The Pulse - December 2010

The

Pulse

News from Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

December 2010

Sign Language Breaks Down Barriers in Pharmacy Jason Kubik ’13 took the American Sign Language classes offered at the College because he wanted to communicate with a deaf customer at the Schenectady Rite Aid where he works. Rather than relying on total communication, a combination of methods such as sign, speech and writing, Kubik wanted to share a common language.

His plan worked better than expected. Not only was he able to communicate with the

customer, but she subsequently brought her mother, father and two friends – all of whom are deaf – so that they too could sign in the pharmacy. The customers were appreciative of Kubik’s knowledge and efforts, as were Kubik’s supervisors, who soon began to receive calls from deaf customers wanting to know when he would be working.

“If we can customize dosing, we should be able to customize the whole pharmacy experience,” Kubik said thoughtfully.

All the “Small Things” 2

New Pharmacy Rotation Makes Big Splash in the Caribbean A group of sixth year Pharm.D. students recently came back from a rotation experience on the Carribean island of Dominica. The five students (Beth Pollard, Sara Siriano, Jess Nadeau, Anthony Feeko and Tyler Wingood) were precepted by Assistant Pharmacy Practice Professor Jeanine Abrons.

In Dominica, the group worked with the Peace Corps and Jungle Bay, a local ecotourism resort, to educate Dominica residents about pharmacy and health care.

Abrons also worked with the country’s chief

Kubik did what Sign Language and Arts and Sciences Instructor Lynne Howell encourages all of her students to do – attempt to sign with deaf people.

“I put out that challenge to my students,” Howell said.

Jason Kubik, a fourth-year pharmacy student, interacts with a customer at a local Rite Aid.

See Sign Language Continued on page 4

Latest Study Abroad Opportunity: Senegal The College will extend its reach to another continent next summer when it offers a study abroad opportunity in Senegal.

A trio of professors, including Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies Kevin Hickey, will travel to Senegal with 24 students (eight each from ACPHS, Union College and the University at Albany) in the summer of 2011, following a spring semester seminar on the east African country.

2

Fall Sports: By the Numbers

“It’s unique to have three professors taking students from different majors and backgrounds to Africa,” Hickey said. “This synergy with three colleges is not typically seen in standard overseas trips.”

The reason for choosing Senegal lies with its history, traditions, and diversity – from its role in the slave trade to its large Islamic population. Senegal is also widely viewed as a model African democracy. The country celebrated 50 years of independence in April.

One of the experience’s main objectives is to help students gain cultural competency.

Asst. Professor Jeanine Abrons and ACPHS students educated Dominica residents about pharmacy and health care subjects, including diabetes and hypertension.

pharmacist and other health care leaders.

“We worked together to strategize what would allow us to have the greatest impact,” Abrons said.

The group met with local residents in rural health clinics, public schools and urban hospitals, and also volunteered at a local children’s home for mentally challenged and orphaned children.

During their outreach, they covered topics like diabetes, cholesterol, hypertension and herbal medicine. Abrons and the ACPHS students also wrote a comprehensive blog about their activities

See Senegal

See Dominica

Continued on page 4

Continued on page 4

Programs Take Root on 3 MTM Albany and Vermont Campuses

Link Between Vitamin D 5 The and Kidney Disease

2 The Pulse

December 2010

Fall Events at the College Offer Something for Everyone

Fall Sports By the Numbers

5| 6:00| 9|

Men’s soccer players who made the Hudson Valley All-Conference team.

Pace, in minutes per mile, Zach Yates ran the 8K course at the HVMAC Cross-Country Championship Meet. He placed fifth overall.

Wins by the women’s soccer team under first-year coach Christine Kanawada.

10|

Goals scored by Alexa Schooley, which led the women’s soccer team.

13|

Goals scored by Steve Chikwem, which led the men’s soccer team.

22:27|

The College’s Career Fair and Interview Day saw another strong turnout of students and employers in mid-November (top). During Mental Health Awareness Week, students helped foster unity by anonymously revealing personal secrets (bottom left). Ed Tick, an expert on post traumatic stress disorder, spoke on the challenges veterans face when returning from service (bottom right).

