PhD Student, Research Assistant & Teaching Assistant Health Services Research in Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy
University of Wisconsin, Madison
“I love the USDeN annual conference! I was able to meet new people and we have formed a very strong partnership.” PhD student Helen Omuya considers herself pretty new to the USDeN community, and she looks forward to opportunities to grow and engage.
“The USDeN network has connected me with professionals that are passionate about research in an area I am interested in,” she said, and added, “I am able to explore ideas and see things from diverse perspectives.”
In fact, Ms. Omuya gained ideas from attending USDeN’s 2022 annual meeting that directed her review of randomised-controlled trials on deprescribing outcomes in older adults with polypharmacy that was published by the International Journal of Pharmacy Practice in June, 2023.
Ms. Omuya’s “raison d’être” for pursuing a career in pharmacy is seeing patients’ health and quality of life improve, and her experience shows that deprescribing certainly has the potential to support patient goals to this purpose. She says that patients are “grateful that some medications that were causing adverse side effects were discontinued or replaced, and they now have a better quality of life. Some are just grateful to take less pills. For me, it amplified my desire to support patients in withdrawing potentially inappropriate medications and further confirms to me that deprescribing has positive impacts for patients.”
Ms. Omuya believes that no contribution to deprescribing research is too small, and that every step forward is a step in the right direction—and we are pleased that she has joined us on this path as a participant in our Junior Investigator Intensive program.
She looks forward to continuing collaborations with USDeN colleagues, and to expanding deprescribing research in the future.
