Pharmacy Informatics

Dr. Anthony Blash, PharmD, BCompSc, CPHIMS, is an Associate Professor in the College of Pharmacy at Belmont University, where he specializes in healthcare informatics and digital health. His work focuses on preparing pharmacists to evaluate, implement, and govern data-driven and AI-enabled healthcare systems.

Dr. Blash serves in multiple national leadership roles advancing pharmacy informatics and digital health. He is Chair-Elect of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Technology in Pharmacy Education and Practice (TiPEP) Special Interest Group and a member of the 2026–2027 AACP Strategic Engagement Committee. He is also a member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Section of Digital and Telehealth Practitioners Working Group.

He is a certified healthcare informatics professional and has contributed to national scholarship in the field, including work with the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). Dr. Blash is the editor and contributing author of the forthcoming book, Transforming Healthcare: Digital Health and Emerging Technologies, which examines the role of data, artificial intelligence, and digital innovation in healthcare.

Daniels is a Manager of Clinical Decision Support at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  He received his PhD in Microbiology at the University of Alabama from  Birmingham and his PharmD from the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy.  He completed a PGY1 Pharmacy Practice residency at Children’s of Alabama and a PGY2 Medication-Use Safety Residency at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  His practice and research focus on improving the safety of clinical decision support.

Tanya O. Ezekiel, Pharm.D., BCPS is a Clinical Informatics and Formulary Standardization Pharmacist at Prisma Health in Columbia, SC. Prisma Health encompasses 18 acute care and specialty hospitals in a 21-county service area. In this position, Dr. Ezekiel is responsible for formulary assessment and standardization across the health system. In addition to formulary oversight, she coordinates Pharmacy & Therapeutics committee which involves pre-meeting collaboration with clinical and operation pharmacists to ensure appropriate formulary recommendations. Once medications are approved, Tanya works as liaison with EHR team and SMEs to ensure appropriate design and use of medications while ensuring patient safety principles are incorporated. She also works closely with Pharmacy and Information Systems staff to clarify needs, prioritize requests, design, and implement workflow to fit with electronic systems, execute change and facilitate adaptation to the Electronic Medical Record. Additionally, she works to strengthen existing systems, processes, and procedures by introducing new ideas that lead to improved patient care system wide.

Tanya received her Pharm.D. from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) and completed a PGY-1 Practice Residency at Palmetto Health Richland (Prisma Health). She has practiced as a Critical Care Clinical Pharmacist in the areas of medicine, trauma/surgery and cardiovascular prior to transitioning to Pharmacy Informatics. She is a member of ASHP Section of Inpatient Care Practitioners and SAG on Medication Management.

Karl F. Gumpper leads pharmacy informatics and automation at Boston Children’s Hospital, directing a team responsible for all pharmacy-related technology. His career began in neonatology and nutrition support as a clinical pharmacist at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He later managed clinical operations at Children’s National Medical Center, overseeing a residency program. Karl was the inaugural director of the Section of Pharmacy Informatics and Technology at ASHP. He holds a BS in Pharmacy from Northeastern University and a Masters in Medical Informatics from Northwestern University, and is a CPHIMS. A former president of multiple pharmacy societies, Karl’s contributions include serving as an ASHP Delegate and on its Council on Pharmacy Practice. An active HIMSS and AMIA member, he shares expertise on pediatric and technology topics globally. Karl was recognized as a Fellow of the ASHP in 2003.

Assistant Dean – Assessment and Accreditation and Professor of Pharmacy – Pediatrics, joined Wingate University School of Pharmacy in 2012. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering concentrating in Biosciences from North Carolina State University. After completing undergraduate work, he received his Doctor of Pharmacy from The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill School of Pharmacy. He completed his first year post-graduate education at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina followed by second year post-graduate education specializing in pediatrics at Monroe Carell, Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee. Brock Harris is board certified in Pharmacotherapy and Pediatric Pharmacotherapy. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, North Carolina Association of Pharmacists, and the Pediatric Pharmacy Association.