Time, in minutes, it took Nicole Izzo to run the 5K course at the HVWAC Cross-Country Championship Meet. She placed fouth overall.

The ACPHS women’s soccer team celebrates after winning their home tournament, the Panther Invitational.

Small Things

to Worry About

The paintings currently on display in the George and Leona Lewis Library might look similar to what students see in science textbooks or under microscopes.

Terry Slade, an artist and professor at Hartwick College, conceived the pieces titled “Small Things to Worry About” while working in Scotland on a project involving ancient stone circles. While observing the stones and the moonlit sky, Slade had the idea of creating universal shapes that mirror galactic shapes and microorganisms. Slade actually titled the works after drawing them.

He has always been interested in science and received a book on images seen through an electron microscope. He said he might have

also had that in mind when creating his “Small Things” drawings.

The title also refers to the “worldwide concern of a possible pandemic looming just around the corner. Such a plague, if it happened, would certainly be caused by a virus or bacteria so small that it could only be seen with a microscope,” said Sarah Martinez, Director of the Albany Center Gallery, where the exhibit first appeared in 2008. “In the artist’s opinion, the fact that any species can be devastated by something so small is ironic given the vast number of species the human race has and continues to destroy.”

The exhibit will be on view in the library through January.

December 2010

The Pulse 3

MTM Programs Expand Pharmacist’s Role in Patient Care College Partners with CDPHP on Initiative The College is partnering with local HMO, Capital District Physicians’ Health Plan (CDPHP), on a new initiative to provide eligible Medicare beneficiaries with medication therapy management (MTM) services.

As defined by the American Pharmacists Association, MTM is a term used to describe a broad range of health care services provided by pharmacists that optimize therapeutic outcomes for patients.

CDPHP

An elective APPE rotation in managed care pharmacy served to open the lines of communication between the two partners about potential roles for community pharmacists in an MTM initiative.

CDPHP was interested in a pilot project with community pharmacists to serve as a gateway to expanded MTM services.

ACPHS reached out to its network of alumni and APPE preceptors to identify pharmacists that would be interested in providing MTM services. The health plan and the College succeeded in establishing a network of 20 pharmacists from independent pharmacies, private practice, and a supermarket chain.

Vermont Campus Working with Porter Hospital

Through both telephonic outreach and face-to-face consultations, these pharmacists perform CMRs to assess medication use and identify medication-related problems. Contact with the more than 2,500 eligible members is ongoing and 100 CMRs have been completed to date.

Renee Mosier, assistant professor at the ACPHS-Vermont Campus, has initiated a medication therapy management (MTM) program at Porter Hospital in Middlebury, Vermont.

Mosier, who had previously been involved in an MTM program while working for Rite Aid in Virginia, launched the program in July 2010.

Each patient receives a summary of the consultation and an individualized written “take away.” Pharmacists also conduct quarterly reviews of each patient with whom they meet and for those patients who decline participation, but do not opt out of the program. These “desktop” reviews are also done by a pharmacist and any outstanding issues are addressed with the physician.

Here’s how the program works: Physicians refer patients to Mosier or, in some cases, she may suggest candidates for referral.

She meets face-to-face with patients during which time she does a complete review of their prescription and over-the-counter But there are challenges medications. As part of this process, Mosier also Assistant Professor with MTM, and one of the biggest obstacles centers discusses what the patients Renee Mosier around the reimbursement of can do to optimize their drug the pharmacist’s services. With each therapy, such as the best times of day to take medications or whether certain patient, the pharmacist must prepare for the appointment, arrange the drugs should be taken on an empty or meeting, and compile the PMR and full stomach.

