Academic Pharmacy Now: 2017 Issue 4

Academic Pharmacy

The News Magazine of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy

NOW

Volume 10 2017 Issue 4

ISO: Next-Gen Pharmacists

AACP and its member schools are reaching out to young adults in innovative ways to promote pharmacy as a career choice. 10

Also in this issue: Heads Above the Rest 5 A Meeting of the Minds at #PharmEd17 24

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

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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.

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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.

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NOW

CEO & Publisher

Lucinda L. Maine

Editorial Director

Lynette R. Bradley-Baker

Editor

Maureen Thielemans

mthielemans@aacp.org

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Kyle R. Bagin

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Academic Pharmacy NOW  2017 Issue 4

Freelance Writer

Athena Ponushis

Freelance Writer

Jane E. Rooney

Volume 10 2017 Issue 4

@AACPharmacy a look inside

community impact

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Heads Above the Rest A Wayne State University researcher is translating basic science knowledge into clinical application, with the hopes of developing better treatments for patients suffering from anxiety disorders.

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“M” Marks the Spot A new finding from the University of California, San Diego went unnoticed for almost a century. It could have broad implications for vaccine design and treatment of toxic shock syndrome.

Confocal microscopy image of strep’s M protein (red) internalized in macrophages (blue).

campus connection

10 ISO: Next-Gen Pharmacists AACP and its member schools are reaching out to young adults in innovative ways to promote pharmacy as a career choice.

@AACPharmacy

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A Meeting of the Minds From opioids to health disparities, the recordsetting Pharmacy Education 2017 brought together an Academy ready to tackle the big issues.

AACP Annual Meeting Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center

Nashville, Tennessee

P

July 15–19, 2017

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community note publisher’s impact

Dear Colleagues: As I reviewed the lead stories for this issue of Academic Pharmacy Now I could not help but reflect back on my own experiences, now aged approximately 40 years, with pharmacy school recruitment activities. The recruitment that worked in my personal case was the enthusiastic response from my family’s pharmacist when I asked about attending pharmacy school. “Oh yes, Lucinda! Pharmacy is great. You study for five years and when you graduate you’ll make $20,000! Oh, and if you want to have a family, pharmacy’s flexibility lets you do that.” I was sold and the rest is history.

nity colleges and other public gatherings. Their message platform is “Pharmacy Is Right for Me” (http://pharmacyforme.org/). AACP has created a network to enable the sharing of recruitment strategies to make it easier to present new and creative information about pharmacy and the exciting career pathways awaiting future graduates. Champions were provided the messages from our #Healthystartshere campaign last spring and summer.

Clearly, our preceptors and alumni are also important audiences so that they spread our positive message to encourage young people they meet to study pharmacy.

The number of years and dollars have obviously changed over the decades, but what would today’s pharmacist say to a Gen Y or Z bringing the same question? I hear rumblings in social media and in professional meetings that our frontline practitioners are not encouraging young people or the parents of rising college students to consider pharmacy. Payment systems that are terribly broken, lack of properly trained help in the face of rising volumes of prescriptions filled and immunizations delivered, poorly designed and compensated MTM programs, and other challenges confront many of today’s community-based practitioners.

There are so many reasons why high school and college students who seek a profession that impacts peoples’ lives should consider pharmacy. Medication use and the optimization of patients’ regimens is central to safe, high quality healthcare. Policy makers at all levels of the public and private sector are coming to the realization that pharmacists are vital to achieving our triple aims of patient satisfaction, positive outcomes and cost effective care.

Sincerely,

Colleges and schools of pharmacy must consider how these attitudes of our frontline ambassadors can influence our own recruitment efforts. Our 130-plus National Recruitment Champions are ramping up their efforts to reach new audiences in middle and high schools, commu-

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

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Academic Pharmacy NOW  2017 Issue 4

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community impact

Heads Above the Rest A Wayne State University researcher is translating basic science knowledge into clinical application, with the hopes of developing better treatments for patients suffering from anxiety disorders.

By Maureen Thielemans Dr. Christine A. Rabinak has always been passionate about psychology, especially learning and memory. But in her early training as a basic scientist, she was used to conducting research on animals in a lab, studying how their brains encode different types of associative learning. Think Pavlov’s dogs, but instead of associating a bell with food, rodents were linking fear to a benign environmental cue that happened to be present during a traumatic event.

Rabinak’s research was producing outcomes that had the potential to significantly impact treatment for patients suffering from traumas, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder, but one key component was missing from her lab work: humans.

Making the Leap From Rodents to Humans

those who respond to treatment, what are the changes in the brain after treatment compared to before treatment that might be linked to relief of symptoms? Second, is there a particular pattern of brain activation before treatment that could predict who might not respond to treatment?

The opportunity to work in clinical research came during a three-year postdoc, which began at the Mental Health Service in the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System under the mentorship of Dr. K. Luan Phan. There she assisted with a research study of Veterans “This was my first experience with returning from Iraq and Afghanistan human research and it was definitely who were exposed to combat-related eye-opening,” she said. Approximately trauma and had developed PTSD. a year later, she was accepted as a Postdoctoral Translational Scholar in The research team examined images the Michigan Institute for Clinical & of Veterans’ brains prior to and upon Health Research (MICHR), an NIHcompletion of a 12-week SSRI treatsupported institutional postdoctoral ment to understand how their brain fellowship program which provided her and symptoms changed as a result of with even more clinical immersion. “I treatment. Rabinak and her colleagues did everything I could—participated in were looking at two things: First, for

“I felt so far removed from what an actual clinical application might be,” she said. “I kept thinking, ‘Is this what someone with PTSD is experiencing?’”

To answer that question, and more like it, she knew the next step in her career should be to expand her research toolbox, learn new skills, and translate the data she was seeing in animals into future patient treatments.

From left: Klaramari Gellci, undergraduate honors student; Farrah Elrahal, clinical coordinator; and Allesandra Iadipaolo, full-time research assistant, handed out information and recruited veterans interested in participating in TNP2 lab research at the Wayne State University Student Veteran’s Organization “Welcome Back” event.

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community impact

clinic team meetings, watched clinical assessments and exposure-based therapies, spoke to patients suffering from anxiety and mood disorders. It gave me an appreciation for the condition and the way we approach treatment for those suffering from this condition. I knew I wanted to keep working with patients and come up with new ways to think about some of these problems.”

Pharmacy Was the Right Fit Rabinak knew she wanted to continue working with patients in a collaborative environment but also in one that would allow her to flourish as an independent investigator. A search for positions in neuroscience at Wayne State led her to a posting for a faculty position with a research focus in neuroscience within the Department of Pharmacy Practice.

The fit seemed perfect: She was bringing a neuroscience perspective to the pharmacy curriculum while expanding the department’s research portfolio and filling a need for trauma-related research in the Detroit area.

