A study on diabetic patients by the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences identified cost savings with improvements in a key indicator of glucose control in diabetes patients, the hemoglobin A1C measurement. The A1C provides a three-month average of the amount of excess glucose in the blood. Higher A1Cs indicate that a patient is at higher risk for developing long-term complications associated with diabetes, such as kidney disease or vision problems.

School of Pharmacy, Buffalo School of Pharmacy, University, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmaceutical, pharmacists, Pharmacy, School, health care, health, care, Pharmacy Schools and University

Published last spring in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, the UB study of 50 patients with Type 2 diabetes demonstrated that in just six months clinical pharmacists, in collaboration with primary care providers, were able to significantly reduce patients’ A1C levels.

In the UB study, patients’ A1C levels were reduced by an average of 1.1 percent, from an average of 8.5 percent to 7.4 percent, one year after being enrolled in the program, while also improving the overall metabolic profile.

“Our results show that enhancing the patient’s access to care through collaborative physician-pharmacist relationships can yield lower blood glucose levels, improve the overall metabolic profile and reduce costs to the payer,” says Erin Slazak, PharmD, UB clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice and board certified pharmacotherapy specialist.

These clinical improvements occurred while monthly costs per patient went down by approximately $212, around $2,500 per year, even though there were nominal increases in the cost of medications prescribed.

The key to success?

“Patients had unlimited access to pharmacists throughout the year,” says Slazak.

School of Pharmacy, Buffalo School of Pharmacy, University, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pharmaceutical, pharmacists, Pharmacy, School, health care, health, care, Pharmacy Schools and University

Patients referred to the UB program had been identified by their primary care providers as having difficulty controlling their blood sugar. Slazak notes that it was not uncommon to see patients with glucose levels as high as 400 mg/dl (normal levels are below 100 mg/dl).

The UB pharmacists spent an initial one-hour appointment with each patient, where they worked up detailed health records covering dietary information and all medications and disease conditions, and then reviewed them with each patient.

After that, patients could call or make appointments with pharmacists at will.

“We did extensive education with patients about how to manage their conditions,” says Slazak. “In many cases, we were instrumental in getting them to start insulin. There is a lot of resistance to that, and not just because it’s an injection.”

For patients in the initial stages of administering insulin, she says it was common to be contacted once every few days. The pharmacists then made suggestions to physicians about changes in medications, dosages or lifestyle that might be beneficial to their patients.

That kind of individualized attention is far from the norm for diabetic patients.

“Nationwide, the standard of care is that the primary care provider manages diabetes alone,” says Slazak. “Pharmacists typically do not have direct involvement.”

That is partly because some states, including New York, have not yet approved collaborative practice agreements between physicians and pharmacists. In the Buffalo study, for example, physicians were required to review pharmacists’ recommendations and approve all interventions first. Completion of the review process and approval occurred in only half of the cases, potentially limiting the overall benefit to the patient.

“We know there’s a long-term clinical and economic benefit to pharmacists working directly with patients and we think that can continue to grow,” says Scott V. Monte, PharmD, UB clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice and director of Diabetes and Cardiovascular Research, CPL Associates, LLC, in Buffalo. “Pharmacists can help achieve better outcomes if given the chance.”

The study was conducted through MedSense™, part of the Pharmacotherapy Research Initiative, a collaborative effort between Lifetime Health Medical Group and UB, to study how pharmacists impact patient care. MedSense™ is one of many program sites that are part of the UB Pharmacotherapy Research Initiative in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, which was established to study how pharmacy medication management can improve the health of patients while cutting costs through patient-centered pharmacotherapy.

In addition to Slazak and Monte, other co-authors on the paper include Nicole Paolini Albanese, PharmD, UB clinical assistant professor; Martin Adelman, PhD, chief information officer at CPL Associates, LLC; Gauri Rao, a student in the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Joseph A. Paladino, PharmD, UB professor of pharmacy and director of outcomes research at CPL Associates, LLC.

The program is jointly funded by Lifetime Health Medical Group and the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Pharmacists Improve Care of Diabetics While Cutting Costs, Research Shows is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

But there were dozens of other events both big and small that helped weave the local fabric of 2009. Gov. Deval Patrick spent a day here visiting with business, government and arts representatives. The Provincetown Cemetery filled up, leading to a discussion on how to expand the burial grounds. A new ladder truck was delivered, replacing the one destroyed in an accident last year. The Bradford pear trees that line the sidewalk to Town Hall were saved. And off-leash beach rights were restored to dog owners.

