Jennifer Hickman, Pharm. D., is a new faculty member in the UNMC College of Pharmacy. Below, we learn a little more about her interests and the experience she brings to campus:
- Name: Jennifer Hickman, Pharm.D.
- Hometown: Omaha
- Title and department at UNMC: Clinical assistant professor, UNMC College of Pharmacy
Research/professional interests:
- hepatitis C
- psychiatry
- cardiology
How I fell in love with hepatitis care:
I started working with hepatitis C patients about 10 years ago at the request of Michael Sorrell, M.D. At that time, the treatment involved a long course of interferon with ribavirin, which was difficult for patients to tolerate and required a great deal of support and monitoring. Over the course of treatment, I would get to know these patients well and became quite invested in their outcomes. Although treatment responses were only 30-40 percent, I loved being able to share moments of treatment success when we were able to cure patients. For those who were not cured with this treatment, I shared their frustration at the lack of additional options at the time. I am now thrilled to see that these patients have options for treatment that are not only more effective, but also better tolerated than the interferon-based therapies that we originally used. We now get to tell more patients that they are cured of hepatitis C and get to see how relieved they are to have the burden of this disease lifted from their worries. It has been truly rewarding to work with these patients and to see the evolution of treatment move successfully toward both goals of increased tolerability and markedly improved cure rates.
Teaching activities:
I lecture in clinical practice-based topics and take students on experiential rotations at my clinical practice site at OneWorld Community Health Centers.
Previous positions:
- Nebraska Medicine/UNMC Physicians-Internal Medicine Clinic, Durham Outpatient Center
- Think Whole Person Healthcare
Degrees:
- Pharm.D., UNMC College of Pharmacy, 2001
Honors:
- Rho Chi National Honor Society,
- 2007 UNMC College of Pharmacy Preceptor of the Year
Three things you don’t know about me:
- I went to Haiti in 2010 with one of the UNMC disaster relief teams after the earthquake.
- I enjoy hiking in the mountains. My favorite hike was in Olympic National Park in Washington.
- One of my favorite recent reads was “Five Days at Memorial,” by Sheri Fink. I believe that all health care providers should read this book.