Jul Aug 2008 APN.pdf - AACP

news b r i e f s
Two Tennessee Universities Compete to
Benefit Nashville Arthritis Foundation
The Lipscomb Locomotion and Belmont Pharmacy Bruins
stepped out in a large challenge at the 2008 Nashville Arthritis
Walk, raising nearly $5,000 to help fight arthritis.
Located approximately three miles apart on Belmont Boulevard
in Nashville, Tenn., the two universities enjoy a long,
highly-touted history of the “Battle of the Boulevard” in their
intercollegiate sports program. Admittedly, there was some
“friendly pharmacy competition” between the two institutions,
but Deans Philip E. Johnston (Belmont) and Roger L. Davis
(Lipscomb) agreed that the most important aspect of this
friendly competition is the attention brought to bear on a very
serious medical condition that affects millions of individuals.
Hopefully, the funds raised will significantly aid research efforts
to identify more effective medical interventions for this
debilitating disease. The real focus of the two institutions will
always remain on remembering that opportunities to serve the
community bind the pharmacy community, and also reflect
both institutions’ long-standing commitments to service others
as hallmarks of their university identities and missions
Samford Hosts Scale Back Alabama
This year, the National Student Executive Committee for National
Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) issued a
wellness challenge to all student chapters. The Wellness Challenge
was designed to encourage student pharmacists to educate
patients on lifestyle modifications for weight loss and hypertension.
The Samford University NCPA Chapter accepted
this challenge and decided to become involved in a statewide
campaign known as Scale Back Alabama. Scale Back Alabama
is a 10-week weight loss program designed to get people thinking
about becoming healthier. The program was developed by
the Alabama Hospital Association (AlaHA) and the Alabama
Department of Public Health (ADPH).
Prior to the start of the competition, student pharmacists
completed necessary training for their site and advertised the
program throughout the community and campus newspaper.
Team members had an official weigh-in from Jan. 7–14 at the
pharmacy school. Pharmacy faculty and students weighed-in
57 teams (228 people) during this week. Teams consisted of
individuals from Samford and from other businesses in the
community. In addition to beginning and ending weigh-ins,
participants also viewed weekly classes via Webcast on the
Scale Back Alabama Web site and Samford student pharmacists
wrote weekly e-mail tips to help participants with their
weight-loss journey. Topics of the weekly e-mails included set-
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ting goals, calorie awareness, tasting your calories and using
fruits and veggies to manage your diet.
The 10-week contest ended on March 14, 2008; during this
week Samford student pharmacists weighed-out 130 of the
initial 252 participants. Total weight lost from the final 130
participants was 1,226 lbs!
Butler Breaks Ground on Green
Pharmacy and Health Sciences Addition
Butler University broke ground in May on a $14 million addition
to its pharmacy and health sciences building. The addition,
which is funded in part by a $25 million grant from the Lilly
Endowment Inc., will allow Butler’s College of Pharmacy and
Health Sciences to recruit more pharmacy faculty and accept
more transfer students. It also satisfies the university’s goal to
become a “greener” campus.
“We have six objectives for the grant, one of which is to become
an employer of choice among pharmacy faculty,” said Dr. Mary
H. Andritz, dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
“One of the ways you do that is to have a good infrastructure
—buildings, classrooms, laboratories and offices that
allow instructors to be successful in the classroom and with
their scholarship.”
Components of the 40,000-square-foot, four-story building include
two new classrooms with seating for an entire Pharm.D.
class, a student lounge, faculty offices and project rooms and
two laboratories—a History and Physical Laboratory to support
Butler’s Physician Assistant (PA) program and a research
lab for the pharmaceutical sciences faculty. With the new research
lab, the college hopes to grow the pharmaceutical sciences
program from four to seven faculty members.
With the addition of the History and Physical Laboratory, the
entire PA program will be on campus for the first time in its
13-year history. The addition will enable the college to accept
transfer students into the professional phase of the pharmacy
program, something it had not been able to do in recent years.
