Academic Pharmacy Now: 2016 Issue 1

Academic Pharmacy NOW

The News Magazine of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy

Volume 9 2016 Issue 1

Evolving Education

Curriculums are transforming to meet the complex needs of modern pharmacy. 10

Also in this issue: One UW team’s potentially safer, more tolerable HIV treatment 6 How UIC is saving lives and costs through personalized medicine 8

who we are @AACPharmacy

Academic Pharmacy The News Magazine of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy

American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy 1727 King Street, Floor 2 Alexandria, VA 22314 p: 703-739-2330 P f: 703-836-8982

www.aacp.org

Founded in 1900, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy is the national organization representing the interests of pharmacy education. AACP comprises all accredited colleges and schools of pharmacy, including more than 6,600 faculty, approximately 63,800 students enrolled in professional programs and 4,800 individuals pursuing graduate study.

Letters to the Editor

NOW

CEO & Publisher

Lucinda L. Maine

Editorial Director

Lynette R. Bradley-Baker

Editor

Maureen Thielemans

mthielemans@aacp.org

Editorial Assistant

Kyle R. Bagin

We welcome your comments.

Please submit all letters to the editor to communications@aacp.org.

About Academic Pharmacy Now Academic Pharmacy Now highlights the work of AACP member pharmacy schools and faculty. The magazine is published as a membership service.

Subscriptions To subscribe, visit http://www.aacp.org/news/ shopaacp/Pages/publications.aspx.

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Academic Pharmacy NOW  2016 Issue 1

kbagin@aacp.org

Art Director

Tricia Gordon

tgordon@aacp.org

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Sean Clark

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Freelance Writer

Jane E. Rooney

Senior Advisor, Outreach and Communications

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Volume 9 2016 Issue 1

@AACPharmacy a look inside

community impact

5

Pan-Atlantic Partnership

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The Right Combination

UB pharmaceutical scientist leads international, $3.8 million grant to develop personalized, nanoparticle drug-delivery systems for pancreatic cancer.

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Saving Lives and Costs Personalized medicine program at UIC helps guide dosing of blood thinners, which leads to lower healthcare costs and improved patient outcomes.

New long-lasting HIV treatment regimen would make it easier for patients and potentially clear residual virus.

campus connection

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Evolving Education When a pharmacy school takes on curricular transformation, the results can lead to a broader, more innovative and versatile educational experience for students.

@AACPharmacy

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Logging On to AACP Academic Pharmacy Now sat down with the newest staff member to discuss his unique background and work at AACP.

2016 AACP Spring Institute Leading Edge: Transforming Experiential Education

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Save the Date!

AACP Annual Meeting July 23–27 Anaheim Marriott & Anaheim Convention Center

May 23–25 Hilton Minneapolis

Academic Pharmacy NOW  2016 Issue 1

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community note publisher’s impact

Dear Colleagues: At the 2016 AACP Interim Meeting this month in Tampa, President-elect Joe DiPiro presented the topline priorities in the Association’s emerging strategic plan. They are: • Enriching the applicant pipeline.

• Creating a new image or portrait of pharmacists and pharmacy careers.

• Accelerating innovation in pharmacy education and practice.

• Expanding research and graduate education.

• Sustaining member services/programs.

Perhaps it was no coincidence that these top priorities were also reflected in the programming of our meeting. Attendees affirmed that we must aggressively communicate to young people, their parents, high school counselors and health professions advisors that pharmacists’ roles in the changing healthcare landscape are pivotal to patients and other health professionals, and that the work is exciting and rewarding.

AACP and our members can’t do this alone. This is a priority that must be shared across the profession by state and national pharmacy associations, corporations and foundations.

“Pharmacy Is Right for Me” is the key phrase and we all need to explain why!

For our communications to be effective, there must be an acceleration in the transformation of the work of pharmacists.

We have envisioned pharmacists will spend more time in direct patient care and less in distribution management for decades, yet many have not found themselves positioned in practice environments where care occupies the majority of their responsibilities. As a result, hundreds of billions of dollars are spent each year treating illnesses that could have been avoided or controlled with more proactive medication management.

Pharmacy educators have always been innovators, creating new knowledge through research and new roles in practice.

AACP leaders and staff are enthusiastic about partnering with members and others who are committed to building a future that fulfills the vision of a world of healthy people, which can only be accomplished through the transformation of health professions education.

Sincerely,

Lucinda L. Maine, Ph.D., R.Ph. CEO and Publisher

Spring 2016 IPEC Institute May 4-6, 2016, Herndon, VA Interprofessional Faculty Development Institute: Quality Improvement & Patient Safety Confirmed Speakers include Carolyn Clancy, David Farmer, and John Bulger The Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) is holding its 10th faculty development institute—this time with a special focus on Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QI/PS)—on May 4–6, 2016 at the Dulles Hyatt in Herndon, VA. The agenda is designed to showcase the latest developments in IPE, to add to attendees’ QI/ PS knowledge, and to stimulate discussion and ideas. To achieve this, the institute will bring together leading healthcare speakers and experts to contribute to the two and half days of presentations and discussions.

The agenda features: theory burst presentations on QI/PS content; guided learning experiences and teambased planning activities; leading speakers from around the country; opportunities to discuss the IPE issues and solutions; and dedicated time to explore how to embed QI/PS at your institution.

