[The opening lectures in chemistry of the French pharmacists]

The opening lectures, which formerly marked the beginning of a professor's duties in an academic institution, are important documents for science historians. Several opening lectures in chemistry (organic, inorganic, analytical, biological or medicinal chemistry), which were given by French pharmacists in the Ecole or the Faculté de pharmacie de Paris, in the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, or in the Collège de France are analyzed. First, these lectures reveal formal aspects, such as the history of the chair or a eulogy of the works and personal qualities of the predecessor. Then, the educational aspects contained in the opening lectures provide information, as well as the opinions of the new professor about teaching and research, history of the subject and its interest for the pharmaceutical students. The final aspects cited concerned the education of the new professor, the birth of his vocation and the help provided by his mentors during his university studies, his periods of instruction and his first experimental works. The opening lecture reveals sociological aspects of how knowledge was built.

University and college of pharmacy collaboration to control health plan prescription drug costs

OBJECTIVE

To describe the Raising Energy and Awareness in Campus Health (REACH) program, an innovative pharmacy practice model implemented within a self-insured employer.

SETTING

University of Kentucky, Lexington.

PRACTICE DESCRIPTION

A self-funded university-based health plan. PRACTICE INNOVATION/INTERVENTIONS: As part of a university-wide effort to control rising health care costs for 24,000 employees and dependents, four novel pharmacist services encompassed in the REACH program were provided: Co-Pay Counseling; Good Medicines; OutREACH; and Disease Management and Health Promotion.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

University health plan expenditures and health plan member out-of-pocket expenses for prescription medications.

RESULTS

The REACH services were provided by 3.5 full-time equivalent pharmacists. Pharmacists evaluated health plan members' medications and conditions in an effort to identify more cost-effective treatment regimens in the Co-Pay Counseling program; provided confidential medication regimen review in the Good Medicines effort; provided informational programs at worksites within the university in the Out-REACH service; and worked with plan members and their health providers to prevent and/or minimize the impact of diseases such as diabetes and dyslipidemias. The overall university program and medication coinsurance strategy saved an estimated 1.6 million dollars in 2003-04.

CONCLUSION

This unique package of employee benefits and services enabled the University of Kentucky to slow the growth of health care expenditures. Pharmacists were an important element in this effort.

Early pharmacy education at the University of Illinois

"The study of chemistry is the most important as it is the most difficult of all the collateral branches of a pharmaceutist's education; the one that gives him the most power when applied in his professional pursuits, and the most reputation among the scientific. Chemistry is indeed the groundwork of every important process, and none can expect to excel who do not make it their study. The student of chemistry should, as early as practicable, get a mental outline grasp (if we may so speak) of the leading principles of the science".

Nouvelle recherche sur les courtes affectations du Pr Heckel (1843-1916) à l'École supérieure de pharmacie récemment créée à Nancy, entre 1873 et 1876

When the school of pharmacy was transferred from Strasbourg to Nancy in 1872, the chair of natural history was unoccupied and it remained initially in this position. First, the professor of faculty of medicine was designed to teach, but the importance of a pharmacist appeared rapidly. Edouard Marie Heckel, then temporary fellow at the school of Montpellier, was chosen and appointed in March 1873. We do not know for 1874, but he came again in 1875, and became professor. But hardly nominated, he went to Grenoble... During these years, he participated actively in university and pharmaceutical activities, and he begun with professor Schlagdenhauffen a durable and fruitful scientific collaboration. The presence in Nancy of professor Heckel shows some of the qualities that explain his splendid university career some years later in Marseille, and give an example of the difficulties initially encountered by the school of pharmacy of Nancy.

End-of-life care education in United States pharmacy schools

Hospice and palliative care have undergone dramatic changes in the past 30 years. Educational initiatives and certification programs for physicians (American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine) and nurses (National Board for Certification of Hospice and Palliative Nurses) have further delineated this area of practice as distinct from geriatrics, neurology, anesthesiology, or oncology. As other professions assess their own practices of hospice and end-of-life (EOL) care education in their respective schools and colleges, the pharmacy profession must also ensure that its future graduates are prepared to adequately participate in this type of care. This was a descriptive study in which all accredited schools and colleges of pharmacy in the US were queried regarding their level of curricular commitment to EOL care. Eighty-three questionnaires were mailed, and 60 schools responded (72 percent). Four primary informational items regarding EOL and palliative care education were targeted, including availability of didactic teaching, specialization of pharmacy faculty, availability and type of clerkships, and method of instruction. Sixty-two percent of respondents indicated EOL care education was provided didactically (3.89 +/- 1.91 lecture hours per year). Fifty-eight percent of respondents indicated that EOL care experiential clerkships were available (4.97 +/- 1.25 weeks in duration). These data indicate that over half of US pharmacy students receive some exposure to EOL care education.

