No matter the setting, pharmacy practice today is dynamic and evolving. With recent legislation introduced in Congress recommending provider status for pharmacists, plus opportunities arising from new models of health care delivery, there has never been a more significant need for continuing professional development for pharmacists across the country. The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) recognizes this, having just approved a new Definition of Continuing Education for the Profession of Pharmacy and an accompanying Guidance on Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for the Profession of Pharmacy.

At Ohio State, CPD is a strategic planning priority for the College of Pharmacy, and we are committed to providing resources for pharmacists to stay up-to-date and ready for opportunities yet to come. Our belief in the importance of CPD is the primary reason why we named Dr. Bella Mehta to be our Director of Continuing Professional Development last September. Dr. Mehta is an Ohio State alumna and a fellow of the American Pharmacists Association. Her research interests include patient-centered medical homes, ambulatory/community pharmacy service, complementary and alternative medicine, and pharmacist reimbursement.

She has graciously agreed to share a few words about what’s next for the college’s CPD program:

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is more than just continuing education. It is a process of lifelong learning that the ACPE defines as a, “self-directed, ongoing, systematic and outcomes-focused approach to lifelong learning that is applied into practice.” Traditionally, CPD has been synonymous with continuing education (CE) and while this is important, CE is just one of many components that Ohio State will be offering as part of our growing CPD programming.

One key focus for CPD will be developing ongoing programming throughout the year that will enable practicing pharmacists to be ready to provide care in emerging health care models. Included will be offerings of certificate programs licensed through the American Pharmacists Association in the areas of diabetes, immunizations including travel health, medication therapy management, and the new cardiovascular health program. Future topics that are being explored include those focused on business and entrepreneurial skills, specialty medications, as well as pharmacists providing interprofessional team-based care. Additionally, CPD will be working closely with the Professional Experiential Programs team to identify ways to enhance preceptor development for our IPPE and APPE preceptors who are valued team members in our pharmacy student learning.

The College of Pharmacy has been a leader in innovative pharmacy practice. As part of the college’s strategic plan, CPD is working to develop a center that will support development and implementation of progressive pharmacy services throughout Ohio and beyond. The center will assist providers in developing direct pharmacy care services and prepare providers for providing exemplary care in evolving health models. The center’s Advisory Task Force has begun discussions to create a model that will include input from business and industry leaders as well as thought leaders in public health to drive practice innovation and entrepreneurial opportunities and to advance the pharmacy profession locally and globally.

Thank you, Dr. Mehta and all of the faculty, staff, and stakeholders who will be part of this crucial outreach to practicing pharmacists across Ohio.

Best regards,

Katherine Kelley

For several years now, the college has hosted an annual Graduate Applicant Visitation Day, for applicants who have applied to graduate programs in the divisions of Pharmacology, Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. Each year, the College of Pharmacy reviews the applicants to the graduate program and invites between 12 and 22 of the best and brightest applicants for a weekend visit to Ohio State.  This is a unique opportunity for the applicant to see what Columbus and Ohio State have to offer. This event serves a dual purpose: it gives the college a chance to interview and recruit top candidates, and it gives applicants (and the college) an opportunity to determine if Ohio State is the right fit. Graduate school is a large commitment of time and resources for the college as well as for the applicant.

Ohio State competes for top graduate program candidates with other colleges of pharmacy throughout the country. Past applicants have cited the focus or strength of a program, personal fit, reputation of a program, and program faculty as important factors influencing their choice of graduate programs. While the selection process is unique for each individual, Ohio State consistently competes with the University of North Carolina, University of Michigan and the University of California at San Francisco for top candidates.

Most applicants apply to multiple colleges, so this weekend will be one of many such events these applicants will attend. The event this year will take place from Thursday, February 26 through Saturday, February 28.  The weekend begins with a dinner with current graduate students at the Eddie George Grille on Thursday evening, followed by a formal visitation day on Friday, February 27.  Applicants will be separated by division and will meet with various faculty and graduate students throughout the day.

Applicants will have the opportunity to tour labs and meet with its members to get a better sense of the work that goes on in each lab.  Applicants from all divisions come back together Friday afternoon for a graduate student poster session, which allows prospective students to see the variety of research conducted at the college and interact with current graduate students. At the end of the day, applicants attend dinner with current faculty at the Hubbard Grille, then have Saturday to explore Columbus or to return home.  Many applicants are surprised by all of the things Columbus has to offer!

Graduate Applicant Visitation Day is an opportunity to showcase the benefits of attending Ohio State. One advantage that Ohio State offers is the strong collaboration throughout campus with other colleges and research labs. This collaboration, aided by the close proximity of the College of Pharmacy to other Ohio State colleges and researchers, is something that is not always available at other universities with multiple campuses. Our current graduate students are able to routinely collaborate with the Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Center for Retrovirus Research, the Department of Chemistry, the College of Veterinary Medicine, and Ohio State’s University Wexner Medical Center. Collaboration helps each graduate student gain a broader understanding of pharmaceutical science from bench to bedside.