Register now to secure your place: https://ipecollaborative.org/Registration.html For inquiries, contact Shelley McKearney at smckearney@aacn.nche.edu.

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community impact

Pan-Atlantic Partnership

UB pharmaceutical scientist leads international, $3.8 million grant to develop personalized, nanoparticle drug-delivery systems for pancreatic cancer.

By Ellen Goldbaum Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers: in the United States, only 7 percent of patients survive five years after diagnosis.

Drugs cannot easily access pancreatic tumors because the tumors have very low blood supply and secrete certain proteins that promote the growth of stroma, collagenous connective tissue that hinders drugs’ access to tumors.

Recent research has identified drug pre-treatments that boost delivery of conventional small-molecule drugs into the tumors by making their blood vessels more leaky.

But now an international partnership led by the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is embarking on research based on a somewhat different principle.

Since many of the pharmaceutical agents being studied in this grant already have Food and Drug Administration approval, the strategy, if proven successful, could have a rapid impact on treating pancreatic cancer, the researchers say.

Progress through Pre-Treatment The five-year, $3.8 million grant started Sept. 1. Funding was received through the U.S.-Ireland R&D Partnership Programme, a unique funding mechanism that supports projects across the U.S., the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, with each country funding the research performed within its borders.

Under this grant, UB’s School of Phar“Because the pre-treatment causes the macy and Pharmaceutical Sciences new vessels to become leaky, it’s like and Roswell Park Cancer Institute opening a window,” said Straubinger.

(RPCI) will share $2.2 million from “The drugs can flow in when blood the National Institutes of Health, while concentrations are high, but when collaborators at Queens University, Bel- blood concentrations fall – and many fast, will receive the equivalent of $1.13 small molecules don’t circulate for very million from the UK Health and Social long—they can wash right back out.”

Care R&D Division, and collaborators Working With the Clock at Dublin City University will receive Straubinger and his colleagues will try the equivalent of $506,000 from Scito take advantage of that leakiness by ence Foundation Ireland. using nanoparticles, such as liposomes, Instead of treating pancreatic cancer which could take hours to days to with small-molecule drugs, the team diffuse into the tumor, as opposed to is working on using particle-based minutes to hours. delivery systems, including liposomes, which are nano-sized, fat-soluble, drug- “This grant will allow us to explore new ways of improving the access of delivery packets; the team’s theory is drugs to tumor sites,” said Christopher that these could remain “stuck” in a tumor for days or weeks, allowing for sustained release of a drug.

“A key hypothesis we will test in this grant is that conventional small molecules are the wrong drugs to use with these ‘tumor-priming’ strategies,” said Robert M. Straubinger, Ph.D., professor of pharmaceutical sciences, and principle investigator of the U.S. effort.

He explained that about five years ago, several important characteristics of pancreatic tumors were identified.

One of them was the fact that certain pre-treatments, including drugs that inhibit cellular signaling by a pathway improbably named the “sonic hedgehog” pathway, appeared to boost efficacy of drugs by promoting tumor microvessels.

Many of the agents used in the grant are already FDA-approved, meaning the research led by Dr. Robert M. Straubinger, principal investigator for U.S. efforts, and his colleagues could have rapid impact in treating pancreatic cancer.

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community impact

J. Scott, Ph.D., who leads the research But because tumor-priming strategies team at Queens University. “Using are poorly understood and can produce current chemotherapies, only a fraction variable results, the team will use what of the drug gets to where it is needed. it calls “mathematical priming” to find If this could be improved, even only out what works best. incrementally, it could lead to a major “If we capture the time course and advance in how we treat pancreatic magnitude of how an agent affects the cancer patients.” tumor, then we can use mathematiThe scientists will be evaluating cal simulation to identify the optimal “tumor-priming strategies,” a sequentiming for priming and delivery of the tial chemotherapy approach where one drug,” said Straubinger. agent is administered that increases Cross-country Collaboration tumor blood-vessel leakiness and then These chemotherapy combinations will a second cytotoxic agent is added, such as a liposome or a therapeutic antibody be tested by scientists at Dublin City University and at Roswell Park Cancer that should remain in the tumor longer Institute, including Wen Wee Ma, M.D., to fight the cancer. associate professor of oncology at RPCI Scott’s lab will test whether decoratand assistant professor of medicine in ing the drug-loaded nanoparticles with the UB School of Medicine and Biotumor-homing antibodies will give medical Sciences. the particles an additional boost in effectiveness.

“We are delighted with the news of this award, which brings together complementary expertise in cancer research from three different nationally leading laboratories focused on developing new strategies to improve the treatment of pancreatic cancer,” said Robert O’Connor, Ph.D., now head of research for the Irish Cancer Society. Niall Barron, Ph.D., will head the Dublin City University group.

Straubinger, also an adjunct professor at Dublin City University and at RPCI Cancer, has been collaborating with his colleagues at the partner institutions, on this and related projects for several years. P Ellen Goldbaum is news content manager for medicine at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York.

The Right Combination New long-lasting HIV treatment regimen would make it easier for patients and potentially clear residual virus.

