Courtney Gamston wins the inaugural 2009 Facts & Comparisons Enhancement Scholarship

Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading global provider of information for healthcare professionals and students, announced today that Courtney Gamston of Auburn University’s Harrison School of Pharmacy is the winner of the inaugural 2009 Facts & Comparisons® Enhancement Scholarship. Gamston will receive tuition reimbursement in the amount of $5,000 and her proposed enhancement will be considered for a future release of Facts & Comparisons 4.0.

As part of the scholarship program, applicants wrote a short essay describing an innovative product enhancement for Facts & Comparisons 4.0. Gamston’s submission addressed patient education, recommending the addition of a “My Meds” component that would let patients generate a customized list of medication information for their personal reference.

“Giving patients the opportunity to create a personalized medicinal ‘cheat-sheet’ will support the complete information supplied by the software, improve understanding of the specific treatment regimen and, hopefully, improve disease outcome,” wrote Gamston.

Facts & Comparisons 4.0 provides retail pharmacies and academia with online access to the most up-to-date drug information tailored to their unique needs, enabling better therapeutic decisions in less time. For the academic community, it provides students, residents and faculty with instant access to reliable, current drug information and medication management tools. Helpful links, student and resident support, scholarships and other information are also available to help meet course and drug reference needs.

For pharmacies, Facts & Comparisons 4.0 addresses the key pain points of workflow efficiency and patient safety by providing the tools and information needed to support drug dispensing activities. These include patient safety screenings for Drug Utilization Review and drug reference information, which result in a decrease in drug dispensing errors.

“The selection committee was impressed with the innovative approach taken by all of the scholarship applicants,” said Arvind Subramanian, President and CEO, Wolters Kluwer Health Clinical Solutions. “Gamston’s suggested enhancement stood out from the crowd because she emphasized the critical correlation between meeting both the needs of our Facts & Comparisons 4.0 pharmacy customers and of the patients they serve with valuable drug information.”

To be eligible for the Facts & Comparisons® Enhancement Scholarship, students must be enrolled in a school of pharmacy that currently participates in the Facts & Comparisons Academic Partnership Program. Applications were evaluated by a cross-functional selection committee based on the following criteria: the perceived degree of the enhancement’s innovation; clinical relevance; clinical usefulness; and/or contribution to the ease-of-use/navigation/user experience.