MAP. This process can last anywhere from 3-5 hours per patient, yet the “The MTM session is typically the vast majority of insurance companies only time patients will sit down and offer no reimbursement for MTM spend an hour talking about their services. Those that do may pay as medications, which makes it a very little as $14 for patient appointments valuable experience for both the with pharmacists. patient and the pharmacist,” says Mosier. “It’s also an excellent “We, as a profession, need to find a opportunity to screen for compliance, workable resolution to the issue of and if there are compliance issues, to determine whether the problem may be MTM reimbursement,” says Mosier.

“There is no question that MTM saves related to side effects, costs, or some insurance companies money through other concerns.” reduced physician visits, prescriptions, hospital stays, etc. But Following the meeting, Mosier develops a personal medication record we need to get them to realize that. If we don’t, it will be difficult to sustain (PMR) which, for each medication, these programs in the future.” details information such as the start/end dates, brand name, generic Beginning this spring, there will be name, dose/strength, frequency, opportunities for P4 pharmacy indication(s), and prescriber. The completed PMR is given to the patient students from Albany to rotate with Mosier and participate in the MTM who is encouraged to share it with program at Porter Hospital. The his/her health care providers. Follow rotation will be open to the first class up with each patient continues as of P4 students in Vermont beginning needed. in spring 2012.

Since the program is just a few months old, a formal outcomes assessment is not available, but anecdotal information indicates that it is having an impact. Jennifer Cerulli, an Associate Professor at ACPHS, shares one example: “I met with a diabetic woman who was struggling with cost issues as a result of the coverage gap. We not only looked at generic cost saving opportunities, but also at her injectable diabetes medication.

We found that switching to multidose vial, in addition to being less expensive, required just one shot (as opposed to two with her pen).”

During 2009, this network conducted a Another patient called small pilot program his MTM pharmacist where pharmacists Associate Professor a week after his provided medication Jennifer Cerulli appointment to let her management for know that he was adding a new members with asthma. When the medication, and he wanted to January 2010 directive from the double check that it would not Centers for Medicare and cause any problems. These Medicaid Services (CMS) examples, in addition to the required plans to offer MTM positive feedback CDPHP has services such as comprehensive received from members and case medication reviews (CMRs) – management nurses, indicate that either live or telephonic – to the MTM services are having a eligible Medicare Part D positive effect and points to a members, the network of bright future for the program, pharmacists and pharmacies which CDPHP plans to expand in became the foundation of the 2011.

CDPHP Medicare MTM program.

More than just simply documenting the patient’s medication record, the PMR helps Mosier identify health risks to the patient such as medications being taken without indications, dosing issues, and potential drug interactions. At the end of each consultation, Mosier formally recommends any changes to the patient’s regimen to the physician via the Medication Action Plan (MAP).

She says that in nearly every instance, her recommendations have been readily accepted and implemented by the physicians, who have been very supportive of the program and recognize its value.

Excerpt of a Medication Action Plan Provided to Patient’s Physician

4 The Pulse

December 2010

Dominica from page 1 (http://acphs-dominica.blogspot.com). The blog entries show that the experience affected the students in profound ways:

less than we have in many aspects of life, but oddly enough they are overall much happier people.”

“We have adequate housing, clothing, medical care, and schooling among many other things yet still some of us Americans aren’t happy enough,” Nadeau wrote. “The people in Dominica have far

“This rotation has taught me to enjoy and be grateful for everything that we have, to not sweat the small stuff, to enjoy the company of others, and also to take the time to help someone in need,” Siriano blogged. “The people in Dominica have taught me these valuable life lessons of helping others and to always be thankful for what we have that I will be sure to take with me forever and always cherish.”

“Being on the island in general is an eye opener, but being able to participate in clinic days, days at schools, and helping with the House of Hope gave me an even greater appreciation for the life we live here in the United States,” Pollard noted.

Sign Language from page 1 The classes (American Sign Language I and II) aim to build receptive and expressive signing skills so students are able to communicate with deaf people they encounter. Howell focuses on finger spelling, basic grammatical structures, sign vocabulary and deaf culture.

Students practice skills in group and one-on-one settings as well as exercising their skills outside the classroom. Howell hopes someday to offer ASL III and IV at the College.

Sign language is the third most spoken language in the U.S., behind English and Spanish.