“Because neuroscience is such a broad area, it cuts across many different disciplines,” she noted. “We’re getting to a point where we need to show that what we’re doing in animal models is applicable to human trials. But before drugs are marketed for treatment, we must understand what a drug is doing at the basic level before we assume it will work for some people and without caring about the long-term effect. We [researchers] have a duty to the general public to bridge that gap. Moving forward from basic science research is key.”

Dr. Christine A. Rabinak’s Translational Neuropsychopharmacology Lab examines the behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms underlying emotional processing and fear. In one project, the lab is looking at the role of the cannabinoid system in the brain as a treatment for PTSD.

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A Look Inside the Lab

from functioning properly in animal models showed that there was an initial suppression of fear but when tested later, they presented a recovery of fear responses. When doing the reverse— activating that system by administering THC—the animals showed an extinction of fear and a maintenance of that extinction over time.

Now the director of the Translational Neuropsychopharmacology Lab (TNP2 Lab; www.tnp2lab.org), Rabinak has merged her training in basic and translational research to lead efforts aimed at understanding and treating a number of anxiety disorders. In one such project, the TNP2 lab is currently looking at the role of the cannabinoid “It seems counterintuitive but this is system in the brain in the treatment the first evidence suggesting that if you for PTSD. Cannabinoid receptors are activate the cannabinoid system prior one of the most numerous receptors to extinction of fear, you can actually in the brain and play a significant role facilitate the long-term retention of in the control of other neurotransmitthe good memory,” Rabinak explained. ter systems. Studies indicate that the “What’s key is that when people with cannabinoid system is disrupted in PTSD undergo exposure therapy, mood-related disorders and knowing they’ll be able to suppress fear during that people will self-medicate with can- the session, but their maintenance to nabis to alleviate anxiety and elevate the next session is not sustained, and mood, Rabinak is exploring the role a so they retain those anxious or fearcannabis-like substance can play in the ful feelings. We need to maintain the treatment of these disorders. therapeutic gains over time.”

Using exposure-based therapy, researchers repeatedly expose subjects to the reminders of the traumatic event, like sounds, smells, remembering the event, that make them anxious or fearful in order to help them try to suppress or control those feelings.

The cannabinoid system in the brain is critical for this type of learning, Rabinak said. Blocking this system

Using a low dose of synthetic THC that doesn’t produce any psychoactive impairments, Rabinak began testing her theory in healthy people and those with PTSD. The healthy controls who received THC prior to extinction therapy showed lower fear responses than the people who had a placebo. When she conducted the same trial in those with PTSD, who struggle to maintain

community impact

“We’re getting to a point where we need to show that what we’re doing in animal models is applicable to human trials. But before drugs are marketed for treatment, we must understand what a drug is doing at the basic level before we assume it will work for some people and without caring about the long-term effect.” ­— Dr. Christine A. Rabinak

the extinction of fear over time, those who received THC showed a suppression of fear compared to those who received a placebo and exhibited a recovery of fear.

“People mistake what I’m doing as advocating for medical marijuana as a treatment for PTSD, but it’s not about treating symptoms, it’s about targeting the system in a different way,” she said.

“Because current prescription drugs just treat symptoms, they serve as a band aid. The same can be said for medical marijuana—it’s just a band aid unless

you use it to get at the root of the problem. Here we are using cannabis-like drugs as an adjunct to therapy to boost learning. The idea is that we’re trying to give people their lives back.”

Research Meets the Real World Rabinak welcomes opportunities to share outcomes from her work with external groups, whether it’s within the research community or to local audiences. It’s these experiences that remind her who she’s ultimately trying to help: patients.

At a poster session hosted by a Department of Defense PTSD working group, a wounded veteran approached her on crutches. He was intrigued by her findings, curious to learn more about the THC treatment, and thankful for the work she’s doing in her lab.

“He said he’d like to have something that he wouldn’t have to rely on for the rest of his life to feel OK,” she said.

“Those moments remind you why you’re doing what you’re doing.” P Maureen Thielemans is Associate Director of Communications at AACP.

Name: Christine A. Rabinak, Ph.D.

TNP2 Lab Numbers:

Titles: Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice, Wayne State University Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences; Assistant Professor, Translational Neuroscience Program, Wayne State University School of Medicine; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine

funding from NIH, Brain & Behavioral Research Foundation, the American Cancer Society, and St. Baldrick’s Foundation

Director, Translational Neuropsychopharmacology Lab Lab Web site: www.tnp2lab.org

More than $3.5 million: research

17 total team members: 1: Pharm.D. student in the Research Scholars Program, Ashley Blanchette 1: Postdoctoral research fellow, Dr. Hilary Marusak 8: Undergraduate research assistants: 1: Completing an honors thesis 4: In the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program 2: Clinical psychology graduate students 3: Full-time paid research staff 1: Part-time volunteer research assistant

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community impact

“M” Marks the Spot A new finding from the University of California, San Diego went unnoticed for almost a century. It could have broad implications for vaccine design and treatment of toxic shock syndrome.

By Heather Buschman, Ph.D. Group A Streptococcus bacteria—the cause of strep throat and flesh-eating infections—have been well-studied for nearly a century. But researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences recently made a surprising discovery: strep’s M protein alone wipes out macrophages, but not other types of immune cells. The macrophages’ self-sacrifice serves as an early warning of infection to the rest of the immune system.

A Fresh Look The study, published Aug. 7 in Nature Microbiology, revealed new roles for the well-studied M protein and for macrophages. The researchers said this new information should inform current strep vaccine strategies, many of which are based on M protein, and new treatment approaches for invasive infections and toxic shock syndrome, where hyper-immune responses can be detrimental.

M protein, an abundant, tentaclelike molecule that projects from the bacterium’s surface, is strep’s most important virulence factor. M protein is known to help the bacteria adhere to human tissues, make it harder for immune cells to engulf the bacteria, and bind or inhibit other components of the human immune system, such as antibodies and antimicrobial peptides.

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“We thought we already knew pretty much everything there was to know about how M protein helps strep gain a foothold in the human body and avoid the immune system, so this was a totally unexpected discovery, and an especially dramatic thing for an immune cell to do,” said Dr. Victor Nizet, professor of pediatrics and pharmacy, who led the study with Dr. Partho Ghosh, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC San Diego.

Rapid Response After noticing that macrophages in a laboratory dish quickly died after M protein exposure, the researchers wanted to determine why—and why it happens only to macrophages. They found that macrophages recognize strep bacteria and respond by activating genes that encode IL-1beta, a pro-inflammatory signaling molecule, and components of NLRP3, cellular machinery that manages inflammation. At the same time, these macrophages also gobble up M proteins freed from the bacterial cell surface, triggering a second signal required for NLRP3 activation.

As a result, macrophages quickly release IL-1beta as a warning signal to other parts of the immune system, but at a cost to themselves: They commit cellular suicide in the process, further escalating the inflammatory response.

Inflammation is good when fighting an infection, but too much can lead to a number of health problems.