Changes in pharmacy practice faculty 1995-2001: implications for junior faculty development

OBJECTIVE

To compare changes in United States pharmacy practice faculty demographics from 1995-2001 and to discuss the implications for junior faculty development.

METHODS

Demographic data were extracted from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy institutional research system for academic years 1995-1996 and 2000-2001.

RESULTS

In 2000-2001, pharmacy practice was the largest faculty discipline, 3.8 times larger than the next three disciplines. Junior pharmacy practice faculty occupied 65% of all junior full-time pharmacy faculty positions. Tenure track assistant professors decreased 4% from 283 to 271, and nontenure track assistant professors increased 58% from 427 to 677 (chi2 = 20.0, p<0.05). In 2000-2001, 72% of all pharmacy practice assistant professors were nontenure track, up from 59% in 1995-1996. Women assistant professors in pharmacy practice outnumbered men by 2:1. Challenges faced by new faculty include balancing teaching, practice, and research demands; selecting a nontenure or tenure track and understanding its expectations; limiting teaching preparation time; developing productive writing habits; setting performance goals; managing time; and handling the mental and physical stress of academic life. Senior faculty must actively help new members appreciate the many positive aspects of academic life by sharing their strategies and success stories.

CONCLUSION

Schools and colleges of pharmacy relied heavily on increasing the number of nontenure track junior pharmacy practice faculty to meet increased clinical education demands.

Creating a "win-win" home care agency-university partnership

This article describes the experiences of the home care agency-university partnership, identifies cooperative activities and resultant clinical and cost outcomes, and cites future collaborative plans. The authors also outline home care agency and university characteristics that contribute to successful partnerships and tips for initiating such relationships.

Clinical pharmacy services in hospitals educating pharmacy students

In 1995 we conducted a national survey of 1102 acute care hospitals in the United States to determine types of clinical pharmacy services, patient-focused care, and pharmaceutical care used to educate and train pharmacy students, and compared outcomes with surveys in 1989 and 1992. Clinical pharmacy services offered in 50% or more of Pharm.D.-affiliated hospitals (core services) were drug-use evaluation, in-service education, pharmacokinetic consultations, adverse drug reaction management, drug therapy monitoring, protocol management (most common for aminoglycosides, nutrition, antibiotics, heparin, warfarin, theophylline), nutrition team, and drug counseling. Comprehensive pharmaceutical care programs were established in 64%, 42%, and 33% of Pharm.D., B.S., and nonteaching hospitals, respectively. Patient-focused care programs were beginning or established in 77%, 71%, and 60%, respectively. Pharmacists served as care team leaders in 23% of hospitals affiliated with a college of pharmacy. Most common ambulatory care clinics were oncology, anticoagulation, diabetes, geriatrics, refill, and infectious diseases/HIV. For-profit hospitals rarely provided education for pharmacy students. Thus patient-focused and comprehensive pharmaceutical care programs exist according to a hospital's academic program affiliation with Pharm.D. or B.S. degree program.

Wide-area network connecting a hospital drug informatics center with a university

A wide-area network (WAN) connecting a new drug informatics center in a university-affiliated hospital with the university's campus-based computer network is described. In 1994 a pharmacy school developed a drug informatics center in an affiliated hospital. The center was originally designed around a local-area network (LAN) to be located at the hospital and planned to provide clients with easy access to typical productivity software and various electronic information resources. Only occasional modem connections to the university network were envisioned. However, large price increases in information retrieval systems and decreases in the cost of a frame relay connection (T1 line) to the campus network led to the installation of a WAN when the drug informatics center was established. Technical, political, and legal problems were overcome, and the connection was made. The WAN gave faculty and students at the hospital access to many of the university's computing and Internet resources. In addition, the faculty and students have access to various files and programs available only on the drug informatics center's file server at the affiliated hospital. It cost about $6500 to install all WAN equipment and maintain the frame relay for the first year, or a third of what would have been necessary for information retrieval software had a separate LAN been established at the hospital. A WAN connecting a drug informatics center and a university's computer network gave the center access to more electronic information resources at lower cost than would have been possible with a separate LAN.

