HOPA member Jordan Hill, PharmD, BCOP is a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist at West Virginia University whose practice includes ambulatory breast oncology clinics and clinical research.

Please describe your current position and the types of patients you see in clinical practice.

I work as an ambulatory clinical pharmacy specialist in breast oncology at West Virginia University Cancer Institute – Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center. I work as part of a multidisciplinary team caring for individuals living with breast cancer from across the state of West Virginia.

Our patient population is quite unique as a large proportion of our patients travel long distances from more rural areas to receive care in Morgantown. I’m very involved in our clinical trials program sitting on both our Protocol Review and Monitoring Committee and Data Safety and Toxicity Committee, and my ultimate goal is to assist in opening trials at our regional community cancer centers within the WVU Medicine Health System to improve access to clinical trials for cancer patients in West Virginia.

Please tell us about your research interests and the potential impact of your research on patient care.

My primary research interests are evaluating and ensuring the safety of practice changes for my particular patient population. Extrapolation of results from clinical trial patients to the real-world can be concerning in any patient population; however, certain patient populations – obese, frail, lower health literacy, and lower socioeconomic status – can be especially concerning.

Therefore, in addition to original research that will hopefully better optimize the medications and regimens used, I also focus heavily on ensuring the safety of medications in these patient populations who are often poorly represented.

How long have you been a member of HOPA and how have you been involved?

I have been a HOPA member since my oncology residency in 2015. I started becoming more involved in 2017 when I joined the Patient Outreach Committee where I served as a member of the committee for several years before becoming vice-chair in 2021 and serving in a leadership role over the last few years.

Additionally, it has been very exciting to be a part of the development and growth of the Patient and Caregiver Advisory Panel over the last several years. The Panel has already provided incredibly valuable insight and perspectives to several HOPA initiatives, participated in Annual Conference and advocacy efforts, and contributed to HOPA News readership through panelists who regularly share their stories and experiences.

I am greatly looking forward to continuing to see the impact the panelists have on HOPA’s efforts to advance hematology/oncology pharmacy and ultimately improve the care of those impacted by cancer.

As a newer practitioner, what advice would you offer to other oncology trainees who are just beginning their career?

As a new practitioner, most advice and guidance is directed towards the first few years of your career; this can be very helpful in preparation of learning a new institution, crafting your own practice style, and becoming a preceptor. Less guidance is typically dedicated to the handful of years in practice after the first year or two, but those years can have unique challenges of their own.

Once I became more familiar and comfortable with my position, it became less challenging to feel prepared and much less intimidating. While that was a very welcomed relief from residency and the first year in my role, I recognized that it was important for me to consistently be challenged. So, while it seems like something that will never happen when you’re first starting out, I would encourage new practitioners to continuously reflect on ways to challenge themselves while also not taking on too much and getting burnt out – which can be a very difficult balance.

Although this is a continuous work in progress for me personally, I try to regularly assess the aspects of my role that improve my engagement and well-being and try to find new ways to continue incorporating those aspects while still taking care of necessary but less desirable aspects of my position. This is constantly changing as my interests evolve and as my goals change, and it can be very easy to not prioritize taking the time to reflect and adapt.

The other main piece of advice I would offer is to take advantage of opportunities that are presented to you even when imposter syndrome tries to win. Imposter syndrome never really goes away (at least for me it hasn’t), and it has been very difficult for me to feel adequate enough to present at HOPA’s Annual Conference or give lectures to rooms full of breast oncologists, but all those experiences have made me a significantly stronger clinician and have vastly grown my network of oncology pharmacists.

While those experiences were full of anxiety and incredibly hard work, I would strongly encourage newer practitioners to take on those opportunities, among others.

Tell us a little bit about your outreach efforts and where your passion for this work comes from.

Growing up in rural West Virginia, gaps in care for patients with limited access to adequate healthcare or lower levels of health literacy were very prevalent. One of the primary reasons I chose to move back to West Virginia after completing residency was to try and play a small role in improving the care for patients in more rural areas.

When I first started in ambulatory oncology at WVU, I was the third ambulatory oncology pharmacist at the institution. We now have eleven ambulatory oncology specialists providing care to patients at Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center, and a few regional cancer centers now have oncology pharmacy specialists, as well. The difference we can make in the care of our oncology patients is hugely impactful, and I’m very proud of the growth in oncology pharmacy we have been able to achieve.

On a broader level, I wanted to improve the understanding of HOPA members relating to the availability of potential resources for our patients. Being a part of the Patient Outreach Committee allowed me to participate in and help plan several Annual Conference sessions focused on both expanding oncology pharmacists’ knowledge of available patient advocacy organizations as well as strengthening HOPA’s partnerships with external patient organizations.

More recently, we’ve incorporated the Patient Advisory Panel into the Annual Conference sessions to better understand the needs of our patients and how oncology pharmacists can fill those gaps. This fall, the committee is extremely excited to hold our first Patient Advocacy Summit to bring together oncology pharmacists, patients and caregivers, and advocacy organizations to better understand and develop strategies to address barriers to care.

Please tell us about your involvement with the WVU School of Pharmacy (SOP)

Several years ago, one of my colleagues and I would consistently have pharmacy students on our rotations express how intimidating oncology was in pharmacy school or how they didn’t realize how much they enjoyed oncology until having an oncology rotation (and usually, some degree of both).

We established an oncology elective at WVU SOP to help students get more exposure to oncology and receive that exposure sooner than on their APPE rotations. Since starting the elective, we’ve noticed more of our students have an interest in oncology prior to our rotation, they’re more eager to learn, and have a better understanding of applying oncology knowledge to clinical settings.

In addition to the elective, I really enjoy assisting in the coordination of the hematology/oncology systems-based therapy course. Our school of pharmacy doesn’t currently have a clinical faculty in oncology which provides me with a great opportunity to help facilitate students’ oncology learning on a broader scale.