Center for Medication Safety and Efficacy

The Center for Medication Safety and Efficacy is working to improve medication safety through research by identifying the incidence and significance of adverse drug events that occur with prescription and non-prescription drugs. Under the direction of South Carolina College of Pharmacy professor Rick G. Schnellmann, PhD, the Center’s two partner organizations seek to develop and implement strategies to reduce medication errors—the largest source of adverse medical events in hospitals—and related costs. The research produced by the Medication Safety and Efficacy Center of Economic Excellence (CoEE) is expected to have significant cost-saving benefits for the state, potentially reducing health care costs in South Carolina by ten percent over the next five to ten years.

The Medication Safety and Efficacy Center will have one endowed chair in pharmacoepidemiology and economics. Pharmacoepidemiology is the study of the use and effects of drugs in large numbers of people. Recruiting for a nationally respected researcher is underway. With the successful recruitment of an endowed chair and support staff, the Center will further Health Sciences South Carolina's mission of advancing the state’s economy and public health through biomedical research.