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Home arrow News arrow Futures E-Reports arrow Profiles in Research: Futures Alum Establishes His Legacy
Profiles in Research: Futures Alum Establishes His Legacy PDF Print E-mail

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Vol V, Dec '11
As a medical student, AMDA Foundation Futures program alumnus Steven Handler, MD, PhD, didn’t necessarily see a future in research. However, a strong mentor, a natural curiosity, and some unique opportunities helped guide his path. “The Foundation enabled me to do my first research project [on medication error reduction and reporting], and this opened the door to other resources,” Dr. Handler recalled. He added, “I enjoyed research and decided to pursue it; and I haven’t stopped since.”

Dr. Handler, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, has been a frequent speaker at Futures Programs, sharing his perspectives on research and how young practitioners can get involved in studies. While he gets many questions during and after his presentations, he said, “It seems that a minority of people are interested in research. I think this is partly because people don’t know much about it or how to pursue research in long term care.” He urged young physicians with an interest in research to seek mentors in their state to help them and answer their questions. “A local mentor is important because each state has different IRB [Institutional Review Board] requirements, priorities, and so on,” he explained.

Medication safety issues remain Dr. Handler’s passion. He said, “My long-term vision is to see how we can incorporate HIT [Health Information Technology] that is low-cost and integrated into the current workflow to help with medication safety issues.” Currently, he is working on a Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ) study addressing this issue. To date, he has been involved in numerous studies and has published over 50 papers.

If he ultimately is known for this work, Dr. Handler would be fine with that. He suggested that he wouldn’t mind if his tombstone one day read “Here lies the person responsible for establishing a system to support medication safety in nursing homes.”

Preview Dr. Handler’s latest article in JAMDA (“Economic Evaluation of a Handheld Charge Capture Application for Long Term Care Providers” with co-author David Nace, MD, MPH) at http://www.jamda.com/article/S1525-8610(09)00460-5/preview.

 
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