Millicent Boakye
Pharmacoepidemiology · Health economics & outcomes research · UAMS
I've started work on "Drivers of Diffusion," a study of how GLP-1 prescribing varies by provider specialty across Arkansas, using the Arkansas All-Payer Claims Database.
The project builds on my earlier work mapping GLP-1 use across Arkansas counties. This time I'm looking at who writes the prescriptions, and how prescribing levels line up with county obesity rates, using geocoding and GPI drug coding.
I'm serving as Treasurer of the UAMS Graduate Students Association for the 2026/2027 academic year.
I also serve as Treasurer of the UAMS ISPOR Student Chapter, which connects students interested in health economics and outcomes research with the wider ISPOR community.
With co-investigator Gabriel Ezenri, I completed and presented a systematic review of the real-world impact of FDA opioid regulatory actions on prescribing and safety outcomes.
Following PRISMA 2020, we reviewed 25 studies grouped into five policy areas: CDC guidelines and state limits, pediatric labelling, opioid-benzodiazepine warnings, REMS, and EMR clinical decision support. Pediatric codeine use fell by 50 to 70 percent after labelling changes, overlapping opioid and benzodiazepine prescriptions dropped by about 42 percent, and EMR decision support tools cut targeted prescribing by 25 to 62 percent.
After about 14 years in the pharmaceutical industry, I started my PhD in Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
My industry career in medical sales and market access took me across Ghana, Nigeria, and France. It taught me how pricing, access, and prescriber behaviour shape what patients actually receive. Now I study those same forces with data.
I'm a PhD student in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, in the Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy track. My research spans pharmacoepidemiology, health economics and outcomes research, and implementation science.
Before my PhD, I spent about 14 years (2010 to 2024) in the pharmaceutical industry in medical sales and market access roles across Ghana, Nigeria, and France. That experience shapes the questions I ask: how drugs reach patients, what drives prescribing, and whether policy changes make care safer and more accessible.
Outside of research, I serve as Treasurer of the UAMS Graduate Students Association and of the UAMS ISPOR Student Chapter.
In market access, a medicine only reaches patients when the people who decide on it are convinced of its value. That means payers, health technology assessment bodies, hospital formulary committees, clinicians, patient groups, and policymakers, each with different questions and different evidence needs. Good engagement starts early and runs both ways. It means listening to what a payer needs to see before a product launches, shaping evidence around real clinical and budget concerns, and building the trust that makes hard conversations about price and reimbursement possible. Much of my industry career was spent in these conversations, and they still shape how I approach research: evidence matters most when it answers the questions decision-makers are actually asking.
My work asks what happens after a medicine reaches the market: who prescribes it, who gets it, what it costs, and how policy changes that picture.
A retrospective new-user cohort study of whether the timing of PAH treatment escalation is associated with hospitalisation.
IQVIA PharMetrics PlusComparing GLP-1 prescribing by provider specialty with county obesity rates across Arkansas.
Arkansas APCD · geocoding · GPI drug codingA descriptive report on a statewide UAMS and Arkansas Department of Health program training providers in evidence-based opioid prescribing and SBIRT across all 75 Arkansas counties.
REDCap · DAVE and PSAD instrumentsTracking how opioid prescribing by dentists in Arkansas has changed over time.
Arkansas APCDA PRISMA 2020 systematic review of 25 studies across five policy clusters. With Gabriel Ezenri.
Systematic review · ROBINS-IUniversity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
Ghana, Nigeria, and France. Pricing strategy, market access, revenue growth, and KPI reporting.
I'm glad to hear from anyone interested in pharmacoepidemiology, HEOR, or access research, especially work using Arkansas data.