Christina Teeter Doligalski, PharmD

Specialty: 
Heart Transplant, Lung Transplant, and LVAD Ambulatory Clinical Pharmacist
Graduated From: 
UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Current Position: 
Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner at UNC Medical Center
Current Projects: 
Much of my current focus is on quantifying and assessing the impact of clinical pharmacy services in the ambulatory space.  We are incredibly lucky at UNC to have the opportunity for pharmacists to see all of our ambulatory transplant recipients at each of their routine clinic visits for the first year of transplant.  I’m a big believer in a strong multidisciplinary team approach not only in the inpatient setting but also for the optimal care of our ambulatory transplant patients, so I’m excited to demonstrate how the integration of transplant pharmacists in to routine clinic care changes outcomes.
What made you decide to work in transplantation?: 
The combination of long-standing patient relationships, the complexity of the pharmacotherapy required for good outcomes, and the collaborative approach by the medical care teams makes transplant so special for me.
What do you find to be the most valuable aspect of your work?: 
I love being able to create individualized medication regimens for my patients that incorporates their goals and wishes.  For one patient, that may mean getting to a once a day medication regimen – for others, it’s minimizing pill burden at a single time or minimizing a specific adverse event.  Being the ‘medication expert’ who can help navigate those wishes and complex clinical scenarios successfully is so rewarding!
How have you served AST?: 
I have been fortunate to serve the AST TxPharm CoP as an EC Member-at-Large as well as serving that CoP as a leader in development of programming for submission to ATC.  Dovetailing off of that, I’ve most recently been able to serve AST as a member of the ATC Programming Planning Committee.  The professional and personal connections I’ve been able to make through AST are invaluable!  Transplant truly is a tight knit community, and I can think of no better place to collaborate than through AST involvement.
Fun Facts: 
In 2016 with the birth of my first son, I began doing the New York Times crossword puzzle to stay awake and mentally engaged at crazy hours of the day.  I’ve done that crossword puzzle every day since then, and have begun to go back and do some older puzzles now too.