Summer Intern Perspectives: Samuel Kim

Samuel Kim, University of Minnesota, College of Pharmacy
Poster: “Retrospective Analysis of Trends and Risk Factors of Opioid Naïve Patients Transitioning to New Chronic Opioid Users”
Site: HealthPartners, Bloomington, MN
Preceptor: Peter Marshall, PharmD, RPh
Pfizer Medical Outcomes Specialist: Jocelyn Good, RPh
Virtual Preceptor: Desola Davis, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP

The AMCP Foundation/Pfizer, Inc. internship with HealthPartners was an incredibly rewarding experience. Coming from an academic curriculum with a greater clinical focus, it was difficult to explore non-traditional pharmacy careers. However, with this internship I gained a significant amount of exposure and had the chance to work with healthcare professionals in a variety of different fields such as managed care, industry, and medical outcomes. Most of my time was spent working with pharmacists at HealthPartners in different departments. My preceptor, Peter Marshall, ensured I was able to gain exposure to most of the services HealthPartners provides by setting up a rotation schedule, which was similar to their residency program rotation. By completing these rotations, I now have a much greater understanding of managed care from the health plan perspective. I am extremely grateful for the individuals from each department that took the time to help me learn and succeed.

Interning at HealthPartners has shown me just how important managed care pharmacy is. Whether we were discussing the MTM program, reviewing contracts, or preparing for P&T, the overall goal of the organization was to focus on the Triple Aim. This is a quality of HealthPartners that I greatly admire. It was amazing to see how the decisions we made could affect such a large population of patients in a positive way by improving patient care, improving the health of populations, and reducing cost. Another excellent aspect of this internship is the variety of tasks you would encounter every day. There was never a day that I felt I was performing repetitive, tedious tasks. Every challenge required critical and innovative thinking. This kept me motivated throughout the internship and made the experience quite enjoyable.

This entire experience would not have been possible without the insight and wisdom of my preceptors Peter Marshall and Desola Davis, and my Pfizer medical outcomes specialist, Jocelyn Good. Their wisdom and wealth of knowledge were irreplaceable and helped elevate my understanding of managed care. I would also like to thank Christine Strahl and Joseph VonBank from the HealthPartners specialty pharmacy team for providing me opportunities to work with them throughout the internship. Additionally, all the healthcare professionals at Pfizer’s headquarters who took the time to speak with the AMCP Foundation/Pfizer interns were amazing and contributed significantly to the internship by discussing their past experiences and careers. This internship was truly a unique experience and I look forward to utilizing the skills I have learned this past summer. I hope the AMCP Foundation/Pfizer, Inc. internship program continues to take on new students in the future to share this amazing experience.