Pharmacy – An Essential Profession in a New Age

Pharmacy

An Essential Profession in a New Age

With a perpetual focus upon improvement and upon innovation, the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) has advanced beyond its roots in osteopathic medicine. In 2002, LECOM established a School of Pharmacy; and the first Doctor of Pharmacy graduates earned their degrees in 2005. Since the establishment of the initial School of Pharmacy, LECOM also added a school of Pharmacy at its branch campus in Bradenton, Florida.

Nicholas Lombardo, PharmD The LECOM School of Pharmacy opened to prepare pharmacists as members of a changing health care environment dedicated to patient-centered care. LECOM Erie offers the year-round, three-year curriculum, while the Bradenton campus has a four-year program, and a four-year, distance education pathway.

In this moment, LECOM stands as the vibrant heart of the only osteopathic academic health center in the nation; and one of its shining attainments has been the success - and successful graduates - of the LECOM School of Pharmacy.

Twenty-first century pharmacists enjoy a larger role in patient care, improving outcomes, increasing patient access to care, shifting time for physicians to focus upon more critically ill patients, improving patient and provider satisfaction, assuring patient safety, and clearly advancing and improving the whole of the healthcare delivery system. LECOM has been successful and remains so - because it had and continues to have a clear vision. It is a strategically implemented vision with celebrated successes and transcendent triumphs. The School of Pharmacy and pharmacy profession have much to offer; and a window of opportunity now is thrown wide because of the plethora of need resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic.

LECOM alumnus, Nicholas Lombardo, PharmD, (Class of 2018) has been pivotally involved in addressing that need. As a clinical pharmacy specialist at Millcreek Community Hospital (MCH), he has been instrumental in providing COVID-19 immunizations, an undertaking essential to conquering the virus that has devastatingly affected so many lives. This triumph is a personal reward to Dr. Lombardo, and to those like him who stand by a commitment to providing excellent patient care. In addition to overseeing direct

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