More than one million people are functionally deaf with more than eight million considered hard of hearing. Howell said the

deaf community is independent and appreciative when members of the hearing world try to sign.

“When deaf people attempt speech or total communication, they’re accommodating us,” Howell said. “Jason is accommodating them.”

Both Howell and Kubik had inspiring interactions with deaf people at formative ages.

Kubik’s mother took a sign course in college and befriended her deaf professor, who became a family friend.

Howell’s best friend’s father was deaf, which motivated her to pursue a deaf education degree.

Kubik said he plans to continue integrating sign language into his life. His girlfriend is now in Howell’s ASL I class, and he is able to help her and also maintain his own skills.

“Once you learn a language, you should keep it with you,” he said. After taking more than a decade of Spanish, he now uses Rosetta Stone software to maintain his grasp on the language.

In addition to the American Sign Language classes, ACPHS also offers Spanish for Health Careers I and II, which is tailored for language relevant to the health care field.

Signing the alphabet:

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz If you haven’t joined us on Facebook yet, search Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences to view photos of College activities, videos, event reminders and links of interest.

We look forward to interacting with you online.

Study Abroad Destinations Include: Alaska China Hawaii India

Japan Peru Spain Switzerland

Senegal from page 1 Students will immerse themselves in Senegalese culture in a variety of ways, including participation in lectures at the West Africa Research Center in Senegal’s capital, Dakar. They will also be expected to keep extensive journals of their experiences.

“The world is a better place when we cultivate the ties that extend outside our nation,” Hickey said. “As ACPHS has grown and faculty are putting more emphasis on global learning, students are becoming more interested. I hope this will continue.”

Another professor involved in the course, University at Albany Associate Professor Eloïse Briere, said that she expects the Senegal experience to broaden students’ outlooks.

“I suspect that the memory of what they learn will be embedded in who they later become, whether it be pharmacists, chemists, doctors, or teachers. It will remind them to think outside of the confines of their own languages, their own countries, and their own cultures,” Briere said. “My hope is that they will in effect become value-added persons, able to view our planet and its global interconnections through multiple perspectives.”

Hickey and Briere are excellent choices to lead such a trip as both spent many years abroad in Africa. Briere began teaching at Collège St. Jeanne d’Arc in Senegal, and Hickey trekked through the continent by bicycle for four years. The third professor involved in the course, Union College’s Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Cheikh Ndiaye, knows the most about Africa and especially Senegal—it is the country where he was born, grew up, and where he received the first of his three university degrees.

Hickey hopes to offer the Senegal experience every other year. He is also working to secure future rotation sites in Africa for ACPHS students.

December 2010

The Pulse 5

Grant Examines Impact of Vitamin D in Treatment of Chronic Kidney Disease Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice Darius Mason has received a three-year, $150,000 grant to study the effects of different vitamin D treatments on patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Mason expects to begin the project in January.

Many patients suffering from chronic kidney disease (i.e., those on dialysis) have a vitamin D deficiency, which often leads to increased risks of cardiovascular Assistant Professor disease. The problem is Darius Mason particularly severe for these patients as cardiovascular related complications are the number one cause of death in individuals with CKD. The medication used to boost vitamin D levels in dialysis patients is called “activated” vitamin D. The “supplemental” form of vitamin D is not often administered to these patients because the prevailing belief is that they will be unable to naturally convert it to the active form.

However, more recent research has shown that the majority of vitamin D conversion takes place outside of the kidneys, when it was previously believed that most of the conversion took place within the kidneys.

These findings are challenging conventional approaches on how patients can best be treated.

cardiovascular disease,” said Mason. “If we are able to demonstrate that some concentration of the supplemental form of vitamin D can improve outcomes, that would be a very promising development in the fight against kidney disease. The fact that it would also lead to reduced health care costs would be icing on the cake.”

Mason will be studying whether the supplemental form of vitamin D can be used in conjunction with activated vitamin D to improve biomarkers related to cardiovascular disease and inflammation in dialysis patients.

