![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/releases\/html\/images\/Larrat87.jpg\")
To provide expertise on health care effectiveness, costs<\/h3>\nTo provide expertise on health care effectiveness, costs<\/h3>\nKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 20, 2010 \u2013 The associate dean of the University of Rhode Island\u2019s College of Pharmacy has been named a Congressional Fellow for his expertise on managing health care costs, optimizing pharmaceutical effectiveness and epidemiology. To provide expertise on health care effectiveness, costs KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 20, 2010 \u2013 The associate dean of the University of Rhode Island\u2019s College of Pharmacy has been named a Congressional Fellow for his expertise on managing health care costs, optimizing pharmaceutical effectiveness and epidemiology. E. Paul Larrat, also a URI professor of pharmacoepidemiology, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":639,"featured_media":5466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[35,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-php"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/639"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nE. Paul Larrat<\/a>, also a URI professor of pharmacoepidemiology, will serve in Washington from September 2010 to August 2011. From a nationwide competition, the East Greenwich resident was sponsored for the program by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and one of 30 chosen for the program by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science.
\nLarrat said he could be assigned to a Senate committee that deals with health care, a senator who is involved in the issue or a senator\u2019s policy staff.
\nThe fellowship adds to Larrat\u2019s diverse experiences in his roles at the College of Pharmacy. Five years ago, he worked with a team of scientists in the laboratories of the Kennedy Space Center to research the types of plants that could be raised safely on a spacecraft traveling to Mars.
\nHe has also been a regular visitor to the Rhode Island Department of Corrections where he oversees a prescription management program that has saved the agency $12 million in drug costs over seven years.
\nLarrat recently returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia where he presented at the Saudi International Pharmaceutical Conference. He was one of eight presenters from the United States.
\nThe upcoming fellowship will be another great learning experience, he said.
\n\u201cI want to see how the government works, because we hear all the time that it is broken,\u201d Larrat said. \u201cI will be learning about health care policy, health care reform. Being involved in the implementation of a new program will be extraordinary. I hope I get a chance to have a small role in making the plan better.\u201d
\nHe said health care makes up 20 percent of the national economy. \u201cWe spend almost double what other developed countries do and we are ranked 30th in terms of the quality of our health care system.\u201d
\nLarrat said he\u2019d be on the lookout for research opportunities for faculty and students.
\nHis work begins with a two-week orientation, which will give him overviews of the legislative, executive and judicial branches. He said working for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions would be a natural. He said he would enjoy serving the Senate Finance Committee because it created the health care reform package.
\n\u201cMy expertise is pharmacy benefit management, which I have done for the state corrections system, private companies and other agencies, as well as working on health policy issues at the state level,\u201d Larrat said. \u201cMy goal is to bring new knowledge back home to benefit the University and the state as a whole.\u201d
\nHe started preparing for his stint in Washington when he met in March with Kate Moran, associate dean of URI\u2019s Graduate School of Oceanography, who is entering the second year of a two-year term as a senior policy analyst for President Barack Obama on issues related to oceans, the Arctic and climate change.
\n\u201cShe told me all her Washington stories,\u201d Larrat said. \u201cShe loves working there. I know I have a lifeline if I need her.\u201d
\nMedia Contact: Dave Lavallee<\/a>, 401-874-5862<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"