Ohio State researcher Milap Nahata was awarded the 2009 Paul Parker Medal for Distinguished Service to the Profession of Pharmacy from the American College of Clinical Pharmacy at the end of October.

“I feel so humbled and grateful,” said Nahata, chair of the Division of Pharmacy Practice and Administration. “I never thought I would be receiving this award. One of the highlights was that they ask you to present a speech, and it was a challenging assignment. I had been preparing for the speech for the last few months, so it was fun to put it
together.”

Nahata said he earned the award for his contributions to clinical pharmacy, research and scholarship. He is the first member of OSU’s faculty to receive the award.

“It’s all of your contributions in all areas that advance the profession,” Nahata said. “It’s the highest award you can get in clinical pharmacy.”
Nahata said that, when determining the award, the college looked at how he and his colleagues built the programs at OSU in patient care, and the areas of pharmacy education and clinical research. He said it is “one of those awards that looks at your lifetime achievements.”

Nahata arrived at OSU in 1977, before the university developed its clinical pharmacy program. His job, along with others in the faculty, was to develop that program.

“I was at the ground floor at that time,” he said. “We developed new courses, developed ties to clinical staff and started the whole program.”

In 1979, Nahata moved to pediatrics research and has been primarily involved in that field for the last 30 years.

He is also one of the faculty members in the College of Pharmacy who are defendants in recent lawsuits where two professors allege they’ve suffered years of discrimination.

Nahata is working on two areas of study at OSU: Type II diabetes in children and pediatric drug formulations. He wrote a book titled “Pedriatric Drug Formulations” that is in its fifth edition and is the most widely used book on the topic.

“When a baby gets ill, you have to give it a liquid, not a capsule, so we have to develop pediatric drug formulations in a liquid form for a 1-month-old or a 1-year-old, and we have to make sure that the drug is still good to be given in a liquid form,” Nahata said.

In his award speech, Nahata spoke of the future of clinical pharmacy. He said it will consist of multiple disciplinary care — where pharmacists work with medicine and other health care disciplines to help patients get personalized medicine.

“Currently, for example, when you have hypertension, we give everyone a similar dose,” Nahata said. “But everybody has a different genetic makeup. The future is where we can take an individual person’s genetic background, lifestyle, and diet, and take all of those things into account, and give individualized care.”

The second area Nahata touched on in his speech is preventative care.
“We want to look at, ‘how do we maximize the use of medications?'” Nahata said. “We want to prevent the complications. For example with diabetes, it’s key to make sure the patient doesn’t develop damage to the eyes or other organs.”

Nahata continues to teach courses at the College of Pharmacy, and said he next is looking to begin work on medication safety for different age groups, particularly in children.

“I’m very fortunate to be here at Ohio State,” Nahata said. “I’ve been given so many opportunities to work with students and faculty, and everyone has been so supportive of my work. The students keep me going, and it’s so inspiring to be here.”