Brian Ma, PharmD, BCPS received his PharmD from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and completed his post-graduate residency training at the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (then the USC School of Pharmacy.) He is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy, the Director of the Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experience (IPPE) Programs at USC Mann, and a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist with a clinical practice in internal medicine at the LA General Medical Center. He has also previously served as Interim Director of Interprofessional Education at USC Mann.
As the Director of IPPE Programs, Dr. Ma oversees the curriculum for the Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences of USC Mann student pharmacists in their 1st to 3rd years of the PharmD program. He interfaces with school leadership in various departments to continuously improve both the didactic and experiential curricula. He also maintains relationships with experiential site preceptors and pharmacy practice sites throughout Los Angeles, the USA, and internationally. Dr. Ma coordinates multiple courses in the PharmD curriculum related to clinical pharmacy practice and professional development. He lectures for general medicine therapeutics, endocrine therapeutics, respiratory therapeutics and physiology, health-systems, pharmacy practice, and hospital pharmacy and operations modules at USC Mann. He has and continues to lecture for the Keck School of Medicine of USC, the Keck School of Medicine of USC Physician Assistant Program, and for the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. Dr. Ma also contributes to the USC Mann Undergraduate Program through course coordination and lecturing.
Dr. Ma’s clinical practice is based at the Los Angeles General Medical Center in the acute care setting. At LA General, Dr. Ma led the development of an inpatient internal medicine training site for pharmacy residents and student pharmacists of USC Mann, where he continues to serve as a preceptor for learners. His clinical practice experience also extends to the Intensive Care Unit, Cardiac Care Unit, Emergency Department, Operating Room, and IV Room. Before his faculty appointment, Dr. Ma received the 2022 USC Phi Lambda Sigma Kathleen Johnson Emerging New Practitioner Award and the 2021–2022 USC Mann School of Pharmacy Best IPPE Preceptor Award. He was also recognized as the USC Mann School Resident of the Year in 2020. At the University of California, San Francisco, he was a nominee for the Bowl of Hygeia award. His current research interests include experiential education, pharmacy education, artificial intelligence in pharmacy education, artificial intelligence in clinical pharmacy practice, and clinical pharmacy practice, with emphasis in the acute care setting. He is also interested in public policy, health policy, and health economics.