Here is a look at some of the stories that had a significant impact on life in Provincetown over the past year.

Reworking a school system
After years of avoiding the subject, town residents and a new school superintendent convinced the school committee to directly address restructuring the school district. As the student population continued to decrease, residents overwhelmingly voted at the April Annual Town Meeting to establish a regional school district planning committee to explore the possibility of merging Provincetown’s schools with the Nauset Regional School District. The three-person committee’s report is supposed to be presented at the 2009 ATM.
However, it took until Oct. 13 for the committee to hold its first meeting, a delay that concerned both selectmen and Town Moderator Irene Rabinowitz, who appointed the committee. As a result, selectmen voted unanimously in July to send a letter to the school committee urging action. Since then, school committee chair Peter Grosso stepped forward to be the district’s representative on the committee and two residents, Alex Brown and Barbara Rushmore, volunteered to serve.

Shortly after that, in November, the new school superintendent, Dr. Beth Singer, proposed that the school committee hold its own talks about the future of the school district. After a lengthy and often emotional discussion, committee members agreed to organize a series of workshops open to the public that begin planning for the future of a different school district.

In tourism
The 2009 tourism season in Provincetown was a mixed bag but there were some sighs of relief that it wasn’t worse in this uncertain economy.
Booking rates for vacation rental homes on Cape Cod and the Islands were down 5.7 percent over the 2008 season, according to WeNeedaVacation.com, an Internet vacation booking site. A cold and wet June and half of July discouraged visitors but great weather through the rest of the summer and into the fall helped increase those numbers.

Still, the tourists who did arrive kept a strong grip on their wallets, cutting back on shopping across the board from artwork to fudge, based on reports from several local business owners, And many visitors who normally would have booked a week’s stay in town reduced that to four or five nights; there were often last-minute weekend vacancies available.

Retail stores reported revenue declines between 20 and 30 percent. But based on anecdotal evidence, it seems that the number of daytrippers was about even with last year. At the town’s municipal parking lots, the number of drivers was almost flat compared with the same April through August period in 2008.

“The overall picture was not great,” Provincetown Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Candy Collins-Boden said, referring to visitor spending. “But Provincetown could have done worse.”

Town Hall restoration
The last phase of the $6.54 million repair and restoration of the 123-year-old building began on Aug. 25, after voters approved funding at both the April Annual Town Meeting and the June Special Town Meeting. Phase 2, which will renovate and restore the interior of the historic building, as well as replace outdated electrical and heating systems, will take approximately one and a half years to complete.

Park project
Ambitious planning on the part of town leaders ran into resistance from some residents over a proposal to turn the municipal parking lot into a waterfront park, transportation gateway and visitors center. As part of that proposal, public parking would be moved to a proposed parking structure to be built on the site of the Duarte’s parking lot at the corner of Bradford and Standish streets. The idea of adding a 700-car, multi-level parking facility on the Duarte’s property — assuming the town was successful in purchasing it — worried some residents but selectmen said no design would be finalized without a series of public forums. In the meantime, the town is waiting to hear if its application for $25 million in federal stimulus money to pay for the project will be approved, a decision that is expected in February.

As the market turns
Although the takeover of the former Grand Union grocery store on Shank Painter Road by Stop & Shop actually took place on Dec. 12, 2008, the impact of the renovation of the town’s only grocery store was fully felt in 2009. The produce was fresher, there were more items available and a new, expanded pharmacy was built this past year. There were some complaints that it was taking longer to fill drug prescriptions over the summer months, however, prompting selectmen to write a letter of concern to the new managers.

Pharmacy no more
The reason there was a crush at the Stop & Shop pharmacy was largely due to the new market buying the prescription business of long-time Adams Pharmacy, which took the word “pharmacy” off of its sign. Adams, in business in Provincetown since 1875, sold that part of its business to Stop & Shop in March.

Art barn
Another change in a long-time fixture in Provincetown was the sale of the barn that housed the legendary Hawthorne School of Art and gave birth to Provincetown’s reputation as an international art colony. It was sold by its long-time owner Olga Opsahl-Gee, who with her late husband, Peter Gee, operated the art school since 1994. The new owner, Joshua Prager, has not revealed what he plans to do with the barn, although he said he would use it as a residence part of the year and have arts programming there the rest of the time.