While final numbers are not yet in for this year’s visitation weekend, we anticipate having 15 applicants tour Columbus and Ohio State next month. We are looking forward to getting to know this year’s applicants better, and to setting the stage for continued excellence in the College of Pharmacy’s graduate program.

Thank you to Dr. Carnes, Mary Kivel and all of our graduate program faculty and staff for putting together this event for prospective students. We are looking forward to having this year’s applicants on campus next month, and again next autumn as new graduate students.

Best Regards,

Katherine Kelley

Happy 2015 and best wishes for the start of the spring semester.

In previous posts, I highlighted some of the placement outcomes for our graduate and professional students. I shared data with you about where our students are going after graduation, and their satisfaction with those results. As a bit of a departure this week, I would like to highlight how we obtain data like those we shared and focus on the role that student feedback plays in the work that we do here each day.

Because we have a responsibility to produce the best pharmacy professionals and pharmaceutical scientists that we can, we are always interested in what our students have to say about our programs, the good and the bad.  We collect feedback from our students using a variety of methods, including satisfaction surveys, focus groups, informal meetings and regular town hall conversations with Dean Mann. We ask our graduating students to tell us about their experiences through annual exit surveys, and we compare responses across multiple years to help us understand what we are doing well and what we could be doing better.

Our faculty often play key roles in the collection of assessment data and student feedback: last spring, Dr. Jen Rodis conducted a series of focus groups asking PharmD students about their experience with drug information education in the curriculum. Students shared their learning experiences, told us what they found helpful and what they did not, and offered great suggestions for ways to strengthen drug education in the new PharmD curriculum. This spring, Dr. Jim McAuley, Dr Donnie Sullivan and I will be conducting a series of focus group with students in each year of the program, asking them about their autumn semester classes (including APPE courses). We are looking forward to talking with these groups to gain a better understanding of the stent’s experience in our curriculum.

Throughout each academic year, we seek student feedback through course evaluations at the end of each course we teach. Specific initiatives, like Partner for Promotion, regularly collect feedback from students and preceptor participants to measure learning and the effectiveness of their respective programs. These efforts, as part of our overall assessment plan, help us fulfill a cycle of continuing creation, reflection, evaluation, and improvement for our programs.

Why do we gather these data?  Because we are student-centered and because we are committed to improvement. The perspectives that our students share with us inform the ways we approach the courses we teach now and the courses we are planning to teach in the future. Student feedback helps to guide curricular revision and helps us to define priorities for strategic planning. We use student feedback (in concert with feedback from other stakeholders and program assessment data) as part of our continuing process of asking “what’s next?” for the college.

As the Associate Dean for Assessment and Strategic Initiatives, I can tell you that there are many inputs we review when deciding how to approach opportunities and challenges we encounter. Of these, our students’ perspectives are especially important. We believe in listening carefully to all of our stakeholders. We value the feedback they share with us as we work to realize improvements and continue to educate the future of the pharmacy profession.

Best Regards,

Katherine Kelley

As the college continues to grow and change through the strategic planning process, one area that is getting some attention is outreach and engagement. Our college faculty, staff and students have a track record of excellent service to the community.

Looking forward, we are ready as a college to take outreach and engagement to the next level.  To facilitate this movement, Dr. Jennifer Rodis was appointed as assistant dean for outreach and engagement this fall. With her appointment, we are developing an office of outreach and engagement, which will foster local to global impact. I asked Dr. Rodis to share some highlights of what the Office of Outreach and Engagement has already been doing, as well as a little about new projects that will further extend our commitment to our community and our world.

People often ask, “What is outreach and engagement?”  Simply stated, outreach and engagement happens when we take the great things happening at Ohio State outside the walls of the university to better the world around us. This may be through teaching, research, or service, the traditional three pegs of academia, or through extensions of those pegs with advocacy, connectivity, and empowerment.

Examples of the exciting outreach and engagement activities this semester include students helping in numerous free clinics, senior living establishments, and pharmacies providing hours of service to the community through Medication Therapy Management (MTM), vaccination, and diabetes awareness.

The Generation Rx initiative continues to lead the battle against drug misuse through the robust Lab at COSI, toolkits that are used across the globe, and the engagement of our students, faculty and staff in this important fight.

In addition to our internal work, the newly-created Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Misuse Prevention and Recovery has enlisted the expertise of the colleges of pharmacy (through Drs. Ken Hale and Nicole Kwiek), social work, and the Student Wellness Center to address drug misuse and recovery among college students.