In addition to the potential health benefits, the use of the supplemental form of Vitamin D would offer a cost savings if it is able to also lower the use of other expensive medications required in dialysis patients. Activated vitamin D averages $2,000 per patient per year, while the supplemental form is just $75 per patient per year.

The grant is being funded by Satellite Healthcare, a 37-year old kidney dialysis service provider and major sponsor of nephrology research. Mason’s grant was one of just six awarded by the organization to “promising early-career researchers dedicated to undertaking critical research in the area of kidney disease and its treatment.”

“A 20 year old on dialysis has the same mortality as a ‘healthy’ 80 year old, which is in large part due to the increased risks of

Brigitte Schiller, Chief Medical Officer of Satellite Healthcare, was especially pleased with this year`s pool of applicants. “The quality of this year’s grant applications was outstanding. Selecting the winners was no easy task, and I could not be more impressed by the diverse group of researchers the Scientific Advisory Board ultimately chose,” she said.

Provost and Dean Mehdi Boroujerdi poses with winners of the College’s Provost Awards.

Students were recognized at a ceremony on November 12.

Campus Groups Join Forces for Smokeout The ACPHS Colleges Against Cancer chapter expanded their Great American Smokeout activities this year, involving additional campus organizations and moving the event to the Student Center Atrium. This year’s event, which took place on November 18, succeeded in attracting more than 100 people.

The Student Society of Health Systems Pharmacists, American Pharmacist Association, Tobacco Free Coalition and Phi Delta Chi also participated in the Smokeout activities to further bring the campus together around the cause, according to Anjoli Punjabi, a third-year BSPS student and ACPHS’s CAC President.

Information was provided at the event on “how to quit” and “why to quit,” with packets and brochures detailing the harmful effects of smoking as well as the restorative effects of quitting.

Attendees were also encouraged to sign petitions for decreased exposure to secondhand smoke and the prohibition of cigarette sales in pharmacies.

The Vermont Campus Students created a display and handed out education flyers, raffled off t-shirts, spa services and gift certificates to participants. There were approximately 80 students who participated.

The 2011 Relay for Life event, CAC’s largest annual event, will take place on April 16.

Students Honored for Academic Achievements The below awards were handed out to students in years one through five: Provost Award Scott Beeman Michael D’Alessandro Laura Gauthier Benjamin Kimmel Daniel Mackey Nora Morgan Jin Wan No Allison Reyngoudt Alexis Thayer Molly Trayah Olga Yankulina Dr. Lawrence H. MacDonald Memorial Award Michelle Fioravanti James J. Roome, Jr. ’79 Award Kristin Pesto Sheena Kottackal Evan Zasowski Lucy M. Manvel Membership Award Farzeen Khosravi Emily Napper

Marsden H. Hayes Award Christina Hage Rho Pi Phi Beta Alumni Award Tasmina Hydery Jerome R. Lozoff ’67 Alumni Award Heather Van Kuren Claudia L. DelGiacco Memorial Award Nicholas DiPirro Dr. Rudolph R. DelGiacco ’46 Memorial Award Sarah Wurz Robert J. Sherer Memorial Award Jacyln Hosmer Walmart Scholarship Aniwaa Owusu Obeng Elizabeth Pollard Jonathan Kubinski

6 The Pulse

December 2010

Checking The Pulse A roundup of ACPHS news and notes Medication Takeback Program a Success During ACPHS’s Mario M. Zeolla Health Fair, more than 100 individuals came to the College to properly dispose of old or unused prescriptions and accounted for more than 220 pounds of medication. “We were thrilled by the community support for the takeback event, and what made it even better was the fact that many individuals stayed to visit the health information booths after disposing of their medications. It made us feel like we had double the impact,” said Joel Messina, APhA-ASP president.

ACPHS Student Athletes Receive Academic Recognition Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has recently been named a recipient of the 2010 National Soccer Coaches Association of America Team Academic Award for the 2009-10 academic year. ACPHS is one of 123 schools nationwide to have both their men’s and women’s soccer teams recognized with the award. To receive the academic award, the team grade point average must be 3.0 or higher. For the 2009-10 academic year, the ACPHS women’s soccer team posted a GPA of 3.5, while the men’s soccer team earned a GPA of 3.1.