Pru Sowers can be reached at psowers@provincetownbanner.com

School talks & market turnovers among top Provincetown stories in 2009 is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

Edwardsville, Ill. (Vocus/PRWEB ) November 3, 2009 — The Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy has been awarded — along with the Saint Louis University Department of Pharmacology and Physiology — a $974,024 National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to study ways of relieving chronic pain through new approaches in treating neuroinflammation.

Funding for the NIH grant was made possible in part by federal stimulus funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

School of Pharmacy, launch, School, Pharmacy, Schools, College

Professor Daniela Salvemini, an associate professor of pharmacological and physiological science at the SLU School of Medicine, and William Neumann, an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry in the SIUE School of Pharmacy, are the project’s principal researchers who will be studying how “peroxynitrite” (produced in the body in inflammatory settings) can actually cause chronic pain when the body produces too much of the chemical.

keywords:

School of Pharmacy, launch, School, Pharmacy, Schools, College

According to the research abstract filed by Salvemini and Neumann, chronic pain is a global problem but in the United States alone one third of Americans suffer from it. However, about 30 percent of those chronic pain sufferers report that drugs now available on the market do not help the problem.

“When you have inflammation in the body,” Neumann explained, “reactive oxygen species and free radicals are produced, which can lead to formation of the neurotoxic molecule, peroxynitrite. Normally, these reactive molecules are kept under tight wraps by the body’s own antioxidant defense systems.

“But, if these systems become compromised, as in a state of chronic pain, it actually can make the problem worse. We’ll be looking at creating a synthetic enzyme that will go in and destroy the peroxynitrite.”

Over the past decade, Salvemini’s pioneering research led to the discovery of peroxynitrite. “We discovered the substance … which turns out to be very important in the development of pain and inflammation. If we target that molecule, we hope we can find new therapies with fewer side effects,” said Salvemini.

“Currently, pain is often poorly managed. Our hope is to find better ways to eliminate human suffering.”

The two-year grant is being administered through the NIH’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal And Skin Diseases. “By using various accepted lab methods, we will try to create in rats arthritic conditions and see how they react to the pharmacology we introduce,” Neumann said. “The broad potential therapeutic use of these new analgesic agents we’re proposing is not a part of current pain management drugs,” he said.

“Our team will draw upon previous breakthroughs in the development of free radical targeted therapies but we will go further in creating a new approach to combat the problem without some of the current side effects of current pain management drugs.”

William Neumann received a bachelor of science in Chemistry from the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1983 and a doctorate in 1987 from UM-St. Louis, where he worked on synthetic methodologies directed at preparing antitumor cyclopentanoid natural products. Since then, he has conducted research in both the diagnostic imaging and therapeutic pharmaceutical industries. Prior to joining the SIUE School of Pharmacy he spent the majority of his industrial career at Monsanto corporate research and later Pharmacia, leading the new synthetic methods group. He also is currently adjunct professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Saint Louis University. Professor Neumann’s research interests are structure based drug discovery and catalytic antioxidants. At SIUE, he teaches Biochemistry and Integrated Pharmacotherapeutics: GI/Rheumatology/Pulmonary — Medicinal Chemistry.

Daniela Salvemini received her BSc in pharmacology in 1987 from King’s College London and her doctorate in pharmacology in 1990 at the William Harvey Research Institute, University College in London. After four years of post-doctoral fellowship, Salvemini joined the private sector where she spent more than a decade working on drug discovery and development of novel anti-inflammatories and analgesics. She came to Saint Louis University in 2005. Salvemini’s research achievements are reflected in numerous peer-reviewed publications, reviews and lectures in the field of pain and inflammation and several international awards including the prestigious Novartis Award in pharmacology.

As the only downstate Illinois pharmacy doctorate program, the SIUE School of Pharmacy addresses the growing need for well-trained pharmacists in a career field that is experiencing rapid and dramatic growth. The SIUE School of Pharmacy offers a quality pharmacy education that will prepare you for a successful career in health care. Earn a doctor of pharmacy degree from a fully accredited pharmacy school that serves as a model for new pharmacy education programs.

SIUE is a nationally recognized public university offering a broad choice of degrees and programs ranging from career-oriented fields of study to the essential, more traditional, liberal arts. SIUE offers the advantages of a small, liberal arts college with the low tuition rates of a state university. Our emphasis on undergraduate education, complemented by faculty research, creates practical applications for student learning. Located in the second most populated area of the state, this Illinois university draws students from all 102 Illinois counties, 42 states and 50 nations.

