UH Professor Named Fulbright Specialist

Rajender R. Aparasu, professor and chair of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Houston is a nationally renowned scholar and educational leader with over 20 years of experience in the areas of pharmaceutical outcomes research and policy. He started his academic career at South Dakota State University's College of Pharmacy in 1995 after obtaining his PhD from the University of Louisiana – Monroe.  He joined the University of Houston College of Pharmacy in 2006. He was instrumental in the growth of graduate programs to train next generation of pharmacy leaders and researchers. He has trained over have 20 graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. The goal of his research team is to provide real word evidence for practice and policy using available data sources based on novel methodological and analytical approaches for causal inference in observational research. His research focused on quality of pharmacotherapy issues in the elderly. His current federally funded research is evaluating safety profiles of anticholinergic medications in the elderly nursing home residents.

Aparasu has served on various national patient safety and medication therapy management task forces, and received numerous federal and non-federal grants to address geriatric quality of pharmaceutical care. He has edited two books, Research Methods for Pharmaceutical Practice and Policy and Principles of Research Design and Drug Literature Evaluation. He is a peer reviewer for numerous pharmacy and medical journals with over 100 peer-reviewed publications. He serves on numerous editorial boards of pharmacy and medical journals. He has been recognized as an Exceptional Peer Reviewer by prestigious journals. He is Editor-in-Chief for Drug, Healthcare and Patient Safety journal. He also serves as a grant reviewer for the American Heart Association (AHA), Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and National Institutes of Health (NIH). He was recognized by his peers with 2012 Fellow of the American Pharmacists Association (FAPhA) for his exemplary professional achievements and outstanding service and contribution to the pharmacy profession.