Informatics Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner

Summary

The Informatics Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner serves as a lead informatics resource for the National Telepharmacogenomics Program (NTPGx) and the broader National Pharmacogenomics Program (NPP), functioning at the highest level of clinical informatics practice. This is a national program position supporting NPP sites and veterans located across the VA system. This position optimizes the effectiveness of precision medicine initiatives and systems management in alignment with the VHA mission.

Duties

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The Informatics Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner serves as a key informatics resource for the National Telepharmacogenomics Program (NTPGx) and the broader National Pharmacogenomics Program (NPP), functioning at the highest level of clinical informatics practice. This is a national program position supporting NPP sites and veterans located across the VA system, not tied to a single facility. The position is currently authorized for 100% remote work consistent with existing parent organization policy for clinical staff; work location and schedule remain subject to change based on future agency telework, remote work, or return-to office determinations as directed by leadership.

The incumbent is responsible for complying with all terms of their applicable telework or remote work agreement, including any requirements related to duty station, equipment, availability, and periodic reporting to a VA facility if required. This position optimizes the effectiveness of precision medicine initiatives and systems management in alignment with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) mission, specifically as it relates to pharmacogenomics and other precision medicine approaches. The increasing complexity and scope of NPP's work requires advanced, creatively applied skills in data visualization, automation, data warehousing, and application development, alongside strong coordination, prioritization, and troubleshooting ability.

Duties include, but not limited to:

• Clinical Pharmacogenomics Practice (~20%)
  
  • Provide expert clinical pharmacogenomic review and interpretation of PGx test results for veterans across VA, including both asynchronous and synchronous clinical encounters.
  • Conduct population health work to monitor, optimize, and drive outcome based results for veterans and the NPP.
  • Serve as a clinical subject matter expert supporting provider and facility-level PGx consultation, mentorship, and education.
• Technology, and Informatics/Data, Program Management (~80%)
  
  • Per VA guidance, at a minimum, all informatics professionals perform the following eight core informatics functions: application support, business architecture management, enterprise data management, content management, system optimization, change management, requirements management, and partnership management.
  • Serve as the National Telepharmacogenomics (NTPGx) lead Informatacist in collaboration with the National Pharmacogenomics program representing both programs on a national scale.
  • Evaluate clinical computing systems and analyze the effect of interventions on health outcomes, executing deliverables as assigned by leadership.
  • Enable healthcare capabilities and the evolution of technology adjoined to the EHR (e.g., CPRS/VistA and, as sites transition, Oracle Cerner/FEHR) to deliver quality care by developing, implementing, monitoring, maintaining, and optimizing informatics tools.
  • Responsible for designing, modifying, and supporting management information systems and databases in a manner that will support and promote planning and implementation for clinical/pharmacy programs.
  • Develop and maintain interactive dashboards and visualizations using Power BI, Power BI Report Builder, SSRS, SSAS, and/or DAX-based modeling to track key performance indicators (e.g., PGx testing rates, turnaround times, drug-gene interaction alert volume, result note accuracy and timeliness) and provide actionable insights to stakeholders across NPP.
  • Utilize SQL and potentially other programming and modeling languages, including but not limited to Python, R, JavaScript, and DAX, to extract, transform, and load data from various sources, including the Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW), for use in reporting, analytics, and clinical informatics workflow.
  • Use automated and manual methods to measure data accuracy, completeness, consistency, computability, and timeliness, with the goal of maintaining data integrity and improving the overall quality of clinical and operational data, including data that feeds directly into veteran care notes and provider result reporting.
  • Develop and maintain data dictionaries and metadata repositories to facilitate standardization, data understanding, and reuse.
  • Proven ability to communicate and collaborate with team members (e.g., the Data Informatics Team), act autonomously, be adaptable/flexible, serve as a leader, and innovate to achieve milestones and effectively convey progress to both internal and external stakeholders.

Work Schedule: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 4:30pm

Telework: Not Available

Virtual: This is a virtual position.

Functional Statement #: 000000

Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized

Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

• You must be a U.S. Citizen to apply for this job.
• To be considered for this position, you must complete all required steps in the process. In addition to the application and questionnaire, this position requires an online assessment. The online assessment measures critical general competencies required to perform the job.
• All applicants tentatively selected for VA employment in a testing designated position are subject to urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Applicants who refuse to be tested will be denied employment with VA.
• Selective Service Registration is required for males born after 12/31/1959.
• Must be proficient in written and spoken English.
• Subject to background/security investigation.
• Selected applicants will be required to complete an online onboarding process. Acceptable form(s) of identification will be required to complete pre-employment requirements (https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents). Effective May 7, 2025, driver's licenses or state-issued identification cards that are not REAL ID compliant cannot be utilized as an acceptable form of identification for employment.
• Must pass pre-employment physical examination.
• Participation in the seasonal influenza vaccination program is a requirement for all Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care Personnel (HCP).
• Complete all application requirements detailed in the "Required Documents" section of this announcement.

