Innovation Through Research

PHOP Candidate Chijioke Okeke is Bridging Gaps in Health Care and Career Opportunities

Pharmaceutical Sciences Ph.D. Candidate Chijioke Okeke’s connection to health care was sparked by his family’s work in the pharmaceutical drug supply industry in his native country of Nigeria. Okeke was deeply inspired by the significant roles his relatives played in ensuring vital medications reached the people who needed them.

“I felt my family was doing very important work in the health care setting,” Okeke said. “Even though most of them didn’t have a Pharm.D. or Ph.D. degrees, their experience and service motivated me to pursue pharmacy.”

After completing his pharmacy studies, Okeke faced difficulty finding a reliable resource to locate pharmacy jobs. This gap in the job market led him to co-found a platform specifically aimed at helping Nigerian pharmacists and pharmacy students discover pharmacy-related job opportunities.

“It was initiated because of my inability to find a job,” Okeke said. “I didn’t have access to those job openings, so we decided to start a platform.”

The online platform allows pharmacy employers to post job openings for free, providing Nigerian early-career pharmacists and students with direct access to career opportunities. It also offers extra services, such as CV development and one-on-one mentorship. The platform also fosters a sense of community through messaging app groups, where members can share recent pharmacy job openings and connect.

In Nigeria, Okeke worked as a regulatory pharmacist for the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and part-time at a local community pharmacy. After completing his pharmacy degree, Okeke was unsure whether he wanted to work as a community pharmacist or a hospital pharmacist. Ultimately, his career took a turn when he realized his passion for health data-driven research.

“Health care data is a goldmine,” Okeke said. “Getting insights by analyzing health care data that will be beneficial to the health care setting will ultimately lead to improving patient outcomes.”

During his search for continuing his education, Okeke came across the University of Houston College of Pharmacy’s (UHCOP) Pharmaceutical Health Outcomes and Policy Concentration of its Ph.D. program. Okeke said the program stood out for its access to administrative health care datasets, the quality of research and faculty members in the program, success of graduands in different sectors, and the significant impact the department makes towards generating impactful research findings.

“The huge administrative datasets in our program make it rich and very valuable for research to be carried out by students,” said Okeke. “I wanted to do projects that are rewarding—projects that utilize patient data to generate evidence helpful to various stakeholders.”

Okeke’s dedication to research has resulted in multiple research publications and presentations. He also completed two internships—one with Humana Integrated Health Systems Science Institution and another with Merck. Currently, Okeke is a research assistant in the college’s Prescription Drug Misuse Education and Research (PREMIER) Center, where he works on multiple projects such as developing intervention and educational services aimed at reducing the harm caused by opioids and substance use, writing grants, leading database driven research, and training Pharm.D. students on grant-related projects.

“I’ve been able to get into all these research projects through my passion whether by doing it independently, through internships, my research assistantship, or true collaborative projects,” Okeke said.

During his summer fellowship with Humana Integrated Health Systems Science Institution, Okeke and his colleagues set out to design an intervention to improve substance use disorder treatment adherence by developing the idea of wearable technology, similar to smart watches.

“We believe that it would be useful not just to the patient, but also to the health care system, such as reducing high hospitalization rates due to overdoses or poor treatment completion,” Okeke said.

The device would monitor the patient’s physiological health and alert health care providers if patients missed their medication, deviated from their treatment plan, or engaged in harmful behaviors like substance abuse. The device would also serve as a reminder to patients, helping them stay on track with their recovery process.

Okeke and his team pitched this project in a Shark Tank-style competition, where they emerged as the best innovative team, taking home first place and a cash prize.

As he continues his PHOP journey, Okeke’s commitment for research and his desire to make a difference in health care continue to drive him forward. His research interests include pain management, assessing health related outcomes in patients with chronic pain, and other comorbid physical and mental health conditions. Okeke has also done research that spans across other therapeutic areas, including oncology and Alzheimer’s disease and Related Dementias (ADRD).

“The exposures that I’ve had through PHOP have been quite exciting because they strongly align with my passion, career trajectory and future opportunities,” Okeke said, who hopes to work in the pharmaceutical industry after graduation. “I’ve enjoyed every step of the journey.”

- Lauren Nguyen