“So you can see this as a beneficial early warning system for infection, like Paul Revere riding out with a lantern to warn that the British are coming,” Nizet said. “The problem is that if a million people — or a million macrophages — light lanterns all at once and hay catches fire, then you’re in trouble.”

Here’s how that played out in living systems: While macrophages in a laboratory dish infected with live normal strep bacteria spew IL-1beta and then commit suicide, strep engineered to lack M protein do not have the same effect. Likewise, mice administered with purified M protein alone produced significantly more IL-1beta than mice that received a control. The more M protein they received, the more IL-1beta they generated.

According to Nizet, these findings underscore the significant role strep and M protein have played in human history — important enough that the human immune system has evolved a rapid response system just for them.

Finding the Balance Dr. J. Andrés Valderrama, a postdoctoral researcher in Nizet’s research group and first author of the study, described the future of this work.

“Our study suggests that targeting M proteins with vaccines or antibodies or blocking the way macrophages bring it into the cell might prove clinically

community impact

“We thought we already knew pretty much everything there was to know about how M protein helps strep gain a foothold in the human body and avoid the immune system,” said Dr. Victor Nizet, right.

“So this was a totally unexpected discovery, and an especially dramatic thing for an immune cell to do.”

useful in cases where hyper-inflammation has become a problem, such as in an invasive infection or toxic shock syndrome,” he said. “But it’s a delicate balance — we don’t want to block the early warning signal altogether or the immune system would lose its first line of defense against strep.”

M protein is under active consideration as a vaccine antigen. The challenge is that human antibodies generated against M protein can cross-react with host tissue, leading to rheumatic fever, an autoimmune disease. UC, San Diego and other researchers are looking for workarounds and ways to engineer out the immunogenic parts of the M protein.

In the meantime, Nizet and Valderrama are also working to better understand how M proteins and macrophages interact. To that end, they’ve created a library of macrophage variants, each with a different gene mutated using the gene editing technique CRISPR-Cas9. They’ll test each variant to find those that are resistant to M protein-induced suicide. Their findings may surface more molecular players in this early warning system and thus provide more therapeutic targets for invasive strep infections and toxic shock syndrome.

And their quest is urgent: Group A strep is responsible for more than 700 million infections worldwide each year,

with an estimated 663,000 cases of invasive disease and 163,000 deaths.

Study co-authors also include: Angelica M. Riestra, Nina J. Gao, Christopher N. LaRock, Naveen Gupta, Syed Raza Ali, and Hal M. Hoffman, all at UC San Diego.

This research was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health (AI096837, AI077780, AI52430, K12GM068524, T32GM008666), UC San Diego Global Health Institute and A.P. Giannini Foundation. P This article was reprinted and adapted with permission from the University of California, San Diego Health Newsroom.

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campus connection

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campus connection

ISO: Next-Gen Pharmacists AACP and its member schools are reaching out to young adults in innovative ways to promote pharmacy as a career choice.

By Jane Rooney, Maureen Thielemans and Kyle R. Bagin

The long-range forecast for employment in the healthcare industry looks promising. It is projected to be among the fastest-growing industries in the economy and to add more jobs by 2024 (approximately 2.3 million) than any other industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The field offers job stability; people depend on health services no matter what the economic climate.

An aging population with more chronic conditions means the need for healthcare providers is on the rise. BLS employment projections indicate that personal care aides and home health aides are the healthcare jobs with the largest projected growth from 2014 to 2024. Nursing assistants and registered nurses aren’t far behind. So what about pharmacy’s prospects as a career option?

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Pharmacists work in a respected field and are well compensated, with the second-highest annual average wages among the 10 largest healthcare occupations, according to BLS data from 2014. “I think that the ability to serve the public and know that you are helping people to prevent, manage and cure disease is probably where the rewards truly lie,” said AACP CEO Dr. Lucinda L. Maine. Spreading this message to young adults in middle and high school to promote pharmacy as a career choice is a top priority for AACP. If high school students have given any thought to a career in pharmacy, Maine noted, it has most likely been in the context of seeing someone behind the counter in a white coat in a retail establishment. “That looks more like retail than healthcare,” she said. “If you walk by that space and look at what [that person] is doing, a quick glance doesn’t look very interesting. We’ve got to use different strategies, different stories that bring it to life and also bring an understanding that that’s not the only place a pharmacy graduate goes. This is the most publicly accessible person in healthcare. You can access that person anytime without an appointment. That’s a powerful message, but we haven’t turned it to the public successfully to promote it as a profession.”

Partnering with member colleges and faculty to take a national/local approach to enhance the applicant pipeline is crucial, Maine continued. “I think what we’ve recognized as

we’ve studied pipeline issues is that we needed to increase our recruitment activity and we needed to help support and stimulate expanded recruitment activities in our 142 schools of pharmacy,” she said. “That became priority No. 1 in AACP’s strategic plan. We rebranded our Pharmacy Is Right for Me (Pharm4Me) program. That provides consistent tools for us that are also available to our members to use in their recruitment activities.

“Priority No. 2,” she continued, “is to help the public understand what pharmacy education prepares them to do. The public view is still very limited. In May we launched another digital campaign, Healthy Starts Here, with our Brand Ambassadors. These individuals use their digital network outreach. In two months we reached nearly 450,000 users on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We couldn’t come close to that kind of reach on our own. If we keep up a welldesigned, sustained effort in both portfolios, we will change an important public understanding about pharmacy, including roles that haven’t even been invented yet.”

AACP and its member schools might face an uphill battle to build a more robust applicant pool. “There is a piece of it that’s beyond our control,” Maine acknowledged. “Demographically what we know is that there are simply fewer people coming out of high school—it’s the smallest numeric cohort in a long time. They happen to be more diverse. We continued on page 14

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campus connection

“[Pharmacy] is the most publicly accessible person in healthcare. You can access that person anytime without an appointment. That’s a powerful message, but we haven’t turned it to the public successfully to promote it as a profession.” ­— Dr. Lucinda L. Maine

Enriching the Research Workforce One Grant at a Time

By Kirsten F. Block As academic pharmacy grapples with issues surrounding the Pharm.D. pipeline, the research community also finds itself facing a potential workforce shortage if more is not done to stimulate broader participation in research.

Many funding agencies like the National Institutes of Health are devoting significant resources to address the need to identify and nurture students’ interests in STEM. For all the grant funding NIH awards to support workforce development, there must be principal investigators leading the charge at academic institutions. One such PI on a mission to grow the research workforce is Dr. Andrij Holian, professor and director of the Center for Environmental Health Sciences at The University of Montana Skaggs School of Pharmacy.

“I think it was shortly after we started the Center that I thought about what the broader mission of having a center really meant: that we have a responsibility to increase the flow of students into research careers.”

