Infectious Diseases Clinical Coordinator
Cleveland Clinic Mercy Hospital
Akshith Dass, PharmD, BCPS, BCIDP, Infectious Diseases Clinical Coordinator, Department of Pharmacy, Cleveland Clinic Mercy Hospital, Canton, OH
I completed the Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Toledo, Ohio, in 2018. After which, I graduated from a PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency at Cleveland Clinic Akron General Hospital and a PGY-2 Pharmacy Residency in Infectious Diseases at M Health Fairview University of Minnesota Medical Center. Post-PGY-2 graduation, I worked as the antimicrobial stewardship coordinator role at University Hospitals Richmond Medical Center in Richmond Heights, OH. Here I was in charge of stewardship for Richmond and its sister hospital, Bedford Medical Center. After serving in this role for about a year, I switched positions to the one I am in currently as shared faculty between Cleveland Clinic Mercy Hospital and Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) College of Pharmacy. At the hospital, I serve as the antimicrobial stewardship / infectious diseases pharmacist and monitor patients based on stewardship alerts, lead the local stewardship committee, and partake in the Cleveland Clinic System Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee. At the College of Pharmacy, I mainly deliver lectures during the infectious diseases module in the fall semester of the P3 year.
I am interested in three aspects of my position. Firstly, as a clinical pharmacist, I am able to optimize pharmacotherapy for patients at the hospital at an individual level. Second, as the stewardship pharmacist, I am involved in developing and implementing policies, toolkits, and guidelines that aim to ease prescription of antimicrobials on a population levels. Third, with the affiliation with NEOMED CoP, I am involved in shaping the future of the pharmacist workforce.