Executive Director, Peter Lamy Center for Drug Therapy and Aging, School of Pharmacy

Honorary Faculty Marshal

As a distinguished researcher, instructor, mentor, and dissertation director, Bruce C. Stuart has made a huge impact at the School of Pharmacy for nearly two decades, informing health care policy in the process.

Stuart, an economist who serves as executive director of the Peter Lamy Center for Drug Therapy and Aging, has devoted his career to many projects (“I’ve actually lost count”) dealing with the development of geriatric pharmacy, including many studies involving Medicare Part D.

His work has brought national attention — and millions of dollars of funding — to the importance of medication therapy management across a wide range of health care settings.

Yet Stuart still was stunned when he was asked to be an honorary marshal at UMB’s commencement on May 20.

“I was just astonished,” he says. “I had never expected such an honor.”

Not that Stuart is a stranger to such accolades. In 2013, he became the first economist to receive George F. Archambault Award from the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, which is presented each year to an individual who has made significant contributions to the field of consultant and senior care pharmacy.

Nicole Brandt, PharmD, CGP, BCPP, FASCP, associate professor and director of clinical and educational programs for the Lamy Center, said Stuart was more than deserving.

“His background in health economics, analytical design, as well as his amazing understanding of the payer system is critical to the pharmacy profession,” Brandt said in nominating him. “Not only has he made a tremendous impact on the profession through his many publications and presentations, but also through his numerous advocacy efforts to improve senior care pharmacy.”

Stuart began his career in health services research as an economic analyst, later accepting a position as director of the Health Research Division at the Michigan Medicaid Program. Following his government career, he entered academia as an instructor of health economics, finance, and research methods at the University of Massachusetts and Penn State University.

In 1997, he joined the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and has now directed more than 50 grants and contracts totaling more than $5 million for a wide range of sponsors, including the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality, the National Institute on Aging, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, as well as state governments, foundations, and private firms.

“I study how cost sharing, formulary restrictions, medication therapy management, and other policies influence drug-taking behavior among older individuals,” says Stuart, “and how that in turn affects individual health and health care costs.”

Stuart is proud of the strides the Lamy Center has made under his leadership.

“I think the two areas where the Lamy Center has had the most influence during my directorship has been in funded research projects and graduate research training,” he says. “The two go inextricably together because external funds are required to pay the salaries of graduate research assistants who are working toward their PhD degrees, and students choose to work with faculty associated with the Lamy Center because of the quality of the training and research experience they obtain. In the last 20 years over 30 doctoral students have been supported on Lamy Center-funded projects.”

And Stuart looks forward to the last several months of his sterling career at the school.

“I am set to retire at the end of this year and am directing five PhD students who should all complete their dissertations over the next eight months. What a send-off!”

Chris Zang