For Holian, this responsibility led to a number of funded initiatives, each aimed at a different age group. Early NIH funding enabled undergraduates to engage in both laboratory research and professional development training to prepare them for success in graduate education. Shortly thereafter, another grant facilitated similarly authentic laboratory experiences for high school students with a goal to showcase the promise of research careers. Additional funding allowed Holian to develop video games that simulate scientific problem solving for middle school and upper elementary students, an age group that often starts to lose the “why this?” questioning that is a hallmark of both childhood development and the scientific process.

“The whole idea is that there needs to be multiple mechanisms for stimulating interests of students into pursuing science careers, and you really can’t start too early,” he said. “There are different purposes and goals for each grant and age group. It is

important to see the connectedness between and the goals of each of those age groups and what you should try to accomplish with each.”

Holian’s workforce development efforts also enhance the training of current graduate students and postdoctoral fellows at the Center. In Holian’s lab, high school and undergraduate students work directly with graduate students and postdocs on their projects. “A high school student relating to me is going to be much more difficult than a high school student relating to an undergraduate student or an undergraduate student relating to a graduate student, so you have to use near-peer mentoring.

It gives postdocs and graduate students a very clear role and responsibility, and it helps prepare them for their professional careers.”

Because some of these budding researchers go on to pursue a Pharm.D. degree, building the research workforce should be a part of every school’s mission. “Very clearly, research is much more interdisciplinary or it definitely needs to be interdisciplinary to move forward. So, to the extent that we can get more research pharmacists engaged, I think it’s only going to be beneficial in the long run. It can’t be anything else but beneficial,” said Holian. When pharmacists are a part of the research team, scientific discovery and innovation wins.

With strengthening the scientific workforce a part of the NIH-wide strategic plan, the timing is right for more pharmacy faculty to engage in NIH-funded outreach opportunities. Says Holian, “It’s a terrific opportunity to get substantial funding to develop these types of programs. They take a lot of effort, so you have to want to do it. It has to be part of the mission.” For Holian and many others across academic pharmacy, it’s mission accepted.

Kirsten F. Block is Associate Director of Research and Graduate Programs at AACP.

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Reaching Students With Research

By Maureen Thielemans Public school students in San Bernadino, Calif. don’t often have opportunities to learn about careers in pharmacy, healthcare or any science-related field for that matter. For these students, and for others in economically depressed areas in the country, a chance to see pharmacy research in action can give them a boost out of the minimum-wage paying environment. One special program offered at Indian Springs High School, in partnership with the Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy, aims to do that.

Dr. Willie Davis, director of academic support and associate professor, and Sara Solak, lab assistant, teach a course at Indian Springs to approximately 15-20 juniors and seniors enrolled in the school’s two-year biotech program. Starting with little-to-no knowledge about a laboratory, they learn how to use scientific equipment, do calculations and practice general lab safety before they’re turned loose in the lab to do more robust work focused on the pharmacogenomics of obesity, said Davis. Students identify the different families of organisms in their microbiome using PCR-based techniques after extracting DNA from saliva. There’s an experiential component for the seniors, as well, in which they spend 60 hours in our laboratory at the Loma Linda School of Pharmacy, where they contribute to our ongoing obesity research project. This experience is often what’s most impactful, Davis said. Unless they’ve visited for healthcarerelated reasons, this may be the first time they’ve stepped foot on an academic health sciences center.

To date, 30 students have graduated from the biotechnology program. Some of these students have enrolled in universities such as UCLA, and other local universities and community colleges. Davis stays connected with them while in college, and a few have come back to Loma Linda during the summer.

For most of the students, their only exposure to pharmacy has been at a local chain to pick up a prescription. Working in a lab on personalized medicine was never something they thought was part of a career in pharmacy. “Students get exposure they never would have gotten and it solidifies their interest in science.

This is a key first step to filling the pharmacy pipeline because the basis of pharmacy practice is science. You have to understand the biological and chemical basis of life.”

After seeing the tremendous impact the program has had on Indian Springs’ students, Davis hopes to replicate the program for other schools in the San Bernadino community.

“It is by far the best thing I do during my year,” he said. “I have the most fun doing it because I know that we’re helping kids achieve something who are in a challenged situation. I was once in a similar situation as these students, and it’s primarily because of the mentoring of my professors that I ended up here.

Somebody recognized something in me.”

Maureen Thielemans is Associate Director of Communications at AACP.

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know that underrepresented minorities may have issues associated with leaving home and going to college [e.g., familial, socioeconomic], so we’re competing with all disciplines to attract the best and brightest to pharmacy.” Application data indicate that around 2010, the number of applications to pharmacy schools flattened. Since then, the number has decreased from about 85,000 applications to 65,000 for the most recent cycle. Maine said that can be attributed partly to the choice by many schools to move to an early-decision model. “The average number of applications has fallen from six per applicant to four,” she said. “Some schools are not filling their seats.”

Diversity Matters Part of AACP’s goal to attract young adults to the field includes reaching a more diverse applicant pool. “Pharmacists need to be accessible to all sorts of people,” said Dr. Cecilia M. Plaza, AACP’s senior director of academic affairs. “It benefits the patients to have members of their community represented in their healthcare providers. A diverse student pool helps the students understand the facets of diversity. It gives you a richer understanding when you want to figure out how best to apply care. It benefits everybody when there’s more diversity, regardless of the field.”

To boost recruitment efforts, AACP plans to use the Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs), which take educational outcomes and operationalizes them into tasks and gets at the core of what pharmacists are capable of doing.

Plaza said the document is more accessible to the media, future students and other audiences, and will help eliminate misconceptions about a pharmacist’s role. AACP will use that document to help tell the story about what pharmacists do.

campus connection

“A diverse student pool helps the students understand the facets of diversity. It gives you a richer understanding when you want to figure out how best to apply care. It benefits everybody when there’s more diversity, regardless of the field.” ­— Dr. Cecilia M. Plaza

A former community pharmacist, Plaza saw firsthand that when someone isn’t exposed to diversity, misunderstandings and assumptions occur that can lead to patients being treated poorly. With research showing that diversity improves outcomes, she suggested that schools need to adjust their strategies so they don’t miss out on recruiting talented students. For example, she pointed out, some Hispanic and Latino students tend to go to college part-time. “How do we adjust professional programs for students who aren’t able to go full-time? The more students are exposed to diversity, the more they learn about those things before they get out into practice. We’re really missing out on a wealth of experience if we don’t recruit diverse students.”

Laying Claim to STEM As Maine noted, students who choose a career in healthcare often do so because they want to help people. But, “in order to be competitive, they have to have been pretty good students in a science-laden curriculum beginning at the high school level (if not before) on into the pre-professional years,” she added. A healthcare provider is often “someone who has a unique aptitude for science and wants to use it for taking care of people.” Given the heavy focus on science, pharmacy seems like a natural fit for STEM categorization, but BLS isn’t clear on how it defines STEM occupations.

Data reveal that states with higher shares of STEM jobs had higher wages and that STEM jobs had above-average growth.

