School of Pharmacy

Michael B. Nichol, PhD

Research Interest

Randomized clinical trials focus on determining cause and effect within a controlled experimental environment that frequently does not correspond to physician practice decisions and patient response to therapy. As a result, observational studies within large populations hold promise to provide insight regarding behaviors, comparisons among interventions, and the impact of these interventions in terms of risks and costs.

Ongoing research projects within these long-term goals include: (a) the effect of time on healthcare utilization within diseases such as hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, and diabetes; (b) the simulation of health care insurance design decisions on health care behavior, cost, and productivity; (c) analysis of treatment adherence on health events such as heart attacks and strokes, as well as health care cost; (d) the development of new measures of adherence and the application of new statistical methods in adherence analysis; (e) the impact of health events such as hospitalization on patient and community preferences and health state utilities, commonly used in cost-effectiveness analysis. These projects are conducted with populations including Medicaid and Medicare, employees, managed care, and patients of large physician groups.

Biography

Dr. Nichol received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Southern California, and his M.S. from the University of Oregon. He served as associate director and executive director of a regional health planning organization prior to completing his doctorate. He serves on several journal editorial boards, and on the boards of several health care policy and research organizations. Currently, he is a professor of pharmaceutical economics and policy (USC School of Pharmacy), with joint appointments in the Andrus School of Gerontology and the School of Policy, Planning, and Development.

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PubMed Search — Research Contracts & Grants

Research Support

GlaxoSmithKline - Michael Nichol (PI) - 6/1/06-2/28/08; Evaluating Medication Compliance in a CareMark Managed Care Population

Benefit Design Institute - Michael Nichol (PI) - 7/1/06-12/31/08; USC-IBI Pilot Project: A Simulation Model for Employer Health Benefit Decision Making

GlaxoSmithKline - Michael Nichol (PI) - 10/1/06-6/31/08; The Value of Medicine in a Low-Income Population (VOM) Project

Pfizer, Inc - Michael Nichol (PI) - 6/1/05-1/1/07; The Impact of a Consumer-Directed Health Plan (CDHP) on Patients Outcomes: A Case Study in a Diabetes Population

Selected Projects/Publications

Cherry SB, Benner JS, Hussein MA, Tang SSK, Nichol MB. The clinical and economic burden of non-adherence with antihypertensive and lipid-lowering therapy in hypertensive patients. Value in Health, (in press), 2008

Patel BV, Leslie RS, Thiebaud P, Nichol MB, Tang SSK, Solomon H, Honda D, Foody JM. Adherence with single-pill amlodipine/atorvastatin versus a two-pill regimen. Vascular Health and Risk Management, (in press), 2008

Cella D, Nichol MB, Eton D, Nelson JB, Mulani P. Estimating clinically meaningful changes for the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Prostate: Results from a clinical trial of patients with metastatic hormone-refractory prostate cancer. Value in Health 2008 (in press)

Yu AP, Yu Y, Nichol MB, Gwadry-Sridhar F. The delay of initial dispensation of statins: A potentially early indicator of medication non-persistence. Clinical Therapeutics, 30(4): (in press), 2008

Epstein JD, Knight TK, Epstein JB, Bride MA, Nichol MB. The cost of care for early and late stage oral and pharyngeal cancer in the California Medicaid population. Head and Neck, 30(2):178-86, 2008

Nichol MB, Knight TK, Dow T, Borok G, Hauch O, O'€™Connor R. Quality of anticoagulation monitoring in nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients: Comparison of anticoagulation clinic versus usual care. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 42(1):62-70, 2008.