Sharks Rx Spring 2018 | NSU College of Pharmacy

NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY 18 (continued from previous page) His aunt, a gerontologist, told him when he was a teen- ager that the baby boom generation would soon make the financial issues absolutely critical. His first job was as a driver for a pharmacist in Palm Bay, Florida, where he delivered hospital beds and other medical equipment. “I noticed that what Charlie [the pharmacist] got paid often depended on what the state thought he should be paid.” O’Brien had found his calling. “When I found myself in pharmacy school, always at the back of my mind was paying for prescriptions,” he said. While at NSU, alumni Joy Marcus, Pharm.D. (’92), and Betty Jean Harris, Pharm.D. (’94), among others, recog- nized O’Brien’s skills and ambition and encouraged his interest in policy, for which he is still grateful. “I’m so lucky to have graduated from here,” he told the students. In fact, O’Brien still displays his NSU Distinguished Alumnus award in his office. “It’s awesome,” he said. “It looks like a national championship trophy.” With encouragement from Harris and Marcus, he applied to the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) for an internship that normally only accepted medical students. The AMSA interviewers were impressed, naming O’Brien the first pharmaceutical student to receive that internship. “I got Potomac fever,” he told the students. “I went back every summer and worked on every project, but I tended to focus on policy.” He arrived in Washington, D.C., at a watershed moment. In 2003, O’Brien worked on the Medicare Modernization Act and saw it go into effect three years later. During his career, he has shaved billions of dollars off health care costs—and he has the plaques on the wall to prove it. “When I was working in the pharmaceutical industry, we played a big role in helping states implement the Medicare prescription program,” he said. “We helped seniors sign up.” He told the students to see opportunities everywhere. At his graduation, then-governor Jeb Bush spotted JEB painted on the mortarboard of O’Brien, who was a fan. When O’Brien approached to accept his diploma, Bush bear-hugged O’Brien and asked him what his career plans were. “I hope to someday work for your brother (then-president George W. Bush),” replied O’Brien, while the line of graduates backed up behind him and the procession ground to a halt. O’Brien urged the pharmacy students to “think outside the pharmacy. The things you’re learning are incredibly “Think outside the pharmacy. The things you’re learning are incredibly important, but there are so many other things that will affect your patients, like payment and reimbursement and changing technology.” —John Michael O’Brien