Rafia Rasu, PhD
Professor of Pharmacotherapy
Education & Experience:
I completed pharmacy degrees (BPharm and MPharm) from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh followed by an MBA from the same institution. I earned my PhD from the University of Texas College of Public Health and graduated in 2005 with a Delta Omega Honorary Society award. My first experience in outcome research was at U.T. M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX where I measured quality of life in patients with breast cancer. Subsequently I began my academic career as an assistant professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Pharmacy in 2005. While at UMKC, I had joint appointment in the School of Nursing and in Bloch School of Management as an executive member of Interdisciplinary PhD program. There, I served as a director of Kansas City Antibiotic Resistance Task force (KART) program. In 2014 I joined the University of Kansas (KU) as a tenured Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice. I taught Pharmacoepidemiology at Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at KU. Collaborated with Kansas Department of Health and Environment. I also supervised outcomes research lab of Department of Pharmacy Practice located at the KU Medical Center. At KU, developed synergistic collaboration and network and coached junior faculty and residents. I had affiliation with the Department of Pharmacy at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Kansas City for more than a decade. I recently received several leadership and analytical trainings at Harvard University, Duke University, University of Minnesota, and became Butler-Williams Scholar of National Institute of Aging in 2015.
Teaching Areas & Interests:
I have been teaching in pharmacy and public health schools for more than 12 years. My wide-range of background in pharmacy, epidemiology, economics, finance, and health services research allowed me to teach variety of inter-professional graduate level courses. My teaching and research objectives are focused on pharmacoepidemiology, evidence based practice, risk adjustment, medication safety and effectiveness, health literacy, outcomes research, health services research, economic evaluation of health care interventions, and public health. In addition to classroom didactic teaching on assigned topics, mentoring has been a big part of my responsibility as a faculty. I supervised post-doctoral fellow, PhD student, and residents.
Professional Activities & Awards:
My research work received local, regional and national recognition. My research findings were featured in national healthcare news publications, including NY times, The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Innovations Exchange. Under my supervision the student chapter won third prize in national Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) competitions. I received “Apple Polisher’ award for teaching. In 2017, earned Health Literacy Trail Blazer Award from Kansas Public Health Association.
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR), Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP), American Public Health Association (APHA) and International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) are the professional societies where I serve in different capacities including committee member, co-chair, and abstract reviewer . I have been serving as grant reviewer for NIH and American Heart Association (AHA) for the past few years. An editorial board member of a reputed PubMed indexed journal. I actively participate in different committees at the University, national professional organizations, and community levels.
Scholarly Interests:
As a health services researcher with more than twelve years of local and international experience, my work mostly focused on the following areas: pharmacoepidemiology, comparative effectiveness research, outcomes research, health analytics, and economic evaluation of health care interventions. These multidisciplinary research areas generated more than 40 peer reviewed publications. I have coauthored a book chapter on Economic Development and Population Health in a book titled “Reinventing Public Health: Policies and Practices for a Healthy Nation”. As an investigator I received national and federal level funding for research and analyzed national level datasets to evaluate prescription trends, medication exposure, effectiveness, and identify ways to improve care.
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