By Sarah C.B. Guthrie An interprofessional team led by professors Dr. Rodney JY Ho of the University of Washington School of Pharmacy and Dr. Ann Collier of the UW School of Medicine received $14M from the National Institutes of Health to develop a long-lasting (seven-day) therapy for HIV. The two co-principal investigators and the team will develop innovative treatments to overcome limitations of current oral drug therapies. The UM1 NIH grant is one of the first that NIH recently awarded as part of its key initiatives to address unmet medical needs in HIV/AIDS. Ho was a recipient of the Milo Gibaldi Endowed

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Professorship, which funded part of the research in developing this program.

HIV is a formidable opponent for researchers. It constantly mutates, making it harder to create drugs for prevention and treatment. HIV lives not only in the blood stream but in tissues, making it hard to eradicate from the body. It is possible to greatly reduce the presence of the virus in the blood, but finding a way to reduce its presence in tissues has been significantly more challenging.

While current drug combination therapies have significantly improved the

length and quality of patient life, they present two main challenges: 1) they must be taken one or more times a day lifelong; and 2) they are not as effective at removing residual viruses from tissues.

Safe, Stable, Scalable Taking treatment as prescribed can be a challenge for many patients. A 2004 study showed that while more than 80 percent of HIV patients take their medications as prescribed, two-thirds of older patients who missed a dose said they ‘simply forgot.’

community impact

With the global, U.S. and Washington state goals to eliminate HIV transmission and end the HIV/AIDS epidemic, achieving treatment success for all infected persons is an important component. If adherence is poor, HIV can develop resistance to antiretroviral drugs, which in turn means that higher drug levels or different drugs are needed.

Insufficient drug levels may also occur in some tissues. These issues may lead to treatment failure with subsequent progression of HIV to AIDS. UW’s new Targeted Long-Acting Combination Antiretroviral Therapy (TLCART) program is an innovative, translational medicine research designed to leverage existing knowledge and a world-class interprofessional team of academic, NIH and industry researchers to deliver new, safe, stable, scalable, and tolerable antiretroviral combination treatments for HIV infection.

Based on the discovery at UW that some antiretroviral medications taken by mouth do not provide sufficient drug exposure and are linked to

residual HIV replication, a team led by Ho and Collier developed the TLC-ART Program that has now received support from the NIH. The program has multiple projects designed to interact in a coordinated and collaborative way with the focused goal of producing injectable drug combinations that will achieve effective drug levels lasting more than seven days. In addition to laboratory-based research, the program incorporates innovative behavioral science studies that will gather information from potential users of long-acting antiretroviral treatments.

Innovation through Collaboration Long-acting antiretroviral treatment would provide a new option to help improve patient adherence, especially for those with adherence challenges. With the ability to direct drugs to lymphoid tissue and potentially overcome drug insufficiency in tissues, this research may also help eliminate residual virus.

“We started out very early on in the battle against HIV/AIDS to find a treatment or a vaccine, but it continued to elude us. It is more than likely that a systems approach using innovative drug targeting to cell and tissue along with boosting of patients’ immune system may lead to a cure,” said Ho. “We cannot do this work alone and I look forward to collaborating with our partners and especially Dr. Collier, who has over 25 years of clinical trials experience.”

The TLC-ART Program has investigators from the UW Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine, Fred Hutch, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, the Washington National Primate Research Center, as well as Harborview Medical Center, and will leverage resources of the UW/ Fred Hutch Center for AIDS Research and the UW Institute of Translational Health Sciences. P Sarah C.B. Guthrie is director of communications at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy.

Dr. Rodney Ho, UW professor of pharmaceutics, talks with John Hoekman, left, and Matthew Crouthamel, alumni of the School of Pharmacy.

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community impact

Saving Lives and Costs Personalized medicine program at UIC helps guide dosing of blood thinners, which leads to lower healthcare costs and improved patient outcomes.

By Sam Hostettler A new genetic testing program at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System for patients on blood-thinning drugs showed reduced complications and improved patient safety—with significant cost savings— over its first 16 months in operation.

UI Health’s Personalized Medicine Program, led by the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy Professor Edith Nutescu, Pharm.D., was one of three finalists for the 2015 Award for Excellence in Medication-Use Safety by the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists Foundation.

Dr. Edith Nutescu (center), associate professor of pharmacy systems, outcomes and policy, flanked by Janet Mighty, vice chair of the board of directors of the ASHP Foundation, and William Owad Jr., chair of the board of directors, ASHP Research and Education Foundation.

medications, Nutescu said. Along with pharmacists, UI Health’s personalized medicine team includes cardiologists, More than 800 patients were genotyped hematologists, molecular pathologists, for warfarin and clopidogrel dosing in information technologists and health the initial phase of the program (a num- system administrators. ber that has since increased to more than 1,500). Hospital readmission rates Pharmacists are uniquely suited to Begun in 2012, the UI Health produe to drug-related complications with- lead interdisciplinary teams of profesgram aims to reduce emergency visits in 30 days decreased by 77 percent, and sionals that use pharmacogenomics for and hospital readmissions due to the within 90 days by 68 percent, Nutescu precision medicine, said Jerry Bauman, prescription medications warfarin and said, resulting in an estimated cost Pharm.D., dean of the UIC College of clopidogrel. Warfarin, the most widely Pharmacy and interim vice president for used anticoagulant, is prescribed for pa- savings of $2,043 per patient—nearly health affairs at UI Health. tients at risk for blood clots. Clopidogrel $600,000 annually at UI Health. is an anti-platelet agent used to prevent UI Health is among the first aca“Simply put, this innovative service imheart attack and stroke. demic medical centers to incorporate a proves patient care by personalizing each patient’s drug therapy,” Bauman said. P Proper dosages of warfarin and clopido- pharmacist-led personalized medicine grel are difficult to determine, especial- program as part of its standard care for Sam Hostettler is associate director in the ly initially, due to variables that include patients taking potentially dangerous News Bureau, where he covers the UIC colleges of Dentistry, Nursing and Pharmacy. a patient’s diet, age and other medications. Patients prescribed too high a dose are at risk of life-threatening bleeding. Too low a dose leaves them vulnerable to dangerous blood clots.

