Medical Creativity Meets Business

Four NEOMED pharmacy students are preparing to compete for the first time in the finals of the Ohio Pharmacist Association Business Proposal Competition. Winners will be announced Saturday during the OPA conference at the Columbus convention center in Columbus, OH.

The OPA challenges pharmacists to come up with a business plan that includes an overall vision, a marketing plan, financial plan and an operational plan for a business that allows pharmacists to be engaged in the community.

Combining medicine, creativity, and business, pharmacy student Jen Barringer, her team – fellow pharmacy students Ross Newlove, Lauren Krutel and Nick Herbst – and their mentor, professor Daniel Krinsky, began working together last November to develop a business plan for a health service that could be provided at any community pharmacy, making it easy for patients to use. The service that the team developed, pharmacogenetic testing, would allow individual patient medications to be dispensed based on genetic testing.

Gene-Ease, as the team is named, partnered with the Ritzman Pharmacy at NEOMED and with Medical Diagnostic Laboratories, LLC in Rootstown, Ohio. Gene-Ease identified its target patients as Portage County residents over the age of 60 who have been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, such as hypertension or stroke.

The team was selected as one of three finalists out of the 12 teams that competed statewide. Cash prizes will be awarded on Saturday for first-, second- and third- place winners.