One of 12 Illinois colleges and universities, SIUE is located on 2,600 acres of rolling hills and woodlands in Edwardsville, just 25 miles from St. Louis, a major metropolitan area. Proximity to the St. Louis area enhances SIUE’s energy and vitality. The campus is easily accessed from several major interstates, while the city of Edwardsville offers ample opportunity for jobs, entertainment, shopping and fun.

###

SIUE School of Pharmacy, SLU Pharmacology Receive $975K NIH Grant is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

MANCHESTER COLLEGE TO LAUNCH SCHOOL FOR PHARMACISTS IN FORT WAYNE

(Nov. 3, 2009) Elgin, IL — Manchester College will begin the accreditation process for a School of Pharmacy in Fort Wayne, Ind., with unanimous appro val given by its Board of Trustees. Manchester College is a Church of the B rethren-related school in North Manchester, Ind.

The college plans to enroll its first students in the four-year Doctor of P harmacy program in the fall of 2012. This is the 121-year-old baccalaureate college’s first venture into a doctoral program and into a satellite campu s. It will be the only Doctor of Pharmacy program in northern Indiana.

“Graduate education for pharmacists is a natural fit with Manchester Colleg e,” said president Jo Young Switzer. Manchester has a strong reputation in the sciences, particularly for preparing students for medical and graduate school. The college also emphasizes service learning.

keywords: School of Pharmacy, launch, Manchester College, School, Pharmacy, Schools, Manchester, College

Fort Wayne is a natural fit for the new venture. In addition to numerous me dical facilities and opportunities for pharmacy practicum experiences, Fort Wayne offers many amenities attractive to the school’s 250 students, 40 fa culty and staff members, and their families.

“The decision by Manchester College to start a PharmD program in Fort Wayne is a wonderful investment of financial and intellectual capital in our cit y,” said mayor Tom Henry. “As the health care sector continues to grow in F ort Wayne and northeast Indiana, Manchester College’s expansion of professi onal programs is going to be key in creating the highly skilled, highly edu cated workforce employers demand.”

The average starting salary for pharmacists exceeds $100,000 and demand in the highly competitive profession is expected to grow more than 20 percent in the coming decade, said Switzer. The college’s research indicates many p harmacy graduates–who come from throughout the nation–remain in the commu nities where they study. Said Switzer, “During our exploration, many told u s that this project aligns well with other initiatives undertaken in northe ast Indiana to strengthen the economy here.”

Admission to Manchester’s new school will require two years of pre-pharmacy coursework. The college will add that program to its undergraduate curricu lum in North Manchester and its students will compete with pre-pharmacy stu dents from other colleges and universities for seats in the School of Pharm acy.

The college has not finalized its plans for a Fort Wayne site for the new s chool, which will require at least 35,000 square feet for classrooms, offic es, and laboratories. The pharmacy school will be a part of Manchester Coll ege and governed by the college’s Board of Trustees.

The search for a founding dean and building of a leadership team will begin immediately. That team will begin preparing the school’s application for a ccreditation.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continu ing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith t raditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrated it s 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 125,000 members across the Unit ed States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

(This release was provided by Jeri S. Kornegay, Director of Media and Publi c Relations, Manchester College.)

For more information contact:

Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
Director of News Services
Church of the Brethren
1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
800-323-8039 ext. 260

cobnews@brethren.org

School of Pharmacy launch in Manchester College is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

At the “roof-raising” for the new KU pharmacy school, which will share a campus with the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita, Gov. Mark Parkinson said access to pharmacists is critical for small towns.

At a time when hometown drugstores are in deep decline, the University of Kansas on Wednesday ceremonially launched a new school in Wichita to turn out more rural pharmacists.

From 2006 to 2008, the number of independent rural pharmacies across the country dropped from 7,395 to 6,892 — a 6.8 percent decrease, according to a study by the Rural Policy Research Institute and the University of Nebraska.

At present, the KU School of Pharmacy admits 105 students a year, all of them at KU’s home campus in Lawrence. Expansion is under way there to increase that to 150.

More than 30 Kansas counties are underserved and seven don’t have any pharmacists at all, he said.

“Those counties won’t make it if they don’t get pharmacists,” Parkinson said. “KU has led the way in populating western Kansas with general practitioners…. hopefully and optimistically, this program will fill that same void with pharmacists.”

