Professor Jason Pogue Honored with Distinction Award for Leadership During COVID-19 Pandemic

Author: Markie Heideman, Content Marketing Manager

Media Contact: Lindsay Groth, Director of Marketing and Communications, [email protected]

University of Michigan College of Pharmacy Professor Jason Pogue has been awarded the Distinguished Service Award through the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP). This prestigious award honors members of SIDP who have shown outstanding and sustained service to the organization.

A member since 2008, Dr. Pogue served as president of SIDP from November 2019 to November 2020 at the onset and beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. As president, he was able to empower fellow infectious disease pharmacists in the organization to use their expertise to relay important therapeutic information to both healthcare professionals and the public about COVID-19.

During that time, the organization developed a comprehensive webpage with information about COVID-19 therapeutics – featuring up-to-date YouTube videos for healthcare professionals and members of the public to better understand the safety and efficacy of different treatment options being tested for patients with COVID-19. 

Additionally, Pogue led the organization’s effort to ensure that pharmacists were at the table when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) developed international guidelines with recommendations regarding COVID-19 treatment options. 

Dr. Pogue is only one of six recipients of this prestigious award; Historically it is only given out when a member makes an outstanding contribution to the organization. 

“This award means a lot,” Pogue remarked. “From my perspective, this award should go to all of us. I may have been the face and the leader of the organization, but it was truly a team effort to accomplish all of these things and provide these services at one of the busiest times ever for healthcare workers. What our members did was nothing short of spectacular, and I am incredibly proud of them.”

At the College of Pharmacy, Dr. Pogue’s research focuses on infectious diseases and his primary expertise is in the epidemiology and management of multi-drug resistant Gram-negative organisms and antimicrobial stewardship. Inside the classroom, he teaches courses on clinical trials to our PharmD students, mentors PharmD students during their investigation projects and mentors our Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences students both in didicatic lectures and in research related to infectious diseases pharmacotherapy. 

In addition to teaching, Dr. Pogue serves as Co-Director of the College’s Infectious Diseases Pharmacotherapy Fellowship Program – mentoring fellows who split their time between clinical practice at Michigan Medicine and research at the College in infectious diseases. 

We congratulate Dr. Pogue on this very prestigious honor and thank him for helping to center pharmacists as experts in infectious diseases during the ever-changing landscape of COVID-19.