Incorporating genetic information into therapeutic decision-making should optimize medication use, Nutescu said, which would reduce the failure rate dur-

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ing initial stages of treatment, improve patient outcomes and lower costs.

community impact

WEʼRE PROUD TO SPONSOR …

THE FUTURE

At the NACDS Foundation, we are honored to be a sponsor of the 2016 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Interim Meeting.

Yet our partnership only begins there.

Throughout the year, we present future-focused academic initiatives, including:

For Faculty Members

For Students

• Faculty Scholars Program • Foundation Scholarship Program • Research Grants

• Executive Fellowship Program

Please visit www.nacdsfoundation.org to learn more about our partnerships

Academic Pharmacy NOW  2016 Issue 1

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campus connection

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campus connection

Evolving Education

When a pharmacy school takes on curricular transformation, the results can lead to a broader, more innovative and versatile educational experience for students.

By Jane E. Rooney

Flexibility. Integration.

Experiential learning. Cuttingedge research. Twenty-first century pharmacy students want and need these components woven into an education that prepares them to work in today’s healthcare environment. Pharmacy schools recognize that students’ needs are changing as the role of the pharmacist evolves.

To accomplish these goals, some schools of pharmacy are undergoing curricular transformations to ensure that students’ skills are up to date and to reflect industry changes. Schools want to offer innovative approaches to learning to enhance professional devel-

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campus connection

“We’re trying to break tradition and take some risks in how we present information to students in new and different ways.” ­— Dr. Sharon Youmans

opment and prepare students to provide team-based, multidisciplinary patient care. So what does it take to redesign a curriculum? Read on for firsthand accounts from schools that have undergone transformation, are in the midst of changes, or are building a curriculum as they prepare to welcome their first students.

Training Critical Thinkers At the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Pharmacy, discussions about changing the curriculum began in 2012 and a steering committee launched in 2014. “We’re trying to be in tune with how this generation of students learns, as well as the ever-changing demands in the healthcare system and the evolving role of pharmacists,” said Vice Dean Dr. Sharon Youmans, explaining what prompted the Pharm.D. program’s most significant change in two decades. “We’re preparing students to be better critical thinkers and problem solvers, as well as to be comfortable with the unknown, be more exposed to cutting-edge research, and we’re teaching them how to tackle questions to which there are no answers. All of this is with the goal of improving health outcomes.”

The Bridges Pharmacy Curriculum will give students more time in experiential areas. Youmans said the UCSF Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine will align and pilot activities that will allow students to learn with and from each other about their roles and the strengths that the physician and pharmacist bring to those roles. Medication therapy management, chronic disease counseling and accessible primary care services are just some of the important responsibilities of a pharmacist. “We’re trying to break tradition and take some risks in how we present information to students in new and different ways,” Youmans said, describing the new curriculum’s innovative aspects. “It’s challenging for the faculty as well because they will be asked to do different things in the classroom. We are doing our best to make things integrated.

One element of the curriculum that’s pretty exciting is titled the “Habit of Mind of Inquiry”, as in how do we train students to think about not only the scientific approach or expertise they bring to the table to help solve a problem, but what other scientific approaches may be required?”

Youmans noted that CAPE 2013 and Standards 2016 are definitely being taken into consideration as curriculum plans take shape. She added that getting students to be more active in their learning and think about different perspectives ultimately will help them become better problem solvers.

Problem solving and enhanced professional development were also top of mind at the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy when discussions about curricular transformation began almost three years ago. The school is now in its second semester with the redesigned curriculum in place. “Our approach to the curriculum is being very integrated so that all of the different courses are working together,” said Dr. Kathleen Besinque, associate professor of clinical pharmacy, noting that input from students about gaps in the old curriculum and the desire for greater flexibility helped drive the changes. She added that technology is a driving force behind everything at the school.