CDR Nicholas Laughton is an officer in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and has served the Indian Health Service for 15 years. He currently serves at Indian Health Service Headquarters in the Office of Clinical Performance and Health Impact, where he supports national efforts to strengthen health system performance through clinical informatics, data strategy, and innovation.

A pharmacist by training, CDR Laughton has built a career at the intersection of pharmacy practice, informatics, and population health. Across his IHS service, he has contributed to initiatives that improve care delivery, support data-driven decision-making, and advance the effective use of health information systems. His professional interests include clinical informatics, health systems improvement, data visualization, and the application of analytics tools such as R and Power BI to improve outcomes and operational performance.

Prior to his current headquarters role, CDR Laughton served as a pharmacy informaticist at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center, where he supported informatics-driven improvements in medication use processes and clinical workflows. He also served as Chief Pharmacist at the Pyramid Lake Tribal Health Clinic, leading pharmacy operations and helping expand access to high-quality pharmaceutical care in a tribal health setting. In addition, he served as a Clinical Informatics Officer in the Oklahoma Area Office, where he focused on leveraging data science and business intelligence tools to support systemwide improvement.

CDR Laughton earned his Doctor of Pharmacy and Master of Public Health degrees from the University of Maryland in 2010.

Barry McClain, PharmD, MS, is a distinguished healthcare leader with over 15 years of specialized experience in pharmacy informatics. Throughout his career, he has been dedicated to advancing safe, effective, and sustainable medication-use technologies that improve patient care and streamline clinical operations. Most notably, McClain has been at the forefront of healthcare innovation, pioneering the implementation of AI-driven solutions within Advocate Health.

​His comprehensive technical and strategic expertise spans across several key disciplines, including information governance, change management, advanced analytics, clinical decision support, and system integration. McClain leverages this multifaceted skill set to navigate complex healthcare technology landscapes and drive critical organizational initiatives.

​Beyond his technical and strategic acumen, McClain is a committed mentor and team builder. He actively shapes the future of the pharmacy informatics profession through his role as a residency program director, where he champions professional development and education. Known for cultivating and leading highly successful teams, McClain consistently fosters collaborative environments that empower healthcare professionals and elevate the standard of patient-centric technology.

Dr. Megan Park is a clinical pharmacist informaticist and healthcare innovation leader with extensive experience designing, implementing, and optimizing medication-use and medication-care technologies across health systems and industry. Her career spans frontline clinical practice, system-level informatics leadership, and enterprise solution development, enabling her to bring a comprehensive, end-to-end perspective to patient care tooling.

Dr. Park has extensive experience leading enterprise initiatives in clinical decision support optimization, EHR workflow design, medication safety infrastructure, infusion pump strategy, medication automation and robotics programming/strategy, analytics enablement, and artificial intelligence training/deployment. Her work contributed to large-scale standardization of medication-use and care processes, improved safety outcomes, and advancement of digital maturity within complex healthcare environments.

Dr. Park has deep expertise in translating clinical and operational needs into scalable system design, including governance frameworks, CDS strategy, interoperability considerations, and user-centered workflow optimization. She is also deeply committed to education and professional development, having designed and led advanced informatics training programs for PharmD students and fellows with a focus on systems thinking, patient safety, e-iatrogenesis, and applied informatics.

Currently, Dr. Park leads solution development efforts across national healthcare portfolios, applying informatics principles to develop tools and strategies that address patient access, operational efficiency, and evolving care delivery models. This work provides a unique vantage point across clinical practice, technology development, and system-level innovation.

Dr. Park is honored to contribute to the development of the inaugural Pharmacy Informatics certification and is committed to ensuring the examination reflects real-world practice, rigor, and the evolving role of informatics pharmacists in advancing patient-centered care.