Students Take Strides For Cancer Fundraiser The Vermont and Albany chapters of Colleges Against Cancer (CAC) each participated in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walks in October. More than thirty members of the Vermont Campus attended the walk in Burlington and raised over $2,000 for the American Cancer Society. The Albany team of more than 100 students, faculty and staff raised $6,125, surpassing its fundraising goal.

Faculty Member to Review Italian Research Grant Applications The Italian Ministry of Health (MOH) has issued a call for grant applications for biomedical research, and Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Carlos Feleder, has been asked to be part of the international group of reviewers. Feleder will review grant applications in the fields of Neuroscience, Neurology, Immunology and Endocrinology.

Grant values may be as high as five million Euros (USD 6.64 million).

Scaling Up Beginning in January, the New York State Pharmacy Board will allow electronic balances to be used on the compounding portion of Part III of the New York Sate Pharmacy Board licensing exam. Students in the Pharmacy Practice Skills Labs I course began utilizing these balances for compounding this semester.

Vermont Faculty Present at Research Symposium Several members of the Dept. of Pharmaceutical Sciences on the Vermont Campus attended the “Clinical and Translational Research Symposium: Inflammation & Cancer” on November 5. Both positive and negative ways in which inflammation impacts tumor growth were presented in lecture and panel discussion sessions. Asssistant Professor Karen Glass received the award for Best Faculty Poster entitled, “The Role of ING4 and ING5 Tumor Suppressors in Chromatin Remodeling and Disease.”

Professor Stefan Balaz and his student, Senthil Natesan, presented their poster entitled, “Binding Affinity Prediction of Metalloprotein Ligands: QM/MM Linear Response Approach.” Professor Dorothy Pumo and Assistant Professor Rajesh Subramaniam also attended.

Library Gets Another Upgrade The Library will purchase a Scan Pro 2000 with a $7,500 Technology Improvement grant awarded by the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. The device is an all-in-one microform viewer, scanner and printer. It has a touch screen that eliminates the use of manual knobs, and all controls—image movement, focus, screen adjustment, enhancement, image cropping, and scanning—are on the viewing screen. It will make a high resolution scan in one second, and users can print, save to USB, CD or a hard drive.

Dept. of Pharmacy Practice Hosts Health Outcomes Symposium The November 11 symposium featured presentations from ACPHS Associate Professors Leon Cosler and Tom Lodise, who were joined

by Katia Noyes, Associate Professor and Chief of the Division of Health Policy and Outcomes Research at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and Jill Lavigne, Associate Professor, Wegmans School of Pharmacy, St. John Fisher College. The importance of Health Outcomes Research was underscored last year when the U.S. government earmarked $1.1 billion for this area of study, which is sometimes referred to as comparative effectiveness research.

Winter Calendar December Friday, December 10 – Classes End Monday - Friday, December 13-17 – Final Examinations Monday - Tuesday, December 20-21 – New York State Part III Board Review January Wednesday, January 12 – Annual Respiratory Disease and Pharmacotherapy Program Monday, January 17 – Martin Luther King Day College closed Tuesday, January 18 – Spring Semester classes begin Saturday, January 22 – ACPHS Research Forum Day Febrary Friday, February 11 – Last day to drop a course without academic penalty Sunday, February 13 – Annual Infectious Disease Symposium Monday, February 21 – President’s Day - No classes Tuesday, February 22 – Classes resume March Monday - Friday, March 14-18 – Spring Recess No classes Friday - Saturday, March 18-19 – Annual Pharmacy Practice Institute Monday, March 21 – Classes resume

The Pulse Editorial Staff Editor Patrick Rathbun Contributor Gil Chorbajian Designer Debbie Reutter Lussier Send questions, comments or submissions to patrick.rathbun@acphs.edu or call 518-694-7131.