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campus connection

“Allowing students the flexibility to pursue dual degrees or certifications while they are earning their Pharm.D. is another way to help students get the knowledge and skills they need for their future careers.” ­— Dr. Michelle Fravel

“We concentrated our basic science foundation courses into A Flexible Approach the first year of the program,” she continued. “We estabThe University of Iowa College of Pharmacy wanted to focus lished two new longitudinal courses. One puts [the focus on] on alignment and integration with its Learning and Living problem solving and case applications of what’s being taught Curriculum, implemented this past fall. It offers increased every semester. Students meet in small groups to work flexibility to students who might want to pursue a dual through cases. Professionalism and the Practice of Pharmacy degree, for example. Dr. Michelle Fravel, clinical assistant is the other course focusing on professional development and professor, said one innovative aspect of the new curriculum includes the IPPE. Students can now take electives at the end is built-in flexibility in the program’s last year and a half that of the first year, which previously weren’t offered until the allows students to tap into other opportunities on campus. third year. Structurally, we moved the advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPE) to start six weeks earlier. At the “There is a trend in pharmacy toward more post-education training, with residencies and fellowships becoming more end of that last year, students are coming back to campus for assessment and updates, and some of our more reflective and more popular,” she noted. “Allowing students the flexibility to pursue dual degrees or certifications while they are curriculum.” earning their Pharm.D. is another way to help students get A key goal was ensuring that the new curriculum aligned the knowledge and skills they need for their future careers. with the standards regarding professional and personal Our new curriculum also has a stronger emphasis on health development and making that component more visible. New informatics—a rapidly growing area in pharmacy. All of courses will reflect the CAPE 2013 emphasis on social and these changes will better prepare our students for the evolvinterpersonal skills to prepare pharmacists who can lead as ing role pharmacists have in healthcare.” well as empathize. “The need to enhance professional deThe revised Pharm.D. program will prepare students to be velopment wasn’t something we were focused on before the effective decision makers, team players and communicators.

Standards 2016, but it helped solidify in our minds that we were going in the right direction,” Besinque said. “We’re also Some unique curriculum elements include more team-taught planning on having students do some sort of scholarly project courses and more collaboration with fellow health sciences to demonstrate their analytic and problem-solving abilities.” students to learn about other professions and healthcare teams. In addition, a feature called Professional Discovery Preliminary assessment plans included focus groups to get will offer insight into scholarly activities in pharmacy pracfeedback from students after the first semester, as well as tice through team-based, long-term research projects and meeting with faculty and preceptors to gain insights. “Based will help students develop leadership and research skills. on the input we get, we will fine-tune things and figure out Creating the new curriculum was long process. The dean the right balance between professional development and devised a curriculum transformation committee and an basic science.” implementation committee, and both groups met over several years to come up with a vision. The curriculum committee, which includes six to eight student members, meets

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campus connection

“Most of our faculty learned in silo courses.

What we’re asking faculty to do is help students make those connections so they can make better clinical decisions.” ­— Dr. Douglas Ried

twice each month for two-hour meetings, Fravel said. “The students have been incredibly helpful and have been vocal when they needed to, so that’s been a critical piece of implementation.”

UCSF’s Youmans said faculty, staff, students and external stakeholders are all involved in communication and feedback as they begin to think about infrastructure. Getting input from current students is particularly important. “My mission is to make sure we un-turn every stone,” she said. “We want a curriculum that’s nimble enough to move with the times.

How do we equip students with skills so they are continually learning and updating themselves?”

She said that getting faculty and staff involved in the early stages is helpful because there may be a steep learning curve.

“There’s a lot to learn,” she pointed out. “For me it’s about the change management process more than creating the curriculum. How do you get people to shift to do something different? We hadn’t changed the curriculum in 20 years so we’re really starting from scratch. Our students are fantastic—it’s time we build on their strengths as well.”

Student feedback will be key when it comes to assessing the new curriculum at the University of Iowa. “We’ll have a town hall session where the dean of students will have an open conversation on a semester-by semester-basis,” Fravel explained, adding that the dean already conducted a session in the fall. “We’ll also have student focus groups afterwards to hone in on issues that were brought up in the larger group.

We also revamped course evaluations.” Faculty oversight committees will be evaluating overall workload and bigpicture items. As this article went to press, the curriculum committee was awaiting faculty reports so the committee could review the fall courses.

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Fravel said that the assessment committee is working to develop a longitudinal assessment plan tailored to the new curriculum, which will inform how the curriculum evolves over time. Results from exams will help identify areas to change.

The idea behind the Learning and Living Curriculum name, she pointed out, is that no curriculum is ever set. “We will continue to evaluate, modify, and improve.”

Starting From Scratch For two newer schools of pharmacy, creating curriculums posed unique challenges because the foundation had to be created without reliance on existing building blocks. The Ben and Maytee Fisch College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Tyler welcomed its first students last August. Dr. Douglas Ried, the college’s associate dean for academic affairs, said they took a “spaghetti against the wall approach,” using concept maps to help students evaluate linkages and explain how material relates conceptually. As faculty came on board, he urged them to think about how their topic merges with other faculty members’ topics so they could begin to see connections. “Most of our faculty learned in silo courses,” Ried noted. “What we’re asking faculty to do is help students make those connections so they can make better clinical decisions.”

At UT Tyler, students have the opportunity to practice skills such as empathy and communication right away, through the IPPE in the first semester. “Our students start their IPPEs immediately and we tie together the exercises in the IPPE with what they are doing in the classroom and the lab,” Ried explained. “They learn in the didactic course, practice it in the lab, then go in the pharmacy and actually do it.”

The college’s team-based learning approach means that students are assigned to teams of six and take all classes within a semester with that group. The intention is to increase

campus connection

“The whole complexity of the healthcare system itself presents an added layer. We are becoming recognized as more independent practitioners.

