In the past two posts, I’ve shared some information with you about the post-graduation outcomes of our Doctor of Pharmacy students and our graduate students. Today, I’d like to change direction slightly, and share with you some highlights of our curricular revision to the PharmD program.

As you may already know, the college has been engaged in a major revision of the Doctor of Pharmacy program for the past year, and we anticipate implementing the first year of the new curriculum in autumn semester 2016. Dr. Jim Coyle, our Director of Curricular Change Planning and Implementation for the PharmD program, has graciously detailed some of the exciting progress we’ve made.

The College of Pharmacy is actively planning a new Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum! 

The vision for the program is to prepare exemplary patient care providers who serve as the responsible medication experts in the health care delivery system. Guiding Principles and Core Goals and Ability-Based Outcomes that will enable us to achieve that vision were developed and approved by the faculty last October.

The PharmD Curricular Change Steering Team and Task Force are currently developing a program-level plan that will allow the faculty and its educational partners to use contemporary teaching, learning, and assessment strategies to actively engage students in obtaining a world-class professional education. Important features of the evolving program include:

• a continuing focus on developing the students’ ability to identify, prioritize, and solve real-world patient and medication use system problems,

• beginning the program with a module that actively engages students in a meaningful discussion of what it means to be a health care professional in the U.S. health care system, what it means to be a pharmacist in that system, and what it means to be a pharmacy student at The Ohio State University,

• introduction of skills that are essential components of exemplary patient care, including communication skills, beginning early in the first professional year with opportunities to continue developing those skills throughout the program,

• introduction of nonprescription medications, Top 200 drugs, and common disease states during the first professional year to help students begin to become functional earlier in the program,

• use of contemporary teaching methods that foster the students’ ability to learn, integrate, and apply essential knowledge of the biomedical, pharmaceutical, social and behavioral, administrative, and clinical sciences to the care of patients,

• an integrated patient care laboratory that provides authentic, hands-on learning opportunities for students during at least the first two years of the program,

• an integrated, transdisciplinary approach to teaching pharmacotherapy,

• enhanced introductory and advanced pharmacy practice experiences provided in collaboration with selected educational partners,

• a systematic approach to course-level and program-level assessment and remediation that assures each student has mastered each component of the program and encourages the pursuit of excellence,

• a continuing focus on developing the students’ ability to identify, prioritize, and solve real-world patient and medication use system problems. (Yes, this was also the first item on this list, an indication of its importance in the new program!)

While remaining true to the concept of producing generalist, entry-level practitioners, the new program will encourage students to personalize their education through thoughtful selection of courses, experiential rotations, and co-curricular activities based on their career goals. The new program’s structure will permit students to take advantage of the wealth of opportunities available at Ohio State to pursue interests in direct patient care, business, public health, research, and other areas. Many of these opportunities will be available through the PharmD program itself, while others will be available through dual degree programs.

The proposed program-level plan will be presented to the faculty at the regular faculty meeting on Friday, January 9. Faculty approval will be sought at the February 6 meeting. Multiple open forums will be held during the intervening month to encourage full discussion and refinement of the proposed program.

The targeted rollout date for year one of the new program is autumn 2016. While there is much to be done, hitting that target is clearly achievable!

Questions regarding PharmD curricular change planning may be directed to Dr. Jim Coyle, Director of Curricular Change Planning and Implementation or Dr. Katherine Kelley, Associate Dean for Assessment and Strategic Initiatives. They are leading the curricular change process initiated by Dean Henry Mann shortly after his arrival at Ohio State a little over a year ago.

Best Regards,

Katherine Kelley 

Last issue, I highlighted employment outcomes for our Doctor of Pharmacy students. This week, I would like to continue our focus on graduation outcomes by sharing some of the wonderful things that are happening for the students in our master’s and doctoral programs.

As you may already know, the College of Pharmacy offers PhD specializations in Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Pharmacology, and Translational Science. Students in these disciplines typically go on to employment in the pharmaceutical industry, government agencies and academia.

While these specializations generally have smaller enrollments, they produce very strong graduates who benefit from close mentoring relationships with college faculty in the research-rich environment at The Ohio State University. Since 2010, 40 students have graduated from our PhD programs; 95 percent of them have secured employment before graduation or within six months after graduation.

We also offer a Master of Science in Health-Systems Pharmacy Administration, a 24-month program that works in conjunction with ASHP-accredited administrative residency programs to develop leaders in hospital and health-system pharmacy. We enroll up to 11 students annually in this program, and have graduated more than 200 students since 1961.

Mentoring from residency directors and faculty, along with participation at national professional meetings help our students achieve high levels of placement into post-graduate PGY2 residencies and employment. More than 50 current directors of pharmacy are alumni of the program. Since 2011, 96 perecent of our Health-System Pharmacy Administration graduates have accepted positions with hospitals and health systems in Ohio and across the United States.

Ms. Mary Kivel, our Graduate Studies Coordinator, shared some additional highlights of our recent graduate students’ outcomes:

• since 2011, graduates from the Health-Systems Pharmacy Administration program have accepted positions with The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Wake Forest Baptist Health, The Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, OhioHealth, Mount Carmel Health System and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, to name a few.
• since 2010, 72 percent of PhD graduates have gone on to postdoctoral fellowships and research positions with government agencies, research hospitals or universities across the country, including the Mayo Clinic, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Cancer Institute, St. Jude’s Research Hospital, the Stanford University School of Medicine, and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Some students have opted to stay local, accepting postdoctoral positions at Ohio State and at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
• 15 percent of our PhD recipients accepted positions in the pharmaceutical industry, working as research scientists for Akorn, Inc., Tate & Lyle, Ricon Pharma, Genetec and Lee’s Pharmaceuticals (China).
• 10 percent of our PhD graduates have gone on to positions in academia, nationally and internationally.
• two students opted to pursue further education: one student enrolled in medical school following the completion of his PhD,  another student continued with a degree in public health following completion of her Health-Systems Pharmacy Administration degree.

As these highlights show, our graduates are using their talents in a variety of capacities and they continue to represent both Ohio State and the College of Pharmacy well. These talented students have bright prospects and possess skills attractive to employers in Ohio and around the country. We are proud of the accomplishments of our PhD and master’s students, and look forward to all that they will continue to contribute to pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences and health care.

Best,

Katherine Kelley