The university hopes this addition will serve as a standard for
all new construction projects by becoming Butler’s first Leadership
in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) building
on campus.
Maryland Governor, Legislature
Approve Money for Pharmacy Hall
Addition
Dr. David J. Ramsay, president of the University of Maryland,
Baltimore (UMB), is grateful and exited about the approval in
the state budget of funding for an addition to Pharmacy Hall at
the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.
“In securing more than $62 million for the construction of the
Pharmacy Hall addition, Gov. Martin O’Malley and the Maryland
General Assembly have recognized the need to educate
more pharmacists, carry out more cutting-edge research and
deepen our commitment to serve the community,” said Ramsay.
In response to a growing shortage of pharmacists, the School of
Pharmacy has ratcheted up enrollment at the Baltimore campus
to 120 students per class—more than it was designed to
support—and last fall opened an expansion at the Universities
at Shady Grove for 40 more students per class. The expansion
will more comfortably allow it to take on additional students, as
well as 40 percent more faculty in order to help meet the workforce
shortage.
The 92,635-square-foot, seven-story building will include lecture
halls wired for computers and distance-learning technology,
a new patient interaction laboratory, and four floors of space
dedicated to clinical and translational research in pharmacogenetics,
nanomedicine and drug discovery.
The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy has spent more
than a decade planning the addition, which should be open for
the fall 2010 semester. The building designers will seek a silver
LEEDs rating for the project upon completion. Energy efficient
lighting fixtures and heat recovery air-handling systems are
among the environmentally sensitive features planned for the
building.
“The Pharmacy Hall addition heralds a new era for the School
of Pharmacy,” said Dr. Natalie D. Eddington, dean of the UM
School of Pharmacy. “The additional space, technology and resources
will ultimately help the next generation of students enter
the professional world with all the interpersonal and scientific
tools they will need.”
CVS gives Howard University $300,000
for lab upgrade
Howard University and CVS opened the university’s newly upgraded
Pharmacy Practice Laboratory, where pharmacy students
can hone their skills in a practice setting, learning how to
dispense medication, counsel patients and utilize the technology
found in many pharmacies.
CVS donated $300,000 to the renovation of the laboratory,
building upon the company’s strong partnership with the school
to provide enhanced educational and career opportunities.
The Pharmacy Practice Laboratory houses 24 state-of-the-art
workstations that allow students to gain experience in entering
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and assessing patient-related information, such as health, allergy
and medication history.
The workstations also provide access to other technical support
needed to ensure appropriate delivery of medications, patient
counseling and medication therapy management. The laboratory
is stocked with prescription and OTC medications, alternative
medications, and home-testing devices so that students may
practice dispensing and advising on medication and home tests.
7th Annual APhA Self-Care Institute
Prepares Tomorrow’s Pharmacists Today
The growth of pharmacy-based patient care services is having
a positive impact on the role of the pharmacist in managing
self-treating patients. Not only is this growth increasing opportunities
for practicing pharmacists, it is also shifting required
competencies for graduating student pharmacists. Today’s
pharmacy school graduates must be prepared to assess and educate
self-treating patients regarding the use of nonprescription
products and dietary supplements, the implementation of
lifestyle modifications, as well as treatment with prescription
medications.
To help pharmacy school faculty better prepare the pharmacists
of tomorrow, APhA hosted the seventh annual Self-Care
Institute (SCI) in Chicago, June 19–22, 2008. The 96 faculty
attending the meeting were immersed in discussions of the latest
self-care therapeutics information, regulatory and policy
changes that affect self-care therapeutics, and strategies for
incorporating this new information into existing pharmacy
school curricula.
By providing faculty with the information, tools, and strategies
required for educating future pharmacists to deliver excellence
in the care of self-treating patients, the SCI helps to support
the future of this cost-effective health care delivery model.
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