Monica Rayson is an Australian pharmacy informatics leader with extensive experience in hospital pharmacy, digital health transformation, and technology‑enabled medication management. She is the Chief Pharmacy Information Officer (CPIO) for Digital Canberra, where she leads the strategy, design, and optimization of digital medication systems across a large public healthcare network. Her work enhances medication safety, streamlines clinical and operational workflows, and supports data‑driven decision-making.

Monica has led several nationally recognized initiatives, including a fully closed‑loop medication management model, automation‑enabled dispensing and repackaging workflows, and a remote pharmacist service model that expands access to clinical pharmacy expertise.

She is a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Advanced Pharmacy in Pharmacy Informatics and in Leadership and Management and holds postgraduate qualifications in clinical pharmacy and health informatics. Monica serves as Chair of the Pharmacy Informatics and Technology Leadership Committee for Advanced Pharmacy Australia and on the Australasian Institute of Digital Health (AIDH) ACT Branch Committee. She is a sought‑after presenter at national and international pharmacy and digital health conferences, and a coauthor of key profession‑shaping publications, including the Australian Standards of Practice in Pharmacy Informatics and annual editions of Pharmacy Forecast Australia. Her professional interests include human‑centered digital design, system governance, and technology‑supported medication safety and operational efficiency.

Nicole Salata is an experienced executive leader and consultant with expertise in pharmacy informatics and analytics, business intelligence, strategy, clinical operations, quality, and compliance. She is currently founder and CEO of Inpharmatica, LLC, a firm that offers consulting and education services in the pharmacy space, with a focus on informatics, analytics, and associated business applications. Previously, Nicole served as Director of Pharmacy – Formulary, Quality, and Informatics for Teladoc Health, where she spearheaded large-scale initiatives to improve formulary strategy and management, designed and implemented a novel multi-vendor integration system to improve regulatory compliance, transitioned legacy system architecture to improve medication-related patient safety, and chaired the Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee. Prior to Teladoc Health, she worked with start-ups, non-profits, and consulting companies in the digital/telehealth and ambulatory spaces, in addition to working in Walgreens’ Retail Pharmacy division in various capacities and leadership roles for over 15 years.

Nicole completed her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she later also completed her Master of Science in Health Informatics. She has also earned an Executive MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology, as well as a BA in Spanish from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is currently board certified in geriatrics (BCGP) by the Board of Pharmacy Specialties, and is credentialed by HIMSS as a Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS).

I am a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist for the US Department of Veterans Affairs. I received my Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. With over 12 years of experience in pharmacy practice, I am a patient-focused pharmacist committed to delivering safe and efficient healthcare to patients. I have practiced in multidisciplinary areas of pharmacy and have served as a standing member on medication safety for over half a decade, where I was the point person for expert opinion on information technology leading to medication errors, and tasked with problem solving these issues. I am an advocate for public outreach, having traveled to American Samoa, to collaborate and improve their protocols and order sets. I also worked with SIDP, and served as team lead for a small group of pharmacists updating the clinicians tab of the public outreach section of their website. I enjoy teaching the next generation of pharmacists, utilizing my experience gained to ensure our healthcare is safe and efficient for generations to come.

Tyler A. Vest, PharmD, MS, MSSCM, BCPS, BCSCP, FNCAP is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy Research Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Center for Pharmaceutical Marketing and Management, and National Center for Cannabis Research and Education. Tyler completed his Pre-Pharmacy Studies at the University of Kentucky, and his Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy. He completed his Master of Science Degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences with a Specialization in Health-System Pharmacy Administration at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, and his master of Science Degree in Supply Chain Management at the University of Kentucky Gatton College of Business and Economics. Tyler completed his PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency and PGY2 Health-System Pharmacy Administration Residency Programs at the University of North Carolina Medical Center. His current interest areas are Acute Care Operations, Leadership Development, Practice Advancement, Pharmacy Practice and Distribution Models, Productivity and Monitoring, Supply Chain and The Medication Use Process. Tyler is actively involved in the profession at the local, regional, and national level.