The University of Southern California has announced a $5 million gift from the estate of alumna Susie Titus ('60) to establish a center in the USC School of Pharmacy aimed at making prescription medications safer and more efficient.

The USC Titus Center for Medication Safety and Population Health will work to reduce hospitalizations and emergency room visits resulting from dangerous drug interactions or wrong dosages. To that end, the center will connect community pharmacists with patients with chronic or uncontrolled diseases such as asthma or diabetes and train pharmacists to reevaluate patients' medication dosages and schedules or create customized individual treatment plans in an effort to prevent more hospital visits. A portion of the gift will endow the Susie Titus Professorship in Medication Safety, which will be held by a faculty member with a background in healthcare data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and medication safety.

Titus, who earned her bachelor's degree in education from USC in 1960 and worked in the veterinary division of the family pharmacy, was raised in a family of pharmacists with doctorates from USC, including her father, aunt, and brother. The Titus family endowed the pharmacy department at the USC School of Pharmacy in 2004; Susie Titus died in 2020.

"Over $528 billion of avoidable spending occurs each year in the U.S. due to harm or inadequate results from medication, accounting for the third leading cause of death," said Steven Chen, the school's associate dean for clinical affairs. "The Titus Center will create opportunities for pharmacists to ensure that all patients, regardless of socioeconomic status, attain optimal results from medication therapy."