It may not be easy.

The traditional town druggist is faced with unprecedented challenges including high drug prices, increased competition from mail-order pharmacies and insurance company policies that favor national chains and discount stores.

The Wichita campus, near Ninth Street and I-135, is expected to begin admitting students in fall of 2011. The first class will be 20 students, with possible expansion later to as many as 40.

Graduates from the Wichita program will be able to work anywhere, but speakers at Wednesday’s event repeatedly expressed hope that many will choose rural Kansas.

“This is a health care imperative, this is an economic development initiative and this is absolutely a quality of life imperative,” said Jill Docking, chairwoman of the Kansas Board of Regents. “Most fundamentally, it is a Kansas imperative.”

Kansas isn’t the first to face the challenge, nor the first to establish a campus geared toward rural pharmacy.

The University of Minnesota established a branch of its pharmacy college in Duluth, a remote city on Lake Superior, in 2003.

Since then, the percentage of U of M graduates opting for rural pharmacy careers has risen from 8 percent to 13 percent overall, said professor Timothy Stratton, an expert on economic and work force issues of rural pharmacists.

Stratton said the college tends to recruit students from small towns because they are most likely to return to that setting after their training.

But for many, the cost of a pharmacy education is a big obstacle, he said.

The average graduate has to pay off $80,000 to $100,000 in debt — a barrier to graduates who might otherwise buy into a local pharmacy.

Also, national chains offer higher pay and a steady paycheck, allowing graduates to pay off their debt faster, he said.

The trade-offs are quality of life and job satisfaction, Stratton said.

The small-town pharmacist is a pillar of the community, gets to know customers as individuals, and can work much more closely with local doctors to manage patients’ care, he said.

The communities can help, too, Stratton said. Some Minnesota towns have assisted young pharmacists with financing to buy drugstores from colleagues who are nearing retirement.

And while traditional hometown drugstores are in decline, there are opportunities for rural practice in a variety of settings, Stratton said.

He said when he worked in a small Alaska town early in his career, he served as pharmacist for the community hospital, the town drugstore and the local nursing home.

“It was never a dull moment,” he said.

Kansas Rep. Don Hill, R-Emporia, and Sen. Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka, both of whom are pharmacists, attended Wednesday’s ceremony.

They said they think opportunity still exists in rural pharmacy, although there are some hurdles.

For example, mail pharmacy has gone from practically nonexistent to about 10 percent of the market in the past 10 years, Hill said.

“It is a trend and it’s a trend that will continue,” he said. “But you still have 90 percent of the folks that are going to be served by bricks and mortar pharmacy.”

For Hill, it’s a numbers game.

“KU has only been turning out 100 to 105 pharmacists a year,” he said. “Given the many opportunities for them to pursue with that basic degree, no group has been getting as many as they would like — the mail-order pharmacies, the chain pharmacies, the community pharmacies in rural areas.

“We need more pharmacists, that’s the bottom line.”

New school hopes to train rural pharmacists is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools

Jessica Kartalija reports its School of Pharmacy welcomed its inaugural class Wednesday.

Students from across the country are making history in Baltimore City.

“Very exciting. This is probably the best day of my life thus far,” said student Crystal Phillips.

The newly renovated Knott Science Center is now home to the School of Pharmacy. They’re learning their way around through a two-day orientation.

“College of Notre Dame of Maryland is a college of firsts. They have taken the initiative to start a school of pharmacy. It’s the first women’s college in the U.S. to have a school of pharmacy on board and offer a Doctor of Pharmacy degree,” said Dr. Valerie Hogue, Associate Dean.

Before now, the University of Maryland was the only other school in the state to have a school of pharmacy.

There were 500 applicants. Only 70 students were admitted to the four-year program.

“It’s very exciting because you get to be a part of history, pretty much, because you are going to be the inaugural class. So you are going to be the one that starts the program and sets the foundation for it,” said student Binyam Tefera.

There’s a shortage of pharmacists both locally and nationally. A new report says that by the year 2020, there will be a 157,000 shortage of pharmacists in the United States.

“It’s a concern because many of our states are not able to fill the positions very easily for pharmacists, so we are hoping our School of Pharmacy in Maryland is going to ease that burden,” said Hogue.

The program’s fourth year is focused on giving students a chance to work in practice settings.

Classes officially begin Aug. 24.

Notre Dame Makes History With School Of Pharmacy is a post from: Pharmacy in jobs, news, schools