At the CU Anschutz Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, infectious diseases are a daily part of patient care in hospitals and clinics. Whether it's choosing the right antibiotic or helping prevent resistance, infectious disease pharmacists are essential to keeping treatments effective and patients safe. Meghan Jeffres, PharmD, is one of the faculty leading the way in this field.
Infectious disease (ID) pharmacy is one of more than 100 career options available to PharmDs. Dr. Jeffres describes it as solving medical puzzles every day.
"You're constantly balancing two goals: curing the infection and using the least amount of antibiotics possible. So, we get creative," she said. "We dig into patient details, lab results, and treatment options to find that sweet spot where the infection is cured, but we’re not over-treating and putting more antibiotics into the world. It’s thoughtful, strategic, and never boring."
In a hospital setting, infectious diseases pharmacists wear multiple hats. The two most common activities for an ID pharmacist are to work with ID physicians to manage complex infections. These are patients that require specialized knowledge due to factors like multidrug resistance, immunocompromised status, or unusual pathogens.
The second is leading antimicrobial stewardship efforts, which focus on guiding non-ID clinicians, like internal medicine or critical care teams, in treating more routine infections (urinary tract infections or skin and soft tissue infections). Beyond frontline patient care, antimicrobial stewardship pharmacists also work on broader initiatives to slow antimicrobial resistance, with the hopes that the ripple effect of their work is felt far beyond individual cases.
In the classroom, Jeffres is known for making tough topics surprisingly fun. She uses escape rooms, puzzles, and spaced repetition to help students master the complex world of infectious diseases. “I tell my students up front that building foundational infectious diseases knowledge is a slog,” she said. “But if we lock it in now, you’ll be ready when it really counts.”
Her research is all about improving how we use antibiotics, especially for patients who’ve been labeled allergic and might miss out on the best treatments. Her “cefazolin for all” initiative is gaining traction in hospitals across the country and changing how antibiotics are selected for surgical patients. The goal? Make sure every patient gets the most effective protection against infection even if they’ve got an allergy label in their chart.
Infectious disease pharmacy is just one of the specialties that you can pursue with a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from CU Anschutz School of Pharmacy.
Learn more about Pharmacy Careers here.