We have to think outside the box and develop efficient ways to prepare our graduates.” ­— Dr. Siu Fun Wong

discussion among team members and allow them to become more articulate. “Students have to identify basic learning material they had in class preparation and use that to solve a problem,” Ried said. “One of the things we wanted to do was to make sure our students were really able to critically evaluate materials.”

Starting IPPEs in the first semester, he continued, allows for coordinated, just-in-time content. “For example, we give students training on immunization and then they go into the community. We are able to connect what’s going on in the classroom with what’s going on at the practice site. We give a workbook to the students and preceptors that has them perform specific tasks associated with what they are learning in the classroom. Then they can go out into the introductory practice experiences and see it in the pharmacy.”

Mapping It Out When the Chapman University School of Pharmacy began fleshing out its curriculum, faculty and staff knew they wanted an active learning model to support their goal of producing practice-ready and team-ready graduates. Dr. Reza Mehvar, professor and department chair of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences, said his department faculty are committed to a strategic plan during the program’s development phase that would help it become a leader for integrating basic sciences with pharmacy practice. An integrated curriculum, he said, allows for more streamlining and a greater emphasis on team teaching and learning. One of the core documents used during curriculum development was the AACP Curriculum SIG CAPE paper, which emphasizes vertical and horizontal integration.

content expertise along the way. “Medicine is becoming more and more complex,” Wong noted. “Even in terms of the knowledge—we know so much more now. But we’re staying with the same duration of time for the education. To produce effective practitioners, we have to change the way we deliver pharmacy education. The whole complexity of the healthcare system itself presents an added layer. We are becoming recognized as more independent practitioners. We have to think outside the box and develop efficient ways to prepare our graduates.”

Wong said one way the school of pharmacy is doing this is through extensive curriculum mapping. In addition, an onsite consultant is training faculty to use a flip model in their courses. This model allows students to prepare some material in advance so class time can be used to concentrate on applications. Maximizing exposure to interprofessional education is also a priority.

Mehvar noted that the curriculum’s evolution is ongoing, with faculty members meeting monthly to review syllabi and

Dr. Siu Fun Wong, associate dean of assessment and scholarship, worked with the other deans and administrators beginning in 2013 to devise a curriculum, and faculty added

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campus connection

“The amount of information from 30 years ago has grown exponentially, but the time to teach it has not expanded. How do we set students on a path so when they graduate they can move on to the next level?” ­— Dr. Sharon Youmans

presenting them to a curriculum management committee for feedback. “We have trimester coordinators who meet before their teaching starts so they can go through the material and refine all the syllabi. They also meet during the trimester to discuss issues that may arise while teaching,” he said. One goal is to promote a culture of assessment with students.

When the trimester ends, students evaluate an instructor’s performance and also share feedback with a self-assessment based on intended learning outcomes. Trimester coordinators exchange information to share what is or isn’t working.

Wong also highlighted the school’s unique utilization of an electronic examination platform that allows for integrated exams and OSCEs that are mapped to student learning outcomes. The format of the integrated exams helps students with time management and prepares them for the board exam. “Each exam item is reviewed by peers,” she explained.

“We’re improving the quality of exam items and providing training for faculty in exam-writing skills. The integrated examination design and set up gives faculty solid informa-

tion to evaluate the courses they have conducted as well as a global picture of the curriculum. We provide a lot of datadriven feedback to the faculty.”

Graduation Preparation Ultimately, curricular change comes down to adding value to students’ education and preparing them for what’s ahead.

UCSF’s Youmans explained that the premise behind the school’s new curriculum is to bridge students to the next level of training. “The amount of information from 30 years ago has grown exponentially, but the time to teach it has not expanded,” she noted. “How do we set students on a path so when they graduate they can move on to the next level?”

Now that pharmacists have greater involvement in patient care with things like managing chronic diseases, students are more often pursuing M.P.H. degrees or Ph.D. work. “How can the Pharm.D. curriculum fast-track students to these programs? Industry leaders are knocking on our doors because we’re right here in Silicon Valley, so we’re strengthening partnerships with them and asking how we can prepare students for their training programs,” Youmans said. The bottom line: At the end of the day, what kind of graduate do you want to produce?

“It’s less about the actual construction as it is the philosophy behind what it is you want to produce,” she said. “We all want highly functional healthcare providers who can address the needs of the 21st century. Once you’ve figured that out, how are you going to get them there?” P Jane E. Rooney is a freelance writer based in Oakton, Virginia.

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Academic Pharmacy NOW  2016 Issue 1

campus connection

A Better Grade Washington State University College of Pharmacy took the road less traveled when it comes to assessing student performance.

In fall 2013, the college shifted from the traditional letter grades, ABC, to competency-based assessment of student performance using an Honors-Satisfactory-Fail (HSF) curricular grading model. It was a necessary change, said Dean Gary Pollack, Ph.D., and one that was made to ensure the school’s graduates are highly competent and ready to meet today’s healthcare challenges.

“Colleges of pharmacy have been asked to deliver curriculums in a competency-based manner for a long time,” he said. “The missing piece was competency-based evaluation of student performance.”

The traditional grading model (also known as grading on a curve) evaluates student performance relative to the performance of other students in the class. With the HSF grading model, one student’s success is not dependent on the poor performance of another student, and the model allows faculty to measure student competency and achievement on well-defined learning objectives.

