Alumni Profile: Drs. Asha and Amit Chikani

For Drs. Asha and Amit Chikani, Work Means Impacting Millions

When Dr. Amit Chikani, PharmD ’06, arrived at UIC, he knew exactly what he wanted to do in pharmacy. Dr. Asha Chikani, PharmD ’07, was less sure. And while opportunities at UIC opened up Asha’s eyes to possible career paths, Amit’s path evolved as the two started a family.

Today, the couple, who met at UIC, have taken advantage of pharmacy’s broad opportunities to gain flexibility as parents—all while impacting potentially millions of people. Amit serves as project owner for diabetes management at Optum RX, and Asha manages pharmacy benefits as a consultant at Buck.

Initially, Amit “had his heart set on” following his father and brother into retail pharmacy, but after six years at Walgreens, the arrival of young Chikanis spurred Amit to seek flexibility. He found an opportunity in the PBM (pharmacy benefit manager) field at Optum, working in formulary management and strategy before taking on Optum’s new diabetesmanagement program.

Heading that program has been among his proudest career accomplishments, Amit said. “Today, we’re covering over a million lives. I’ve been pretty proud of what the team has done to get it to this point.”

For Asha, a UIC elective in managed care clarified her career goals. A course field trip brought her to Walgreens Health Initiatives (WHI) and its now-defunct PBM. “I realized that there was corporate work that pharmacists could do, typically a nine-to-five job. That piqued my interest.”

Her interest turned into a rotation and residency at WHI, and a WHI contact (another UIC graduate) helped Asha get started at CVS Caremark, where she worked in analytics and sales and account services. Eventually, she switched “sides of the table” with the many consultants she encountered there.

Despite various awards on the job, Asha said her proudest accomplishment has been learning to speak up for herself, often a challenge for women in business.

Both UIC grads said they also appreciate that their current roles broaden the impact they can have. “When you get to PBMs, you start having these clinical programs that cover millions of lives,” Amit said. “We see results on A1C reductions, helping members become more adherent to their medication. Those are all real-life impacts.”

Asha agreed. “I’m impacting the benefits for the entire population that falls under a specific insurance plan, for example. . . . It’s nice to see that we can make a difference on a bigger scale.”