There were 8.6 million STEM jobs as of May 2015, representing 6.2 percent of U.S. employment. Maine said there is a push to get girls interested in STEM careers, but the focus is often on IT jobs (seven out of 10 of the largest STEM occupations were computer-related, according to the latest BLS report). She said she plans to work with other healthcare associations to create materials that convey the message that healthcare is STEM. AACP began working with a marketing group last spring to identify the best methods for reaching young adults and their parents with messaging about pharmacy careers. Over

the next several months, AACP staff will use those findings to roll out a strategy that will guide recruitment efforts.

Maine said this team “will help plan our outreach activities to science teachers and guidance counselors to make sure they have the right information and that they share the message that pharmacy is STEM.”

AACP’s Role in Recruitment Katie Owings, AACP’s associate director of student affairs, is working on several fronts to help pharmacy schools reach out to young adults to enhance the pharmacy career pipeline. “While high school is a big target zone, ideally we should be starting younger,” Owings said. “The Pharm4Me recruitment campaign is targeted to middle and high school students as well as parents and educators.” Here are some of the association’s ongoing efforts: •

Pharmacy Is For Me (Pharm4Me) recruitment campaign. AACP leads this national effort to promote the field of pharmacy. It provides students, parents and educators with interactive tools, first-person testimonials and information about what options exist, demonstrating all the different career opportunities and fields that someone who goes into pharmacy could potentially pursue. Part of AACP’s strategic plan included rebranding the Pharm4Me Web site and revamping its social media platform to make the campaign more widespread.

•

Innovation Challenge. Applications are due in February 2018 for this Pharm4Me competition for high school students and current student pharmacists, which encourages them to partner to identify medication or health-related problems in the community and develop innovative solutions. The goal is to expose high school students to pharmacy and get current students to recognize the importance of recruitment efforts.

•

Pharm4Me Champions. While AACP is heavily involved in this effort, Owings said, “our member colleges need to be involved as well to be the boots on the ground and

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campus connection

Alex Aljets and Hetty Ha, National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions liaisons to AACP, pose with a new Pharmacy is Right For Me display banner.

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Academic Pharmacy NOW  2017 Issue 4

get out there promoting the profession of pharmacy and pharmacy careers.” Every school is asked to identify a Pharm4Me Champion who will host one or two events a year in their community. It’s preferred that the individual is a pharmacist, but if not, it would be someone on staff who works relatively closely with admissions and/or recruitment at the institution. Events are targeted toward high school students. Pharm4Me Champions are encouraged to be creative when developing events.

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Jeffrey Ekoma, AACP policy and professional affairs manager, showcases Pharmacy Is Right For Me-branded materials at the HOSA Future Health Professionals conference, this June in Orlando.

•

Exhibiting at conferences. AACP exhibits heavily at several conferences, including the USA Science & Engineering Festival, which includes elementary, middle and high school students (AACP provides a fun activity demonstration); the National HOSA Conference; the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions; and the American School Counselor Association to make school counselors aware that pharmacists are available for career days, demonstrations, talks about prescription drug abuse, etc.

campus connection

Leading By Example Godwin explained. “For instance, we have the students make The University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy has lip balm. It’s a simple compound. We talk about pharmacy in one of the most diverse student populations in the country. age-appropriate presentations.

But when the Pharm.D. program started in 1996, it was not a very diverse class and it had a high population of out-of-state “New Mexico is a very big state but it has a small population,” students. “When a new dean came in, he made a commithe continued. “We have very small towns and villages in New ment to make the college of pharmacy look like New Mexico,” Mexico and so as much as possible we like to bring a student said Dr. Donald Godwin, interim dean. “We really started to with us from that area when we go give presentations. If we increase recruitment efforts throughout the state, all the way can bring a pharmacy student who was exactly where they to middle schools. We have a pipeline program that reaches were not too long ago, that pharmacy student can say, ‘I did it, middle school and high school to get kids interested in pharyou can too.’ That’s very powerful to the younger students.” macy.” Thanks to those efforts, the UNM College of Pharmacy Godwin also recently reached out to alumni in the state (66 was one of the recipients of the 2016 Higher Education Excelpercent of practicing pharmacists in the state are UNM alums) lence in Diversity Award. It is also one of only a few pharmacy with the news that class size is down and asked them to help schools in the country where no single ethnic group makes up get students interested in pharmacy. “If we find out there’s a majority. The student population breakdown is approximatea career fair in a high school, now we’re having our alums ly 45 percent Hispanic, 32 percent White, 10 percent American go with materials, brochures, a compounding kit and using Indian and the remaining percentage a combination of Asian Pharm4Me materials so they have the tools to get students and African-American students. excited about pharmacy.” He got a good response, with 50 or “When patients are treated by someone from a similar ethnic 60 pharmacists agreeing to participate. “We’re doubling down or racial background, or even a similar geographical region, I on our recruitment to get students interested in pharmacy,” think that leads to better patient care,” Godwin said. Being Godwin said. “I want these kids to say, ‘I want to be a pharmaexposed to diversity helps you understand other people’s cist when I grow up.’” values and beliefs, he added, which allows pharmacists to provide better care. All UNM pharmacy students are required to do at least one rural rotation so they gain experience working in a small town.

The pipeline program that fostered UNM’s diversity recruitment success is Dream Makers Health Careers Program, a joint effort between the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center Office of Diversity and several school districts throughout New Mexico. Dream Makers provides middle and high school students with unique opportunities to gain exposure to the many possibilities in the health profession. “We go to these schools and make presentations,”

“We really started to increase recruitment efforts throughout the state, all the way to middle schools,” said Dr. Donald Godwin, interim dean. One effort was through the Dream Makers Health Careers Program, a collaborative pipeline program between UNM and several school districts.

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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Program: Healthcare Diversity Summer Camp Program liaison: Dr. Lakesha Butler, Clinical Associate Professor

Program length: A five-day, four-night week during the summer.

Target audience and age of participants: Rising minority high school juniors and seniors, with an interest in pursuing a career in healthcare. “The camp started in 2009 as a pharmacy diversity camp. But in talking with colleagues across healthcare fields, we found they had the same issue of wanting to increase the diversity of their student body. So we partnered with our schools of nursing and dental medicine in 2013 to create the newly-revamped Healthcare Diversity Summer Camp.”

Program activity highlights: “As a residential camp, students stay on campus for four nights in freshman housing.

Monday is dedicated to learning about university services, organizations, admissions and life as an undergrad; particularly as a healthcare undergrad. Tuesday is our nursing day…

Wednesday, our dental day, etc.”

“On Thursday, our pharmacy day, we provide the participants hands-on experiences. For instance, they get to learn about, and check, blood pressure and blood glucose; they learn how to do a foot exam and heel scan. They also learn how to use asthma inhalers. CPR training, administered by the faculty at the pharmacy school, is a recent addition to the pharmacy day. These are just some of the stations, but they really get a chance to see that as pharmacists, our roles are certainly pretty limitless. We tend to see students are pretty blown away by what pharmacists can do. Additionally, the students participate in an ACT review on the final day of the camp to help improve their readiness for the standardized test.”