“This model assures students that if they achieve a certain level of performance then they will get a certain grade, regardless of what anyone else in the course does,” Pollack said.

In order to achieve the “satisfactory” designation, students must score at least 80 percent on assessments (the benchmark is higher for some content).

If a student does not demonstrate competency on initial assessment, they are

offered support through the school’s student services office and encouraged to re-engage with the material and faculty, followed by a retest. If the student does not demonstrate competency a second time, the student is diverted into an extended learning experience.

This assessment model is currently in the third year of a three-year transition and has led to a measurable increase in student retention and cohort performance. The national average “fall behind” rate for pharmacy education is about 10 percent, so about one in 10 students normally do not graduate on time, nationally. Historically, the WSU College of Pharmacy had a slightly better-than-average rate of around seven percent. WSU noticed that student pharmacists are most likely to fall behind between the fall and spring semesters of their first year.

However, within the HSF grading model all student pharmacists have progressed through to the spring semester in their first year (“fall behind” rate equals zero percent) for the last three years running.

“Not one student has fallen behind their cohort in the first semester of their first year for three consecutive years. I think that’s a fairly remarkable outcome,” he said.

WSU is also in its first year of adopting a comprehensive active learning curricular model, which meant eliminating the traditional lecture format for required courses. “The outdated approach of faculty talking for 50 minutes in a classroom wasn’t effective,” Pollack

said. “Students know they can get the material more efficiently elsewhere.

We’re wasting faculty and student time with meaningless experiences.”

So the College of Pharmacy leadership decided to deliver all content outside of the classroom. Class time is now reserved for in-depth learning, problem solving sessions and activities in which students are delving deeply into issues with a faculty member in the room who serves as a guide.

Data from the first semester of implementation is being analyzed to determine its impact, but one initial indicator of the new model’s success comes from a course taught by Pollack. The retest rate for his pharmacokinetics course decreased by 75 percent, a result he wasn’t anticipating to be quite so significant. In the same course, the college examined students separately to see if they could grasp more advanced concepts, which is how they earn their honors designation, and their ability to master more advanced material increased by 20 percent.

“We saw the effects at a competency level and at an advanced level after moving to this curricular delivery approach,” Pollack said. “We may not see similar results in every course in the curriculum, but I was surprised at just how effective this change was.”

Additional reporting by Maureen Thielemans, Associate Director of Communications at AACP and editor of Academic Pharmacy Now.

Academic Pharmacy NOW  2016 Issue 1

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The Future of Interprofessional Education is Now

Mimycx breaks the mold for teaching today’s digital natives the interprofessional competencies they require to be practice-ready and team-ready health professionals.

This interactive learning platform uses video game technology to bring together students from across the health disciplines—and anywhere in the world—to solve real-world scenarios.

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Academic Pharmacy NOW  2016 Issue 1

Backed by research • Serious games can be used to support the development of those 21st century skills necessary for life in modern society.

• Students whose learning includes serious games are more highly motivated and engaged and learn more than those taught using traditional methods.

• Trainees using video games as part of their training had an 11 percent higher factual knowledge, a 14 percent higher skill-based knowledge, and a 9 percent higher retention rate than trainees in comparison groups.

Minimizes scheduling and logistical challenges • Because the Mimycx experience is “virtual,” students engage and learn with counterparts across campus or around the globe • Ideal for campuses with a single health profession program • Students can complete quests outside of classroom time, eliminating the costs, scheduling, and physical space associated with traditional IPE methods

Real-time assessment of student progress

Engages digital natives’ ‘comfort zone’ and learning preferences

• Separate easy-to-use login for instructors • Scores students’ progress in each of the four IPEC core competencies in real time • Allows for longitudinal evaluation

• Today’s students were born in a digital environment surrounded by highly interactive gaming systems • Four out of five U.S. households own a game device • Because of the pervasive presence of technology, students process more information faster and learn differently than most instructors • 30% of gamers are 18 to 35 years old Academic Pharmacy NOW  2016 Issue 1

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Mimycx and IPEC core competencies • The ultimate goal of IPE is to prepare health professions students to work together collaboratively to ensure a safer, patient-centered and communityoriented healthcare system.

• The four core competencies identified by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC)—values & ethics, roles & responsibilities, communications, teams & teamwork—form the basis of each of the Mimycx “quests” • Students from across disciplines must work collaboratively to communicate, plan, exchange ideas, and discuss options for solving the kind of challenges they will face in real-life practice settings.

IPEC Core Competency Domains Specific Competency Statements Quest 1: House Call An unconscious student is found

on campus; the team must investigate the cause of her illness. However, they quickly finds that nothing is as simple as it first appears and danger can come from the most unlikely places.

Values & Ethics VE2 VE5 VE9

Roles & Responsibilities RR1

Communications CC2

Teams & Teamwork TT3 TT4

Quest 2: Sick Beats Concert goers suddenly become

RR9

CC1 CC4 CC5

TT11

Quest 3: The Beast A mysterious death appears to

RR6 RR9

CC3

TT5 TT11

Quest 4: Feeling Alienated Following a shipwreck,

RR9

CC4 CC5

TT10

RR5 RR6

CC1 CC5

TT3

CC1 CC6

TT11

violently sick. Only our team can solve this mystery. Is it food or something else? Can all the team members do their part to figure things out before the last beat drops? be the result of an animal bite. The team must locate the animal in their search to solve the mystery. Students encounter multiple obstacles in their investigation and must show excellent team work, critical thinking, and deductive reasoning. disease has spread in the surrounding area. Players must determine how the two events are connected, develop an antidote for the disease, and treat the patients.