As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1 or 2-year trial period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider:

• your performance and conduct;
• the needs and interests of the agency;
• whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and
• whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service.

Upon completion of your trial period, your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Qualifications

Applicants pending the completion of educational or certification/licensure requirements may be referred and tentatively selected but may not be hired until all requirements are met.

Basic Requirements:

• United States Citizenship: Non-citizens may only be appointed when it is not possible to recruit qualified citizens in accordance with VA Policy.
• English Language Proficiency. Pharmacists must be proficient in spoken and written English as required by 38 U.S.C. 7402(d), and 7407(d)
• Education: Graduate of an Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) accredited College or School of Pharmacy with a baccalaureate degree in pharmacy (BS Pharmacy) and/or a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree.
• Licensure: Full, current and unrestricted license to practice pharmacy in a State, Territory, Commonwealth of the United States (i.e., Puerto Rico), or the District of Columbia. The pharmacist must maintain current registration if this is a requirement for maintaining full, current, and unrestricted licensure.

May qualify based on being covered by the Grandfathering Provision as described in the VA Qualification Standard for this occupation (only applicable to current VHA employees who are in this occupation and meet the criteria).

Grade Determinations: Experience. In addition to the GS-12 requirements, must have 1 year of experience equivalent to the next lower grade level.

Preferred Experience: Licensed pharmacist with at least one year of documented direct patient care experience in a clinical pharmacy practice, including patient assessment, clinical chart review, medication therapy management, lab ordering, and initiation, modification, monitoring, or discontinuation of medication therapy under an authorized/advanced scope of practice, care coordination agreement, collaborative practice agreement, or equivalent clinical practice model where the pharmacist acted autonomously with independent decision making authority. Experience limited primarily to solely making recommendations, dispensing, order verification, medication distribution, operational coverage, or inpatient or outpatient staffing does not satisfy this preferred clinical experience. Seeking applicants who demonstrate formal training in pharmacogenomics or active clinical PGx practice, including interpretation of patient-specific PGx results and development or communication of medication recommendations based on PGx informed results.

Critically, applicants must also demonstrate at least one year of hands-on clinical informatics experience, completion of an informatics-focused residency or fellowship, or equivalent experience designing, building, implementing, maintaining, or optimizing: clinical data extraction, transformation, and modeling (e.g., SQL, Excel Power Query, DAX, or Python); dashboards and reports (e.g., Power BI, Power BI Report Builder, or Pyramid); workflow and application automation (e.g., Power Automate, Power Apps, SharePoint, or other Microsoft 365 tools); and clinical decision support or population-health safety monitoring tools (e.g., medication alerts, patient registries, or automated identification of high-risk drug-gene interactions).

Reference: For more information on this qualification standard, please visit https://www.va.gov/ohrm/QualificationStandards/.

The full performance level of this vacancy is GS-13. The actual grade at which an applicant may be selected for this vacancy is GS-13.

Physical Requirements: This position involves typical office work. Physical demands are limited to those required to work at a computer workstation, including extended periods of sitting or standing, use of a keyboard and monitor(s), and other tasks common to a standard office environment.

Education

Note: Graduate of an Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) accredited College or School of Pharmacy with a baccalaureate degree in pharmacy (BS Pharmacy) and/or a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree. Verification of approved degree programs may be obtained from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, 20 North Clark Street, Suite 2500, Chicago, Illinois [redacted]; phone: [redacted], or through their Web site at: http://www.acpe-accredit.org/.

Graduates of foreign pharmacy degree programs meet the educational requirement if the 2 graduate is able to provide proof of achieving the Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Examination Commission (FPGEC) Certification, which includes passing the Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalency Examination (FPGEE) and the Test of English as a Foreign Language Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT).

Ensure to include a copy of your transcripts to support your application.

Additional information

Under the Fair Chance to Compete Act, the Department of Veterans Affairs prohibits requesting an applicant's criminal history prior to accepting a tentative job offer. For more information about the Act and the complaint process, visit Human Resources and Administration/Operations, Security, and Preparedness (HRA/OSP) at The Fair Chance Act.

During the application process you may have an option to opt-in to make your resume available to hiring managers in the agency who have similar positions. Opting in does not impact your application for this announcement, nor does it guarantee further consideration for additional positions.

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