Creating a team approach to hospital and college of pharmacy relationships: a strategy to integrate missions to enhance education and patient care

Academic medical centers continue to bear the burden of the additional costs of professional education. Such institutions and their affiliated colleges of pharmacy are challenged to sustain the degree of professional staffing required to deliver quality education and patient care services. Historically, these relationships have not always proven to be cooperative and mutually beneficial. As managers and deans attempt to maximize the productivity of their financial and human resources, they will need to creatively structure relationships that effectively meet those diverse professional missions that sometimes seem to exist in conflict or that each seem to be successful only at the expense of the other. Pharmacists who act as both faculty, delivering experiential education, and clinical staff providing patient care, are significantly stressed in their attempts to meet the sometimes conflicting objectives of these multiple missions. The survival of precepted experiential education in pharmacy and of pharmaceutical care in academic medical center hospitals will likely depend upon a model of cooperative relationship, such as the venture described by Jorgenson, et al.

Outcomes research: collaboration among academic researchers, managed care organizations, and pharmaceutical manufacturers

Medical and pharmaceutical outcomes research has been of increasing interest in the past 10 to 15 years among healthcare providers, payers, and regulatory agencies. Outcomes research has become a multidisciplinary field involving clinicians, health services researchers, epidemiologists, psychometricians, statisticians, psychologists, sociologists, economists, and ethicists. Collaboration among researchers in different organizations that offer different types of services and various research expertise is the essential element for any successful outcomes project. In this article we discuss collaboration on outcomes research among academic researchers (mainly those who work in colleges of pharmacy), managed care organizations, and research-based pharmaceutical manufacturers, with a focus on the opportunities and challenges facing each party. The pharmaceutical industry needs information to make product and promotion decisions; the managed care industry has data to offer but needs analysis of these data; and pharmacy schools, among other academic institutions, have skilled researchers and data-processing capacity but require projects for revenue, research training, experience, and publications. Challenges do exist with such endeavors, but collaboration could be beneficial in satisfying the needs of the individual parties.

The implementation of a pharmaceutical care practice system

The growing emphasis on a well-rounded clinical pharmacy practitioner, combined with the implementation of the six-year Doctor of Pharmacy degree requires innovative training strategies. A method to integrate clinical practice and training missions is described in Development of a Patient Care Unit(PCU). Pharmacist practice is described.

An overview of types of relationships between hospitals and colleges/schools of pharmacy

Three vignettes describe the details of each of the three types of practice-education relationships in academic hospitals identified in a survey by the University HealthSystem Consortium. The educational affiliation at Penn State's Hershey Medical Center, the affiliated relationship of the Medical College of Virginia, and a fully integrated relationship at the University of Illinois at Chicago are described by the Director of Pharmacy at each institution. The advantages, disadvantages, and future goals are described.

Analysis of a survey of UHC hospitals--College of Pharmacy relationships

The University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) Pharmacy Advisory Council commissioned a survey of the methods and resources used to support pharmacy practice education. This article presents the results of the two-part survey, and presents a brief description and analysis of the results. Fifty-two of the UHC's member hospitals' pharmacies replied to the survey. An unblinded study sought to characterize the types and numbers of students and staff involved. A second blinded portion of the survey requested the opinions and comments of pharmacy managers.

The search for synergy

Pharmacy practice education has been part of the mission of academic medical center hospitals for a long time. Practitioners, faculty members, students, and pharmacy managers work to develop relationships that support the training of future pharmacy practitioners. Increasing financial and operating pressures created by managed care have caused hospital pharmacies and colleges of pharmacy to re-examine the nature of the relationships that support this training. The University HealthSystem Consortium Pharmacy Advisory Council undertook a survey and commissioned a study of the methods and resources used to support pharmacy practice education. Based on this assessment, relationships were characterized as educational affiliation, affiliated, and fully integrated. The current status and future prospects for each of these relationships are described.