Data analyst technician: An innovative role for the pharmacy technician

The development of an innovative role for the pharmacy technician is descri bed. The role of the pharmacy technician was based on a needs assessment and the expertise of the pharmacy technician selected. Initial responsibilities of the technician included chart reviews, benchmarking surveys, monthly finan cial impact analysis, initiative assessment, and quality improvement report ing. As the drug-use and disease-state management (DUDSM) program expanded, pharmacist activities increased, requiring the expansion of data analyst t echnician (DAT) duties. These new responsibilities included participation i n patient assessment, data collection and interpretation, and formulary enf orcement. Most recently, technicians' expanded duties include maintenance o f a physician compliance profiling database, quality improvement reporting and graphing, active role in patient risk assessment and database managemen t for adult vaccination, and support of financial impact monitoring for oth er institutions within the health system. This pharmacist-technician collaboration resulted a threefold increase in p atient assessments completed per day. In addition, as the DUDSM program con tinues to expand across the health system, an increase in DAT resources fro m 0.5 to 1.0 full-time equivalent was obtained. The role of the DAT has increased the efficiency of the DUDSM program and h as provided an innovative role for the pharmacy technician.