Hernandez

The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) has selected seven outstanding health professionals for the NAM Fellowships for Health Science Scholars. Dr. Inmaculada (Inma) Hernandez has been named the 2022–2024 NAM Pharmacy Fellow. The fellows were chosen on the basis of their professional qualifications, reputations as scholars, professional accomplishments, and relevance of current field expertise to the work of NAM and the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. They will collaborate with eminent researchers, policy experts, and clinicians from across the country during their 2-year fellowship. In addition, they will help facilitate initiatives convened by the National Academies to provide nonpartisan, scientific, and evidence-based guidance to national, state, and local policy-makers; academic leaders; health care administrators; and the public.

Hernandez is currently an associate professor with tenure at the University of California San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. She grew up in a small rural village in Spain, where the ground floor of her parents’ home served as an independent community pharmacy operated by her mother. There, she learned the crucial role that pharmacists play in maintaining the health of the community. After graduating from pharmacy school in Spain, she completed her Ph.D. degree in health services research and policy at the University of Pittsburgh, where she also held her first faculty appointment in 2016. Her research has focused on evaluating clinical and economic outcomes of oral anticoagulant agents and studying pharmaceutical pricing. She has published over 90 peer-reviewed manuscripts, with more than 65 as first or senior author. Some of these articles have been published in top-tier journals, including JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA Internal Medicine, and Health Affairs. Her research has been featured in the main media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, CNN, Forbes, BBC, ABC, CNBC, and Bloomberg.

Hernandez is the principal investigator of a K01 and an R01 award on anticoagulation use in atrial fibrillation. Her drug pricing research is funded by West Health Policy Center. In 2021, she became the first pharmacist to be recognized with the AcademyHealth Alice S. Hersh Emerging Leader Award. In 2018, she was named one of the “30 Under 30” young leaders in health care research by Forbes. She is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.

The NAM Fellowship in Pharmacy program enables talented, early-career health policy or health science clinicians and scholars to participate actively in the work of NAM and to further their careers as future leaders in the field. When asked what she hopes to gain from this unique experience, Hernandez says:

I am hoping to engage with policy-makers and academic leaders to disseminate the results of my research studies, particularly those that demonstrate the value of the pharmacist in providing equitable access to care. The NAM fellowship will enable me to guide my future investigations toward the areas that can most benefit the pharmacy profession and society.

Hernandez is the sixth fellow to be selected to this NAM program, following previous fellows:

*ACCP member.

For more information on the NAM Fellowship in Pharmacy, click here.