WASHINGTON - Today, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) began announcing the selection of the 2024 APhA Awards and Honors Program recipients. The APhA Awards and Honors Program is the most comprehensive recognition program in the profession of pharmacy. All honorees in the professionwide, practitioner, research, and student categories will be announced over the next few weeks and can be found on APhA’s awards website. Recipients will be officially recognized during the APhA Annual Meeting & Exposition in Orlando, FL, March 22–25, 2024.
The Remington Honor Medal was named for eminent community pharmacist, manufacturer, and educator, Joseph P. Remington and was established in 1918 to recognize distinguished service on behalf of American pharmacy during the preceding years that culminate in the past year or during a long period of outstanding activity or fruitful achievement. It serves as the preeminent award for the profession of pharmacy and is the highest honor bestowed by APhA.
Milap C. Nahata, PharmD, MS, of Powell, OH, was selected as the recipient of the 2024 Remington Honor Medal. Nahata has served the pharmacy profession as an educator, researcher, practitioner, volunteer leader, and mentor for almost 50 years. He currently serves as Professor Emeritus of Pharmacy, Pediatrics, and Internal Medicine, at The Ohio State University (OSU) Colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine and is the Founding Director of the Institute of Therapeutic Innovations and Outcomes within the OSU College of Pharmacy. His roles at OSU have evolved since his start with the College of Pharmacy in 1977 and, as noted by multiple nominators, he has consistently exhibited servant leadership and served as a role model for others throughout his entire career.
Nahata’s nominators note his lifelong dedication and leadership to pediatric pharmacy that has laid the foundation for this specialty pharmacy area across the United States. As the sole pediatric pharmacy specialist in 1979 at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, his work has helped to expand this program where now 65 pharmacists are providing advanced pharmacotherapy services to pediatric patients.
Nahata’s distinguished career highlights also include research endeavors and scholarship. One nominator notes how his nearly 600 peer-reviewed articles, five books, and an additional 90 book chapters, have helped shape pediatric pharmacy. Most notably his research has enhanced the professionwide knowledge of medication safety, efficacy, stability, and administration in pediatric pharmacy.
In addition to his own research endeavors, Nahata has served as a mentor to countless student pharmacists, colleagues, and nearly 40 postdoctoral fellows while also taking on presidential and other leadership roles in multiple national pharmacy associations. Nahata has received numerous awards and honors, including APhA’s Gloria Niemeyer Francke Leadership Mentor Award, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ Harvey A.K. Whitney Award, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s and Pediatric Pharmacy Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy’s Paul Parker Medal. He has been recognized as an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine among other awards and recognitions for his exemplary achievements in practice, education, research, and service from national organizations.
For every pharmacist, for all of pharmacy.