First DataBank today announced that the U.S. Pharmacopeial (USP) Convention has named Joan Kapusnik-Uner, Pharm.D. to the Health Literacy and Prescription Container Labeling Advisory Panel sponsored by the Safe Medication Use Expert Committee organized in accordance with the bylaws of the United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP). Dr. Kapusnik-Uner leads the Disease Decision Support team at First DataBank and is considered a specialist in the area of pharmacoinformatics, which studies the interface of technology with the practice of pharmacy.

The purpose of the Advisory Panel is to determine optimal prescription label content and format to promote safe medication use. Committee members will review factors that promote or distract from patient understanding of prescription medication instructions and create universal prescription label standards with regard to format, appearance, content and language. Panel members have been selected for their expertise in health literacy and consumer safety as it relates to safe medication use.

“We welcome Dr. Kapusik-Uner’s participation on our panel,” said Gerald McEvoy, Pharm.D, Chair of the Advisory Panel. “Her unique industry expertise from First DataBank will help us to ensure successful downstream implementation of the committee’s recommendations.”
“I am pleased to be appointed and to participate on the Health Literacy and Prescription Container Labeling Advisory Panel to provide an industry perspective,” said Dr. Kapusnik-Uner, Manager, Disease Decision Support, First DataBank and Associate Clinical Professor of Pharmacy, UCSF. “Ensuring the consumer has accurate drug information in a readable and understandable language is key to ensure safe medication use.”

Dr. Kapusnik-Uner received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of California at San Francisco School of Pharmacy and completed residency training programs in Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Illinois, in Infectious Diseases at the UCSF School of Pharmacy, and completed a Pharmacokinetics in Antimicrobials research fellowship for Merck, also at UCSF. In 1993, she received the distinguished honor of Clinical Associate Professor of Pharmacy at UCSF. Dr. Kapusnik-Uner has been a leader on First DataBank's drug vocabulary standards initiatives, including past participation in the HL7 Structure Product Label (SPL) sub-committees and the Vocabulary Technical Committee, whose projects evolved into RxNorm development at the National Library of Medicine. She is an active member in HIMSS, ASHP and AMIA Pharmacy Informatics working groups.

About First DataBank
First DataBank, a subsidiary of Hearst Corporation, drives patient safety and healthcare quality by providing drug databases that are used within information systems that touch every aspect of healthcare. For 30 years, we have partnered with system developers to integrate and optimize our drug information to improve user workflow and enhance clinical decision making by those entrusted with treating patients at the point-of-need. For more information about First DataBank, call 800-633-3453 or visit www.firstdatabank.com.

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