Student Profile: Jenin Lee
Jenin Lee knew health care and health advocacy were in her future before she earned her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Davis. But which health care profession and which cause? While volunteering in a Sacramento health clinic for underserved Asians, Jenin discovered the complicated and complex research field of pharmacology that looks at how drugs work in the body to treat, prevent, and cure disease. "I was fascinated by the science, but I also wanted to positively affect the lives of others, to teach patients how to live their lives so that they don't have to go into acute care settings."
Jenin, it seems, was destined for a pharmacy career, and pharmacy school was the first step in making that career possible. As a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) student at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Pharmacy, Jenin then leveraged her emerging science and patient care training to advocate for patients.
During a clinical rotation that eventually became a cornerstone to the Partners in D program, she spent six weeks in Sacramento at a clinic associated with Mercy Medical Group. There she worked with low-income seniors and helped them sort out the Medicare Part D drug plan that best suited their financial situations and medical needs. A hallmark of the Partners in D program is providing Medicare Part D consulting support to seniors in the communities in which they live.
Jenin expected that most seniors seeking assistance through the program would ask questions about their prescriptions, but she soon learned otherwise. "What was surprising for me was that their problems with Medicare Part D didn't have much to do with understanding how the medications worked," says Jenin. "It was more about how to navigate the internet and answer all the questions."
The United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services offer an extensive online registration tool for those eligible to receive the Part D prescription drug benefit, but effective use of the tool requires knowledge of the internet and one's own drug needs. Many seniors have no internet skills or access and complex drug regimens. "I help patients with the online tool. One of my patients had a list of 13 or 14 different medications. Together we found a plan that best met her prescription needs." she says. "As a result, she saved a lot of money."
Jenin is persistent on behalf of her patients, comments Timothy Cutler, PharmD, assistant clinical professor of pharmacy, UCSF School of Pharmacy. "I remember one educational outreach session we held in San Francisco in which she was on her personal cell phone for 20 minutes after the event was over trying to fix a Medicare issue for one of her patients. We ask a lot of the students who work with us, but exceptional communication skills, empathy, and the drive to work through the red tape on behalf of the patient—to be the patient's advocate—can be difficult to teach. Jenin has them naturally," he adds.
Even though she has completed her work with the Partners in D program, Jenin continues to apply the skills she learned in other settings. As a volunteer at the Paul Hom Asian Clinic in Sacramento, Jenin has worked with Cantonese-speaking patients to help them negotiate Medicare Part D. "It has been particularly rewarding to me to help Chinese-speaking patients in need," she says.
Jenin graduated with a PharmD from the UCSF School of Pharmacy in 2007 and plans to concentrate her career in geriatrics by first completing a post-doctoral residency at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Francisco. Her experience in Partners in D helped fuel an already passionate professional. "I'll take what I've learned through this experience," Jenin explains, "and apply it throughout my career, in many different settings."
*Photo Credit (left): Majed