Number of student participants during each session; number of total participants over tenure of program: “On average, we take about 20 students per year; so with the growth in the program, we’ve had approximately 140 total.”

Keys to program success: “Each year, we conduct a preand post-survey with our participants—to measure student attitudes from the end compared to the beginning of the

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camp. We have found students’ knowledge and interest in all three healthcare careers increases significantly.”

Program outcomes and future outlook: “I have a pharmacy student currently researching ‘where are they now?’ as a capstone project, to assess the number of previous participants who are in pharmacy school or any other healthcare school across the country. We had our first previous participant, who attended the camp in 2011, to graduate from our pharmacy school program this year in 2017. Currently, we have approximately 10 previous participant students in our pre-pharmacy program.”

Learn more: http://bit.ly/APNSIUE

University of Connecticut Programs: Aetna Health Care Professions Partnership Initiative Academy Program Summer Tour and Pre-College Summer at UConn

Program liaisons: Dr. Phil Hritcko, Associate Dean and Associate Clinical Professor, and Dr. Kyle Hadden, Associate Professor Programs’ length: Now in its second year with the School of Pharmacy, the Aetna Summer Tour brings 70 students to the UConn campus for a one-day event also held in partnership with the School of Nursing. For the Pre-College Summer at UConn, which held its first program in July, 15 students live on campus for one week.

Target audience and age of participants: Aetna Summer Tour: Middle and high school students from the greater Hartford area. Pre-College Summer at UConn: Rising high school juniors and seniors from Connecticut and around the country.

Program activity highlights: The Summer Tour, which is supported by Aetna in conjunction with UConn, provides an opportunity for students in underserved areas in and around Hartford to learn about the pharmacy and nursing professions.

Within the nursing simulation lab, students practice wound care, take blood pressure and mimic activities in an intensive care unit, all while learning how pharmacy and nursing work together to address different types of patient scenarios. At the School of Pharmacy, students participate in the MyDispense program, work in the compounding lab making lip balm and much more. “It gives them the ability to touch and feel things,” said Hritcko, “which is really powerful.”

campus connection

In partnership with the University of Connecticut, the Aetna Health Care Professions Partnership Initiative Academy Program Summer Tour provides an opportunity for students in underserved areas around Hartford to experience the pharmacy and nursing professions.

Students in the Pre-College Summer at UConn spend time learning about drug discovery and development, patent generation, as well as opportunities available in various practice settings. Twenty-five hours during the week are spent in class and eight are spent in the lab. “The students conducted experiments designed to test compounds as potential anti-cancer agents and then were given a broad overview of everything related to drugs, from development to dispensing to working with patients,” said Hadden. Outside of his class, students worked in small, one-hour workshops led by other pharmacy faculty members addressing immunizations and prevention, drug discovery and formulation.

Breakthrough moment for students: Hritcko believes the device workshop is a true eye-opener for the Summer Tour students. They learn about everything from inhalers to epi pens to administering naloxone. “They’re really intrigued by the different mechanisms whereby medications are delivered,” he said.

Among the topics that the Pre-College Summer at UConn group found most interesting was how the pharmaceutical industry develops a drug based on the needs of a population base, and why current student pharmacists chose pharmacy as a career path. “The students enjoyed hearing from our students on what led them to pharmacy school and how they plan to work with patients in the future,” Hadden said.

The Pre-College Summer Program at UConn aims to show rising high school juniors and seniors both the science and patient care sides to pharmacy.

Keys to program success: Making the activities more hands-on and interactive has really energized the Summer Tour students, Hritcko said. Also, faculty members at the School of Pharmacy serve as mentors.

The Pre-College Summer at UConn addresses both the basic science and patient care sides of pharmacy, which Hadden says made it interesting for students. It was so successful that the school may offer two distinct pharmacy tracks for students next year.

Program outcomes and future outlook: With the goal of opening young adults’ eyes to opportunities available in the pharmacy profession, Hritcko hopes they’ve inspired some students in the two years since the Aetna Summer Tour’s inception. “By exposing students to the all the ways pharmacists can make a difference, you hope they discover more about themselves and their interests.”

Having just completed its inaugural week-long program, the Pre-College Summer at UConn is still a few years away from collecting any data from potential future applicants, but Hadden noticed a few students stand out from the crowd. “Right now it’s about these students getting comfortable with a college campus and learning about science,” he said. “That said, there were about 4 to 5 students who I wouldn’t be surprised to see in three years as part of the pre-pharmacy program.”

Learn more: http://bit.ly/APNUConn Academic Pharmacy NOW  2017 Issue 4

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campus connection

University of Colorado Programs: CU Pre-Health Scholars Program and Undergraduate Pre-Health Program

Program liaison: Dominic Martinez, Senior Director, Office of Inclusion and Outreach, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

Programs’ length: Students enroll in the Pre-Health Scholars Program as freshmen in high school and complete the program as seniors. The Undergraduate Pre-Health Program runs for 13 months, beginning with the academic year.

Target audience and age of participants: High school students apply to participate in the Pre-Health Scholars Program while students from universities throughout Colorado are eligible to apply for the Undergraduate Pre-Health Program.

Program activity highlights: The Pre-Health Scholars Program focuses on preparing high school students for un-

dergraduate education and beyond, exposing them to career opportunities within the healthcare fields and providing them with a set of tools they can use after they graduate to help facilitate the college application process. The curriculum for each 45-student cohort is different, focusing on various skill development depending on grade level. During two Saturday academies per month, freshmen discuss nutrition and wellness, sophomores and juniors focus on SAT prep and enhanced study skills while seniors learn about scholarship prep and preparing essays for college applications. Parents participate in the Saturday academies with students, and for juniors and seniors, they can take college-level courses on the alternate Saturdays for credit.

The Undergraduate Pre-Health Program began in 2006 in partnership with Kaiser Permanente. Approximately 35 students are selected to participate, some of which are graduates of the Pre-Health Scholars Program. The Undergraduate Program also provides participants with the necessary tools to be a qualified applicant to a professional program or grad-

The CU Pre-Health Scholars Program exposes Colorado high school students to healthcare career opportunities, and provides college application and undergraduate preparation to set them on a course for success.

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campus connection

uate school. Students take part in Saturday academies, which address important application skills such as mock interviews and writing a personal statement, but also introduce health disparities awareness through required journal readings, for example.

Breakthrough moment for students: The School of Pharmacy has partnered with the Pre-Health Scholars Program since its inception in 2004. Student pharmacists serve as peer mentors and faculty help teach 1-, 2-, and 5-week courses, introducing them to the field of pharmacy, career options and more.

