998. He was employed by Honeywell Inc. in Texas as a Control Systems Engineer in its consulting and service group that provided services for chemical and petroleum refineries. He was accepted to a Doctor of Pharmacy at Duquesne University in August 2005. While in pharmacy school, he was employed by University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) as a pharmacy intern. He was kicked out of pharmacy in May 2006 after failing one semester of academic probation.
Mr Winston Vo and his family immigrated to the United States from Vietnam in a politics asylum in August 1992 at the age of 19. His dad, Mr. So Huu Vo, was a lawyer, and his mom, Ngan Tran, was a teacher. His uncle, Mr. Truc Tran, is also a lawyer.
Duquesne University School of Pharmacy opened a new division of Pharmacy Practice- Medication Therapy Management in November 12, 2008. It is two and half years since our founder, Mr Winston Vo, was kicked out of its pharmacy school.
A Letter (dated Octorber 11, 2005) to Dr Tipton, a director of Weekend Doctor of Pharmacy Program at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was followed up after submiting a business plan (dated September 17, 2005) of medication counseling service as a graded Pharmaceutical Care project.
Dr. Billie Minton, a Doctor of Pharmacy, in Tennessee had twice appearance on news (Mercer University- 2002, and "The Pharmacy Today" magazine- September 2005). She opened a first medication counseling service. Our founder, Mr Winston Vo, could claim to be a pioneer as coming to market at a significant and historical development (Medicare Act 2003 and Prescription Part D January 1st, 2006)
PharmMD.com (in Nashville, a capital of healthcare community) has a big management and staff but no plan to overcome obstacles in medical field.
