Staff
In addition to a strong team of information technology specialists, computer programmers, and a statistician, who all have expertise in data management and analysis, PRC has a unique strength provided by pharmacists from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. Their clinical expertise in pharmacotherapeutics, knowledge of reference files (e.g., drug dictionaries, ICD-9-CM, CPT) and understanding of research methodology provide important contributions to study design, operationalization of variables, and data analysis.
Jane Bacon, MS
Office Manager
220 Arch Street, 12th Floor Room 519
410.706.5315
jbacon@rx.umaryland.edu
Jane earned her B.S. from the University of Michigan, in Human Nutrition in 1977, where she also received a M.S. in Health Education in 1978. She has also worked in the Dean’s Office at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Other previous experience includes management of a NHLBI Program Project Grant in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Maryland-Baltimore and publications at the American Urological Association. Ms. Bacon began working with PRC in February 2008.
Christine Franey, MPH
Research Analyst
220 Arch Street, 12th Floor Room 509
410.706.6327
cfraney@rx.umaryland.edu
Christine earned her B.S. in Mathematics and Chemistry from Simmons College in 2006, followed by her M.P.H. in Epidemiology with a concentration in Reproductive and Women's Health from the University of Michigan in 2008. Since joining PRC in June of 2008 as a project coordinator, Christine has worked with investigators to construct variables from secondary data sources, including electronic medical records and administrative claims. She has also engaged in primary data collection, worked with SAS programmers to create analytic files, and performed administrative tasks including completing institutional review board applications.
James Gardner, ScM
Programmer & Statistician
220 Arch Street, 12th Floor Room 515
410.706.7559
jgardner@rx.umaryland.edu
James Gardner earned his BA degree in Mathematics from Loyola College in 1974 and his ScM degree in Biostatistics in 1978 from Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Gardner has worked for the University of Maryland analyzing data since 1980.
He has been employed as a Research Specialist at PRC since 1998.
Van Doren Hsu, PharmD
Assistant Director & Pharmacist
220 Arch Street, 12th Floor Room 513
410.706.5396
vhsu@rx.umaryland.edu
Van Doren Hsu earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Michigan in 1989 and completed a clinical pharmacy residency at the University of Maryland Medical System in 1990. She joined PRC in May 1998 and was the project coordinator for the Maryland Medicaid Drug Use Review (DUR) program from 1998 to 2000 where she developed DUR criteria, conducted retrospective DUR analyses using fee-for-service claims data and encounter data from different sources, and evaluated managed care organizations drug use management programs, and coordinated board meetings.
From 2000 to 2004, Dr. Hsu was a project coordinator and analyst in PRC where she worked with investigators on administrative issues (e.g., institutional review board application) and data acquisition, designed databases for analysis files, categorized and operationalized the definitions for diseases, drugs and procedures, worked with SAS programmers to create analysis files, analyzed data, and participation in manuscript or report writing. Between 2004 and 2008, she served as the Director of PRC and principal investigator as well as continuing her effort in project management. In July 2008, Dr. Hsu resumed her role as a project manager and analyst. Over the years, she has developed expertise in various administrative and secondary databases including SEER-Medicare, USRDS, national VHA, Maryland Medicaid, PharMetrics, i3, BlueCross Blue Shield.
Richard Kulawiec
System Administrator
220 Arch Street, 12th Floor, Room 508
rkulawie@rx.umaryland.edu
Richard Kulawiec received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Bradley University in 1978. He has over twenty-five years of professional experience in UNIX system management.
Diane McNally, MS
Assistant Director & Pharmacist
220 Arch Street, 12th Floor Room 521
410.706.0080
dmcnally@rx.umaryland.edu
Diane McNally received her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and Master of Science in Pharmacy Practice and Science in 1981 and 1996, respectively, from the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Ms. McNally has been with the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy since 1989. Her work has encompassed practice and research surrounding drug use and management ranging from drug use assessment to the development and implementation of interventions to improve appropriate use. In addition, she has experience in both program and outcome evaluation. She developed quality indicator measures for a state Medicaid program to assess their managed care organizations’ drug benefit programs. Ms. McNally has coordinated numerous projects including several state Medicaid drug use review programs and cooperative agreements with the Health Care Financing Administration (currently the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services). She has made numerous presentations at both local and national conferences on these topics and projects.
Ms. McNally has experience working with large secondary datasets (i.e., Medicaid fee-for-service and encounter claims, Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey Cost and Use) along with the reference dictionaries necessary to translate the information [diagnosis (ICD-9-CM), procedure (CPT, HCPCS) and drug dictionary (First DataBank®)]. In addition, she designed a relational database to allow users to query claims data to answer clinical as well as utilization inquiries.