Undergraduate Pre-Health Program students are exposed to the different healthcare fields at the end of the academic year and this is when Martinez sees an interest in pharmacy develop. Students complete a 2-week exploratory program of the different healthcare careers and meet with current faculty members, admissions professionals and practitioners from the community. “We introduce them to professionals, such as retail and hospital pharmacists, as well as research-

ers, who help teach them about the profession and their lifestyle,” Martinez said. The School of Pharmacy will find current practitioners for students to shadow for 8-10 weeks.

Keys to program success: The two programs complement each other, which Martinez believes is the key to their success. “The goal is to create a seamless pipeline,” said Martinez. “Ideally, students are with us from their freshman year in high school through acceptance into professional school.”

Program outcomes: The Office of Inclusion and Outreach keeps thorough record of students’ matriculation through both programs, and into undergraduate and postgraduate education. The office also tracks students’ postgraduate plans, including residencies, internships or any additional training.

Learn more: UPP: http://bit.ly/APNCUUPP; CUPS: http://bit.ly/APNCUCUPS

University of Wisconsin— Madison Program: Pharmacy Summer Program Program liaison: Susan Tran Degrand, Outreach, Recruitment & Diversity Affairs; Student & Academic Affairs

Program length: “It’s a four-day summer program where students live on campus. We hope to expand the length of the program in the future.”

Target audience and age of participants: “We hope to reach and stay connected with rising high school juniors and seniors, as they make decisions for college and explore different career options. The purpose of the program is to create an access point for historically underrepresented students to discover and explore pharmacy, or other health science programs, as career options.”

Program activity highlights: “The program provides

In the CU Pre-Health Scholars Program, student pharmacists serve as peer mentors and faculty help teach 1-, 2-, and 5-week courses, introducing participants to the field of pharmacy, career options and more.

students the opportunity to explore pharmacy, explore the UW–Madison campus, and engage with faculty and current students. They tour several pharmacies, engage in compounding demonstrations and activities (preparing personalized medications), pharmacotherapy lab activities (treatment of disease/illness with medications), partake in blood pressure demonstration/screenings and more.”

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Number of student participants during each session; number of total participants over tenure of program: “Each year, we admit 20 high school students into the program. In the past three years, we’ve received 70-90 applications each year for 20 spots; and graduated 60 students so far from the program.”

Keys to program success: “Our three main goals are to: 1) increase awareness of what pharmacy is; 2) increase the opportunity for these students to go to college; and 3) build community with these students, providing opportunities for them to connect with a mentor and current students, so they have that support system after they leave the program. If we’ve done any of those things, we see that as a success.”

Program outcomes and future outlook: “We assess the students after they complete the program, to measure their interest level, networking expectations, and awareness of pharmacy career options before and after the program. As we’re only three years in, we don’t yet have a full picture of the data, but as with a lot of pipeline programs, you don’t see that direct impact right away. We are hopeful that the program will continue to grow and provide underrepresented high school students the opportunity to learn about what pharmacy has to offer.

Learn more: http://bit.ly/APNUWMad

KGI School of Pharmacy Program: PharmCAMP (“Come and Meet Pharmacy”)

Students are grouped in teams of 6-8 and assigned a KGI mentor who will guide them through workshops and activities conducted by faculty members and KGI student organizations. Workshops include an overview of the pharmacy profession, with examples of what pharmacists do and where pharmacists work. Additional career opportunities in science and research are also introduced. Every student participates in three main labs demonstrating good compounding techniques through ‘compounding’ ice cream, capsules/IV bags and extracting DNA from strawberries to learn about how DNA is linked to rare diseases. Students also participate in two additional interactive small group workshops tailored to the appropriate grade level from topics including poison prevention, immunizations, OTC medications and counseling, hygiene and antibiotics, prescription drug abuse, sugar intake and diabetes, cardiovascular disease and microscopic analysis of beating heart cells, neurologic disease and examinations of mouse brains, leadership development, and application of 3-D printing for device engineering.”

Breakthrough moment for students: “An awesome thing I saw from last year was that these kids attended a school-related activity during the weekend voluntarily. We ended up having multiple student participants say that this was the best ‘field trip’ they had ever been on, they did not want to leave, they learned so much, and didn’t know there were so many different types of career opportunities in pharmacy.”

Number of student participants during each session; number of total participants over tenure of program: During the pilot program, there were 70 elemen-

Program length: One weekend in March

tary school and 70 middle and high school student participants. For PharmCAMP 2018, the target numbers will be 120 elementary students; 60 middle and 60 high school students, for a total of 240 students.

Target audience and age of participants: “Pharm-

Keys to program success: “A big part of what makes the

Program liaison: Dr. Christine L. Cadiz, Assistant Professor of Clinical Sciences

CAMP participants come from various age groups, including 5th grade, 7th grade, and 10th grade. As younger students progress in their education, they will be encouraged to participate in the middle or high school PharmCAMP.”

Program activity highlights: “The pilot PharmCAMP program was designed to expose young students to pharmacy and STEM-related careers through active and fun learning.

The program familiarizes students with careers in pharmacy and other STEM fields and encourages and inspires students to pursue higher education. STEM has been a buzzword for the past half-decade, but pharmacy continues to be a littleknown career field, especially among children.

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program successful is the level of engagement by the student and faculty volunteers that run the event. More than 100 student and faculty volunteers worked hard to develop curriculum, run the workshops and mentor their student groups all day. It takes pretty much an entire village, or a campus in this case.”

Learn more: http://bit.ly/APNKGI Jane E. Rooney is a freelance writer based in Oakton, Virginia; Maureen Thielemans is Associate Director of Communications at AACP; Kyle R. Bagin is Digital Media Manager at AACP.

@AACPharmacy

BIGGER FOOTPRINT. BOLDER VISION. The role of the pharmacist is expanding.

So are we. Our 60,000-square-foot building addition opens this fall on Rutgers’ health sciences campus.

Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy

A PREMIER PHARMACY SCHOOL WITHIN A POWERHOUSE ACADEMIC HEALTH CENTER

WE’RE CELEBRATING A

BIG YEAR (OUR 125TH ANNIVERSARY) with a new home for the way 21st-century pharmacy is practiced. Our expanded building puts patient-centered, team-based care at the center of pharmacy education—by design.

That’s right. Now we’re all set for . . .

A N OT H E R E R A O F I N N OVAT I O N .

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@AACPharmacy

A Meeting of the Minds From opioids to health disparities, the record-setting Pharmacy Education 2017 brought together an Academy ready to tackle the big issues.

By Kyle R. Bagin There was a buzz heard throughout Pharmacy Education 2017—generated from the non-stop networking between colleagues from across the country coupled with the electric sounds of Music City. The Academy gathered to explore the future of pharmacy and education in the face of an everchanging healthcare environment, a rising opioid epidemic and increased calls for patient-centered care. More than 2,500 attendees converged on the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center to learn, shape the conversation and guide the profession first-hand.