Our Schweitzer fellows are leading initiatives to battle hypertension in patients with limited access to health care, and Partner for Promotion continues to mentor students and community pharmacists through development of novel services in community pharmacies.

As the college expands its knowledge transfer as part of outreach and engagement, we will explore new ways to share information and connect with professionals and the public.  Dr. Bella Mehta has recently been appointed to head our continuing professional development (CPD) initiatives as director of CPD.

Another key example of outreach and engagement work will occur this spring with Ken Hale’s “Introduction to Pharmacy” MOOC starting its third session through Coursera.

Additionally, our international partnerships are growing, as the college supports pharmacy practice and research development in countries across the globe through training experiences for students and pharmacists.

We are excited for the opportunity to optimize and strategically enhance outreach and engagement efforts within the college. We encourage you to contact us if you have ideas or suggestions in this area. It is only through the efforts of our pharmacy students, faculty, and staff that we can offer so many outstanding programs that improve the lives of individuals at home and abroad.

Thank you to Dr. Rodis and all of the members of the outreach and engagement team who are helping these great initiatives become reality, making a difference for our local and global communities.

This is our last issue of Knowledge Dispensary for this year.

Happy Holidays and best wishes for 2015.

Until next year,

Katherine Kelley

This week’s Knowledge Dispensary is a focus on our Experiential Team Leadership.  First I want to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to Don Bennett who was Experiential Director from 2010 through this past September.  During Don’s tenure as Director, the experiential team grew and many exciting initiatives were launched such as high tech simulations, geriatric interactions, and a one-week hospital immersion for P2s.  Please join me in thanking Don Bennett for his dedicated service to the college.

In September, we were delighted to welcome alumnus Dr. Donnie Sullivan (BS ’90, PhD ‘96) back to the college as our new Director of Professional Experiential Programs.  Donnie’s enthusiasm for pharmacy education and working with our PharmD students are already helping him hit the ground running in his new role. 

I asked Donnie to share a few words about himself and his vision for experiential education in the college.  I think after reading this, you’ll see just why we’re so excited to have him back at Ohio State.

Hello, my name is Donnie Sullivan and I am the new Director of Professional Experiential Programs for the College of Pharmacy.  I am excited to be back at my alma mater and have already jumped in with both feet.

The focus of experiential education is to prepare our students to be outstanding clinicians, excellent patient-care-focused pharmacists, innovative thinkers, and change leaders who will continue to move our profession forward.  Our goal is to develop future pharmacists who will be the leaders in new patient care initiatives.

The College of Pharmacy has such a rich history developing great leaders within the profession and I hope to build on that reputation.  As the dynamics of the profession of pharmacy and job market change, my goal is to provide our students with the tools to become valuable contributors to patient care now and in the future.  We are not preparing our pharmacy students for only the current practice of pharmacy, but to be able to adapt to the practice 20 years in the future and help drive that change.

I view our preceptors as valuable team members in this process and we could not be successful without them.  I have already reached out to more than 150 of our preceptors and will be visiting many more of them in the near future.  Their input is extremely valuable and I always welcome their feedback and suggestions.  It is important that we strive to create a stronger link between the didactic curriculum and the experiential curriculum and our preceptors are a key component in this.

In the coming months you will see some significant changes and new initiatives coming from the experiential department.  This is a journey we are all in together with the goal of providing our students with the best and most innovative patient care experiences available.  I am looking forward to taking this journey with everyone and always welcome your feedback and suggestions.

Please join me in welcoming Donnie back to the college!

Best Regards,

Katherine Kelley

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

Welcome to the first issue of the new Knowledge Dispensary.  This news email will provide updates on key initiatives that are ongoing in the College.  This week Nicole Kwiek, Director of Undergraduate Studies has summarized ongoing work and efforts to revise our undergraduate BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences program.  Please mark your calendars to join us for one of the open forums listed below.

Best Regards,

Katherine Kelley

We continue to progress with BSPS curricular revision. In June, the reform task force submitted its recommendations, and since August, the implementation team has worked to adapt that proposal based on our resources. At last week’s faculty meeting, a plan was presented, with highlights including a two-track infrastructure catering to clinical and research/industry content, updated coursework, and the creation of a minor program. During this month, we are soliciting your feedback prior to a vote at the next faculty meeting.

To address any questions, concerns, and/or suggestions about the proposed program, we invite you to attend this month’s scheduled town hall meetings on Tuesday, 10/14 (11:30AM-12:30PM in PK250) and Monday, 10/27 (2:30-3:30PM in PK250). Remember: we’re also seeking alternative names for the proposed “Clinical Sciences” Pathway. So far, we’ve heard “Pre-Clinical Professions” and “Clinical Medicine”…thank you, Drs. Weber and Downing! Please submit to me any suggestions that you have.

Best,

Nicole Cartwright Kwiek, Ph.D.

Director of Undergraduate Studies