Proud he’s ours: He defined the best medicine for kids

Originally published by Ohio State Alumni Magazine and written by Todd Jones.

Milap Nahata’s childhood memories hint at why his humility is as legendary as his nearly 50 years of work in clinical pharmacy as an educator, researcher, practitioner, scholar, mentor and volunteer. There was no electricity or running water in his small home in Rajasthan, India, where summer temperatures reach 120 degrees. He owned two sets of clothes.

“People ask me what my dream was, but I don’t think I had the capacity for that,” Nahata says. “I was just hoping that the next day would be better.”

Those days keep Nahata grounded and striving to help others as Ohio State emeritus professor of pharmacy, pediatrics and internal medicine in the Colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine.

“It’s who he is as a person,” says Bella Mehta ’95, ’97 PharmD, professor and chair of Ohio State’s Division of Pharmacy Practice and Science. “His first questions will always be: What can I do to be better? How can I help serve? That’s his instinct.”

That personal value is the core of Nahata’s professional career, which is much celebrated for transforming pediatric pharmacy from a field of study not widely accepted when he first came to Ohio State as a faculty member in 1977 into one now practiced worldwide.

“Dr. Nahata is one of the most influential leaders in pediatric pharmacy in history, certainly in the last 50 years,” says Robert Kuhn ’80, professor emeritus of pharmacy at the University of Kentucky. He trained under Nahata as a clinical postdoctoral fellow.

Nahata has overseen the work of nearly 40 such fellows since starting Ohio State’s first pharmacotherapy fellowship program focused on improving the outcomes of drug therapy for children with acute conditions. He’s still doing so while also mentoring and training students, residents and faculty practitioners. He’s also teaching undergraduate and graduate classes in the College of Pharmacy.

“I love it,” Nahata says. “I feel like I’m contributing in a positive way. It’s my purpose.”

He found his purpose in the 1970s after moving to the U.S. to earn his master’s in pharmaceutics at Duquesne University. While completing his doctorate there and a residency at the University of Buffalo, he saw an opportunity to directly help patients by monitoring them, advising on the use of prescriptions and consulting with doctors on medication issues. That led him to Ohio State as one of its first four full-time clinical pharmacy faculty. He became the first clinical pharmacy practitioner at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and has published more than 650 peer-reviewed journal articles, five books and 100 book chapters.

“A lot of what we know and practice today in pediatric pharmacy and the use of medications in this patient population is because of the research that Dr. Nahata and his teams did,” Mehta says. Previously, the medical field assumed children were little adults and trimmed adult dosages, but in reality, children’s organs process medications differently. “His work was revolutionary because it really provided the research and evidence of why we should dose the way we do and how some treatment options are better than others in pediatric patients.”

In 2013, Nahata founded the Institute of Therapeutic Innovations and Outcomes, and he remains director of that Ohio State initiative, which has provided research-supported medication management services to more than 100,000 patients annually. This has allowed him to help the elderly. “There is a tremendous need in those two populations,” he says.

Nahata contributed to the development of graduate-level studies with a PharmD degree, launched in 1981 with four students, that eventually expanded into the PharmD program for all pharmacy students, in 1998. He became Chair of Pharmacy Practice and Science that year and served until 2013, earning the highest honors offered by each of the five leading pharmacy organizations. “I’m extremely grateful, but frankly, the honors are not because of me,” he says. “I really believe they’re because of people who trusted, supported and worked with me.”

The recognition is also due to his upbringing in India. While his father was usually away working to support the family, his mother cared for the household—including three grandparents who died before age 55—from sunrise to bedtime. She had no formal education, but plenty of spirit that shined with patience and positivity, no complaints or expectations of others. “My mom showed me that each day you give your best effort,” Nahata says.

He takes pride in balancing work with home life. He and wife Suchitra have been married 47 years, and their daughter, Leena Nahata, is a pediatric endocrinologist and professor of clinical pediatrics in the College of Medicine.

Each morning, Nahata drives his grandson to school and then ponders a question he says he’s privileged to ask: How can I do more to help students and patients?

“I’m only 74,” he says with a smile. “There’s so much to be done. That’s what keeps me going.”

Career highlights

Emeritus professor of pharmacy, pediatrics & internal medicine in the Colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine, faculty member since 1977

2024 Remington Honor Medal, American Pharmacists Association (APhA), the preeminent award for the profession

2023 Harvey A.K. Whitney Lecture Award, the highest honor from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists 

2018 Lifetime Achievement Award for significant contributions to pharmacy education, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), the highest honor possible from this organization

2013 Sumner Yaffe Lifetime Achievement Award for significant and sustained contributions to improve children’s health, Pediatric Pharmacy Association, the highest honor possible from this organization

2009 Paul Parker Medal for outstanding lifetime contributions to clinical pharmacy with decisive impact on patient care, American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP), the highest honor possible from this organization

National Academy of Medicine member in recognition of outstanding contributions to the field of health

Distinguished Educator honors, AACP and ACCP; seven outstanding teaching awards from the College of Pharmacy, plus the university-wide teaching award

Research achievement awards from 

• APhA
• ACCP, the Russell R. Miller Award, for sustained and outstanding contributions to the literature of clinical pharmacy
• American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists
• American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Literature Award for Sustained Contributions
• Rho Chi Pharmacy Honor Society, Rho Chi Lecture Award

The Milap Nahata Distinguished Lectureship, established in 2012 for outstanding contributions to pharmacy

President and Chairman of the Board (elected), AACP and ACCP