Leading Change Through Education Kevin E. Lofton, CEO of Catholic Health Initiatives, took Opening General Session attendees on a deep dive into the challenging and changing environment of U.S. healthcare.

“Let’s face it, we’re an illness-care system, not a healthcare system,” he summarized. “It is time to challenge the status quo and the old methods will not carry us through.” Stressing the importance of preventive care, Lofton explored some “outside-the-box” initiatives taken by his own organization, such as funding a movie theatre in rural Minnesota to reduce traffic accidents.

The buzz continued the next day as Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health, addressed a packed room on the rising opioid crisis, and ultimately, the important role pharmacists play in reversing this trend.

“Why we need greater than 15 billion opioid tablets in any year, I’m not sure,” Compton said. Despite outpacing all

Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, led a packed Science Plenary through the realities of the opioid epidemic and how pharmacy plays a part in the solution.

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@AACPharmacy

AACP Annual Meeting Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center

Nashville, Tennessee other countries in opioid prescriptions, there was no evidence pain was treated any better in the U.S. “We have seen a modest decline in the prescribing of opioids,” about a 20 percent reduction from 2010, but “we have a huge population that has made the transition from misuse of prescription pills to the misuse of street drugs.”

Compton concluded, however, that expanded roles for pharmacists can help. This includes pharmacists working in a variety of ways to protect the community from diversion, including integrating with prescription drug monitoring program data systems, engaging in efforts to extend the federal DEA rule to allow the writing of partial controlled (CII) prescriptions to the state level, the dispensing of naloxone and methadone and more.

Tuesday’s General Session audience saw an impassioned appeal for patient care reform from Regina Holliday, patient advocate and artist.

After creating a Pharmacy Education 2017-inspired work in the main hall, Holliday used her painting as a catalyst for discussion of her late husband’s struggle to receive appropriate, and coordinated, care for kidney cancer.

P

July 15–19, 2017

AACP greatly appreciates the support from our meeting sponsors, whose contributions made this event possible: Platinum Sponsors

Educational Day Sponsor

Gold Sponsors ®

Silver Sponsors

Pharmacy Bronze Sponsors

Annual Meeting attendees raised nearly $1,000 for Pencil, a Nashville-based organization that collects donated school supplies—pencils, pens, notebooks, backpacks and more—for local classrooms. To learn more, and to donate, visit http://www.pencilforschools.org.

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@AACPharmacy

Members strike a pose in front of #PharmEd17’s #HealthyStartsHere photo station. Selfietakers were asked to share their patient stories along with their photos from the booth.

Community Connection The AACP Annual Meeting is a place for community, and that was no more evident than on #PharmEd17’s social media channels. Members from all over the Academy networked, took selfies and shared ideas with attendees and colleagues back home, across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Relive some of the highlights: @PalliPharmer July 15

Teachers Seminar inducing nostalgia- it all started for me here as a #WalmartScholar in 2012! #finallyfaculty #pharmed17

@Melch_RM July 16

Kevin Lofton, Catholic Health Initiatives, teaches us the importance of taking care of people before they become patients #PharmEd17

@HURxDean July 16

Pharmacists are an integral part of the total health care teamCEO CHI #PharmEd17 @DrCDuggan @Clairewynn @FIP_CPS @ rpharms @AACPharmacy

@iNomad78 July 16

“Let’s face it, we’re an illness care system not a healthcare system” Kevin E. Lofton CEO of Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI) #PharmEd17

@DavidDAllen July 16

Keynote speaker Kevin Lofton: We cannot afford to ignore

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social, economic & behavioral determinants that drive health #PharmEd17 @AACPharmacy

@David_Steeb July 16

Some of the biggest challenges we face are best tackled by working together, not independently-@AACPharmacy President Joe DiPiro #PharmEd17

@dremd July 16

Steve Scott- citing Dweck’s Mindsets and the importance of growth. Also recommend “the power of yet”. We must foster growth. #pharmed17

@CrismonUTCOP July 16

The one thing that all pharmacy schools have in common is assuring the success and well being of our students. AACP President Steve Scott

@jakemitchky July 16

Learning more about my passion in education. Environments for learning must be #diverse and #inclusive. #PharmEd17 @ AACPharmacy

@AACPharmacy

Bursting with ideas (and flavor): Visitors to Lilly USA’s booth were rewarded with a treat while learning about its interactive online course offerings in the process of drug development.

@JamieKlucken July 17

According to Dr. Compton, medical students get about 9 hours of pain management training. Veterinary students get 75 hours. #pharmed17

@kfblock July 17

Basic research 2 ID biomarkers 4 pain & understand pain @ molecular level may create new avenues 2 address #opioidcrisis #PharmEd17

@jefbratberg July 17

#PharmEd17 @AACPharmacy Idea: most accessible health professional + training + secure, accessible buprenorphine supply=solution for access?

@NickHagemeier July 17

NIDA’s Dr Compton bringing evidence and advocacy for appropriate pain and addiction treatment. Excellent plenary @ AACPharmacy #PharmEd17

@kfblock July 18

Speaking out publicly led to policy change at hospitals - @ ReginaHolliday reminds us to advocate for patients & their families #PharmEd17 Kyle R. Bagin is Digital Media Manager at AACP.

Innovation Exposition The latest technology and cutting-edge information came together in the Exhibition Hall and during Research/Education Poster Sessions spanning two days.

Attendees browsed innovative tools to advance their work, while networking with peers about their posters.

Interested in exhibit and sponsorship opportunities for the 2018 Annual Meeting in Boston? Contact Jeff Rhodes, vice president of advertising, sponsorship information and sales, Network Media Partners, at jrhodes@networkmediapartners.com or visit http:// go.networkmediapartners.com/aacpannualmeeting.

See you in Boston!

We’ll be in historic Boston for the 2018 Annual Meeting, July 21–25. Registration will open in Spring 2018.

Academic Pharmacy NOW  2017 Issue 4

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Register Now Leading Forward: Leading Effective Teams Oct. 31–Nov. 1 Renaissance Toledo Downtown Hotel Toledo, Ohio Leading effective teams is a critical skill to have at any level in your career. Leading teams toward great performance can be achieved by applying a set of guiding principles to each unique group situation, such as pedagogical teams in the classroom, interprofessional healthcare teams, departments, committees and more.

Join your colleagues at this interactive workshop, held in conjunction with the NABP District 4 Meeting. Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to register as a team from their school.

Register now: http://bit.ly/Nov17RLW

Save the Date February 24–27, 2018 Long Beach, California

2017 Fall Institute: Strengthening Educational Scholarship November 13–15, 2017 Hyatt Regency Dulles At the 2017 Fall Institute participants will address educational challenges through Educational Scholarship and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL). Faculty will be guided through the foundations of education research and engaged in activities that highlight strategies for generating useful evidence, implementing relevant changes and incentivizing faculty engagement in Educational Scholarship and SOTL. CE will be available.

Register now: http://bit.ly/Fall17Institute