The Pharmacist / Spring 2022 / Volume 44 / Issue 2

Catching Up with the Class of 2011
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D H A R M E S H B A V D A
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L A M A R Q U I N N
PHD
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. K A T H L E E N T S A I
Dr. Dharmesh Bavda
Finds His Passion in
Communicating Oncology
Pharmacy Gives Dr.
Lamar Quinn the Power
to Make a Difference
Search for Pancreatic
Cancer Answers Takes Dr.
Sumit Sahni to Sydney
Dr. Kathleen Tsai
Brings Clinical Skills to
Insurance Side
For Dharmesh Bavda, PharmD ’11,
getting to his ideal role meant
staying open to opportunities.
After growing in a variety
of clinical jobs, Bavda now
collaborates with healthcare
providers on cancer research
as a medical science liaison at
Deciphera Pharmaceuticals.
Working in that role since January
2021, Dr. Bavda serves as a scientific
expert on oncology treatments, such
as the company’s oral chemotherapy
agent for advanced gastrointestinal
stromal tumor (GIST).
Bavda’s liaison work follows a series
of clinical positions, including in
internal medicine at Amita Saint
Joseph Hospital. There, by continually
volunteering for new opportunities,
Bavda found his true calling, he said.
“When the opportunity opened up
to move down to the cancer clinic
. . . I really found my specialty,”
he said. “I’m so excited that I did
because oncology has become
my passion.”
Discovering that he loved
communicating with the oncology
team, Bavda realized that medical
science liaison should be his
next step.
Bavda credits UIC with providing
the clinical foundation he needed
for his current role—and with
giving him the opportunity to
mentor experiential students and
residents.
Growing up on the south side of
Chicago, Lamar Quinn, PharmD ’11
dreamed of making a difference
in people’s lives. Today, he does
just that, counseling patients as a
Walgreens pharmacy manager in
Dallas, Texas, and running a charity
he cofounded.
His job these days involves
addressing a lot of COVID-19
vaccine concerns, Dr. Quinn
said. Truly listening has worked
best. “What has worked in our
favor is just being a listener
first, empathizing with them,
understanding their concerns.”
That kind of direct community
contact made pharmacy a
dream job, Quinn said. “Retail
pharmacists are the first touch
point in most patients’ lives when
it comes to medical care. As a
pharmacist, it was a chance to
make the most change.”
To help his community even more,
Quinn cofounded Toast for Charity,
a group dedicated to “galvanizing
millennials to give their time,
talents and funds to community
issues.”
He achieved his dream of
improving lives, Quinn said. “UIC
is in the heart of Chicago . . . one
of the best pharmacy programs
in the world that’s making a
difference in the profession—
that blew my mind to have that
opportunity.”
Sumit Sahni’s, PhD ’11, dedication
to medical research first took
him from Delhi, India, to Chicago,
then across the world again to
Australia. Today, he searches for
much-needed biomarkers and
treatments for one of the world’s
deadliest cancers.
After an October 2021 promotion,
Dr. Sahni now serves as senior
research fellow at the University
of Sydney, investigating pancreatic
cancer. “One of the worstperforming
cancers around the
world,” with survival rates past five
years of just 6% in the United
States, pancreatic cancer comes
with dire research needs, Sahni
said. Most patients get diagnosed
too late for surgery, the only
curative treatment, so identifying
biomarkers is crucial.
Even surgery, however, has a
low success rate, so Sahni’s lab
additionally searches for targeted
treatments for pancreatic cancer,
of which there are currently none.
“A lot of research needs to be
done in that area,” he said.
First motivated to pursue medical
research after experiences
with illness in his family, Sahni
studied the role of nitric oxide
in metastasis in Dr. Douglas
Thomas’s lab at UIC. That
hypothesis originated in Sydney,
so after graduation, Sahni followed
the science to Australia. “All the
work I’ve done, whatever I’ve
learned, started from UIC,” he said.
After a stint in retail pharmacy,
Kathleen Tsai, PharmD ’11, found
a new area where the clinical skills
she gained at UIC have come in
handy—prior authorizations.
As a clinical prior authorization
pharmacist at Optum in California,
Dr. Tsai lends pharmacy expertise
to medication-coverage decisions.
The field attracted her because she
could bring a clinical pharmacy
perspective to insurance, she said.
“It’s more provider-facing and
on the insurance side, so it’s not
retail focused,” she said. “Also, the
work was interesting. I can use
my clinical skills. I like helping
medicines get covered for patients.”
Tsai’s work at Optum has shown
clear results. She created a
program reaching out to providers
and patients to review coverage
decisions, boosting star ratings
from independent qualityassurance
agencies and raising
Medicare appeals case compliance
to 100% for three months.
In addition to her clinical
background, Tsai brings a
pharmacy outcomes perspective
to Optum. She completed a
fellowship and has published
in the field, earning a master’s
degree in the discipline in 2013.
Crediting UIC with opening up
doors for her fellowship and
beyond, Tsai said the school’s
network has been beneficial.
Fellow alumni keep popping up,
too, as Tsai’s current boss is Parixit
Modi, PharmD ’07, MBA.
10 THE PHARMACIST PHARMACY.UIC.EDU