Quest 5: Ethical Evolution A new gene-altering treat-

VE4 VE8

Quest 6: Re-Warding (In Development. Release Date:

VE6

ment is happening in a distant space colony. Is it helpful or harmful? Players will investigate this treatment, determine if is helpful or harmful, and recommend whether it should be continued or banned.

End of February 2016) Players work as a team to improve satisfaction rates among hospital patients. As satisfaction improves, players are allowed to expand the hospital.

More information about IPEC’s Core Competencies and specific competency statements at: https://ipecollaborative.org/uploads/IPEC-Core-Competencies.pdf

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Academic Pharmacy NOW  2016 Issue 1

Faculty development and support • Several multi-media faculty training and development aids are available.

• Additional supplementary resources for incorporating Mimycx into your IPE curriculum are available or are in development.

• Professions Quest staff are available to assist you.

More information Developed by health professionals for health professions students, Mimycx is the product of Professions Quest, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.

Different licensing options are available to meet your school’s unique needs. For more information or to schedule an on-campus demonstration, contact

Richard Bowers National Sales Manager rbowers@professionsquest.com 703-652-7671

professionsquest.com mimycxgame.com

Academic Pharmacy NOW  2016 Issue 1

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@AACPharmacy

Logging On to AACP

HELLO

my name is

Academic Pharmacy Now sat down with the newest staff member to discuss his unique background and work at AACP. Anthony Person, B.S. Information Technology Manager Q: What are your main responsibilities at AACP? I am responsible for the various facets of technology at AACP, from the desktops to the applications that run on them. I also manage the technology service companies that supply our telecommunications, network and database services. I will ensure that all of AACP’s servers are up at all times, including access to the Internet and phone systems.

Q: What previous experiences prepared you for work here?

In the past, I’ve worked with non-profit firms (including nine years with the

National Research Council of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine), as well as technology firms that provide turn-key solutions to organizations such as this one.

Q: Is there anything about yourself that you would like to share?

I love all types of AV systems. In my spare time, I build theater systems in homes, and sound systems primarily in churches. I maintain the sound ministry in my congregation, and used to play ice hockey when I was younger. I also grew up playing in a band.

Tony can be reached by e-mail at aperson@aacp.org or 703-739-2330 ext. 1019.

www.ajpe.org

Help Shape the Future of Pharmacy Become a Reviewer for AJPE A complete list of reviewer instructions can be found on AJPE’s Web site at www.ajpe.org.

You can sign up at any time by contacting Amanda Thomason at athomason@ajpe.org or 703-739-2330 ext. 1049.

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Academic Pharmacy NOW  2016 Issue 1

Spread the Word Tell respected colleagues to review for AJPE, the premier scholarly journal of academic pharmacy. You will be sharing the opportunity to advance professionally while keeping the Journal fresh and relevant with a diversity of ideas from the Academy.

@AACPharmacy

ONLINE REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN

2016 AACP Spring Institute Leading Edge: Transforming Experiential Education The 2016 AACP Spring Institute will focus on transformational change in Experiential Education (EE). Sessions will address leading and facilitating change, which will align EE programs with ACPE Standards, quality assurance, assessments and integration with interprofessional experiences. Utilizing interactive activities, attendee teams will be guided as they prepare action plans to promote change in their home institutions.

Hilton Minneapolis

www.aacp.org/meetingsandevents/2016SpringInstitute

• Member of the school administration

May 23–25, 2016 Suggested Team Members: • EE faculty and staff member

• Preceptor for the program, curriculum

Photo by Adam Brown, Courtesy of Visit Anaheim

committee member or chair

Save the Date! July 23–27 AACP Annual Meeting

Anaheim Marriott & Anaheim Convention Center Academic Pharmacy NOW  2016 Issue 1

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1.577 pt

Join Us to Fight Smoking AACP is partnering with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its 2016 smoking cessation campaign: Tips From Former Smokers (Tips). The campaign features real people whose lives have been impacted by smoking and shows how smoking effects health, lives and families.

Show your support:

Quitting isn’t about what you give up.

It’s about what you get back.

Rebecca, age 57, Florida

• Join the conversation on social media, particularly on Twitter (@CDCTobaccofree #CDCTips) and Facebook (CDC Tobacco Free Facebook).

• Explore the pharmacists page on the Tips campaign website: http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/ campaign/tips/partners/health/pharmacist/

Rebecca struggled with depression. She thought smoking would help, but it just made her more depressed. When she quit smoking it changed her life, mentally and physically. Now she runs 5Ks and hopes to live to be a hundred.

• Incorporate CDC tobacco cessation tools in your curricula

You can quit smoking.

For free help, call

1-800 -QUIT-NOW.

• Promote the campaign’s key messages • Tell AACP about smoking cessation

#CDCTips

Please join this important campaign, and show that pharmacists can help people live healthier, better lives.