News & Media

Following the tragic deaths of George Floyd and others,

and the public outcry about the manner in which they died ...

In the midst of a national pandemic, pharmacy schools face extraordinary challenges as they work to make alternate arrangements for rotations, determine how students will graduate on time and ensure that learning continues.

Pharmacy schools are taking a closer look at addressing mental health and well-being among faculty, staff and students. Well before the recent coronavirus pandemic began, addressing mental health and well-being in the pharmacy community and among healthcare students and professionals had taken on some urgency.

Results from the 2019 National Pharmacist Workforce Study (NPWS) indicate that the profession’s demographics continue to rapidly change, with notable gains in racial and gender diversification.

Pharmacy organizations representing the interests of all pharmacists in the United States have released a joint set of policy recommendations critical to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

As I write this letter, the chaos of the coronavirus pandemic is absorbing virtually all our time and attention. At this point no one knows what the true impact of the virus will be here in the United States or across the world. Certainly there are lessons to glean from those countries that saw the infection earlier than others, but incomplete scientific and public health information—along with too much misinformation—compromises our best efforts to prevent the spread, identify cases in a timely and reliable way and treat those whose health has been seriously affected.

Pharmacy schools are focused on providing accessible healthcare to underserved populations. How do most Americans receive healthcare? The answer used to be fairly straightforward: people would see a physician for checkups, go to the pharmacy for prescriptions and visit the hospital only in the event of an emergency or major procedure such as surgery.

Vaping and e-cigarettes, widely used as a substitute for traditional tobacco cigarettes, made headlines in 2019 in an outbreak of respiratory illness and lung injury across the United States. By Sept. 6, there were more than 450 cases of lung illness potentially associated with e-cigarette use reported nationally, with six related fatalities confirmed.

Talk to academics involved in The National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology & Education (NIPTE) and they will tell you it’s about striving and thriving in innovation—inside and outside the walls of academia. NIPTE has collaborated with industry, academia and government, particularly the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to identify and help solve the world’s pharmaceutical challenges, which are far-reaching and keep growing.

Dr. Debra Goff, an associate professor of pharmacy practice and science at The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy and an infectious disease specialist and clinical pharmacist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, was selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be one of 25 global experts who will help healthcare professionals and government leaders in low- and middle-income countries implement antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) plans based on a toolkit WHO published in October 2019.

Schools of pharmacy are moving biomedical technologies from the lab to the market, turning novel discoveries into better health for their communities. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is helping schools do this, awarding grants to connect scientists to investors, which connects to the overall goal of identifying innovative promising technologies and advancing them toward commercialization. Scientists see how to navigate commercialization, while investors find the best ideas for health products.

INsight 2020 provided attendees a chance to recharge with new connections, strategies and perspectives from Puerto Rico. Why is change necessary? What needs to change within an organization to shift its culture? Dr. Noel E. Wilkin, provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, professor and research professor at The University of Mississippi, kicked off programming at INsight 2020 by exploring the questions needed to facilitate effective change.