Gail B. Rattinger, PharmD, PhD
Director & Pharmacist
220 Arch Street, 12th Floor Room 228
410.706.0527
gratting@rx.umaryland.edu
Pharmaceutical Research Computing Center (PRC) director, Gail B. Rattinger, PharmD, PhD joined the UMB School of Pharmacy faculty, effective July 1, 2009. Dr. Rattinger, a clinical pharmacist and health services researcher, completed her PharmD at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and subsequently completed a health services research postdoctoral fellowship at University of Maryland, School of Pharmacy. She has experience in the evaluation, operationalization and analysis of data from the electronic medical records system utilized at Veterans Affairs Health Care System facilities. Her research interests are in the area of geriatrics, focused on clinically oriented health services research in the areas of neurodegenerative diseases affecting older adults such as Alzheimer's dementia and Parkinson's disease, medication adherence and safety. Prior to completing her PharmD, Dr. Rattinger spent over 15 years in industry, after completing her doctoral studies in the area of chemical physics/inorganic physical chemistry, and holds more than 60 patents in the areas of soft solids, mild surfactant, and rheological technologies.
Patricia Stewart, BS
Programmer
220 Arch Street, 12th Floor Room 508
410.706.3112
pstewart@rx.umaryland.edu
Pat Stewart has a Bachelor of Science degree with a major in Mathematics Education and a minor in Health from the University of Maryland, College Park. She has over 30 master's credits in the area of Math Education and Computer Science from the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University. Ms. Stewart has been a SAS programmer for over 25 years, experienced in data manipulation using SAS DATA steps and Macros. She has worked in SAS summarizing and reporting results of clinical studies for major pharmaceutical companies and worked with major databases such as Medicare and Medicaid claims. Additionally, she has managed large residential and commercial phone files for AT&T and MCI. Pat has served as PRC's Assistant System Administrator for 2 years, which involved maintenance of all user accounts and assured the smooth operations of our Unix and Linux servers. Currently, Pat teaches and lectures Pharmaceutical Health Services Research graduates students enrolled in the School of Pharmacy's Research Methods I and II classes. She also provides individual tutoring on SAS programming to the graduate students.
Lori Walker, BS
Programmer
220 Arch Street, 12th Floor Room 517
410.706.0811
lwalker@rx.umaryland.edu
Lori Walker graduated from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County with a BS degree in Computer Science, minor in Mathematics in June 1990. After graduation, she worked for Atlantic Research Corporation and Research Triangle Institute as part of a contracting team to the National Institutes of Health. In 1995, Lori was hired by the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy Center on Drugs and Public Policy (CDPP) to provide programming support for the on-site research staff. From 1996 to 1998, she provided database management of state administrative claims and programming support for the Maryland Medicaid Drug Use Review (DUR) program. In addition, she developed comprehensive diagnosis (ICD-9-CM), procedure (ICD-9-CM, CPT, HCPCS), and drug code dictionaries.
With the addition of the Pennsylvania Medicaid DUR program contract in 1998, Lori was a founding member of PRC as a computer support group for researchers within and outside CDPP. In addition to providing database and programming support for the new project, she collaborated with the computer system administrator to develop a multi-faceted dynamic online query system, dubbed OQS. She is currently working as a senior level programmer, database manager, web page developer, and assistant system administrator.
Jeanne Yang, MCP
Programmer
220 Arch Street, 12th Floor Room 511
410.706.1498
jyang@rx.umaryland.edu
Jeanne Yang earned her BA degree in Mathematics and Design of Environment from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983 and her Master of City Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1986. Jeanne previously worked as a SAS programmer at the University of North Carolina Population Center on the The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) and at the Urban Institution on the National Survey of American Families (NSFAF) research project.
She has worked as a SAS programmer at Census on the 2000 Journey-to-Work project. Jeanne also has experience working with Census, Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), and Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data.
Ilene H. Zuckerman, PharmD, PhD
Executive Director & Pharmacist
220 Arch Street, 12th Floor Room 200
410.706.3266
izuckerm@rx.umaryland.edu
Ilene Zuckerman, PharmD, PhD is founder and executive director of the Pharmaceutical Research Computing center, and is a professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. Dr. Zuckerman has served on the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy since 1983. She received her Bachelor of Science (Pharmacy) and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees in 1981 and 1983, respectively, from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and a PhD in Epidemiology in 2005 from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Zuckerman’s research focuses on improving drug therapy in vulnerable populations. She is principal investigator on a career development grant funded by the National Institute on Aging to examine risk factors for transitions to nursing home among community-dwelling elderly.
She also currently serves as associate director of the University of Maryland DEcIDE Center, sponsored by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. From 1998 to 2004, Dr. Zuckerman was Principal Investigator on a contract to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare to provide analytic, clinical and technical expertise for their Medicaid drug program. In addition to analysis of administrative claims to identify potentially inappropriate drug therapy, this contract also required evaluation of the effectiveness of educational and administrative programs implemented to improve drug use. Several of the analyses from this service contract have resulted in publications and presentations. Dr. Zuckerman has also been involved in research to improve pediatric asthma management using Medicaid administrative claims. She is principal investigator on a subcontract to an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded grant to examine national patterns of HIV diagnosis and treatment; this analysis uses the MEPS database.