A service learning program in providing nutrition education to children.

OBJECTIVE: To implement a service learning program in nutrition and assess its impact on pharmacy students' communication skills and professionalism and elementary school children's knowledge of nutrition concepts. DESIGN: First-year pharmacy students completed 4 nutrition education sessions led by a registered dietitian and then presented the material to pre-selected classes of at-risk elementary school children in kindergarten through third grade. ASSESSMENT: Ninety-six pharmacy students completed the pre- and post-experience survey and more than 90% rated achievement of course objectives as strongly agree or agree. Four hundred sixty-eight elementary students completed a pre- and posttest on nutrition knowledge. Significant improvement was found in all grade levels on the knowledge test. CONCLUSION: This service learning experience was beneficial for the elementary school children and pharmacy students, enhancing the knowledge of both groups and establishing a positive relationship between the pharmacy school and the community.

Utility of lyophilized PMA and ionomycin to stimulate lymphocytes in whole blood for immunological assays.

BACKGROUND: The need to implement robust biomarkers in clinical trials has never been greater, and such efforts can be easily compromised by reagent instability or simple human error during assay set-up. Many biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are introducing efforts to conduct biomarker studies under more rigorous settings, and the use of plates or tubes pre-loaded with stimulation or staining reagents could be of value for studies that involve flow cytometry. METHODS: Five reagents lyophilized from ethanol or CHAPS buffer stock solution of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) and ionomycin were benchmarked against standard DMSO liquid formulation for their stimulation equivalency. The median fluorescence intensity of phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6 in lymphocytes was assessed on a BD FACSCalibur. RESULTS: We demonstrate here that tubes pre-loaded with lyophilized versions of the liquid reagents can provide equivalent stimulation in healthy volunteer specimens. CONCLUSIONS: The value of this approach is that it safeguards against omission or erroneous addition of bulk liquid formulations of PMA and ionomycin to the reaction vessel (i.e., plate or tube) and also lends itself to extended stability/shelf-life of these reagents. On the basis of this initial success, we plan to expand our evaluation of lyophilized reagents so that they can be incorporated into our clinical biomarker campaigns as appropriate.

Postgraduate year one pharmacy residency program equivalency.

In 2006, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) charged the Task Force on Residency Equivalency to define the professional experience expected of a clinically mature practitioner that would meet or exceed the knowledge and skills of an accredited postgraduate year one residency-trained pharmacist. In this commentary, the Task Force discusses both the qualitative and quantitative components of documentation by means of a residency equivalency portfolio. The potential roles of academia, pharmacy professional organizations, and employers and the possible barriers to an equivalency process are addressed. This commentary lays the foundation for establishing a residency equivalency process that could promote the growth and development of existing and future residency programs and allow qualified practitioners to demonstrate their capabilities. The ACCP implores invested stakeholders to take an active part in this collaborative effort as the profession transitions toward residency training as a prerequisite for all pharmacists providing direct patient care by 2020.

Impact of safety warnings on drug utilization: marketplace life span of cisapride and troglitazone.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of safety alerts on the volume of cisapride and troglitazone usage. DESIGN: Retrospective database analysis. SETTING: University research center. MATERIAL: Idaho Medicaid claims data from January 1994--July 2000. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Monthly counts of total and new prescriptions filled for cisapride and troglitazone were analyzed graphically over time as a function of all prescriptions. New prescriptions were defined as those filled by patients who had not received the drug within the previous year. A binomial comparison of the 5 months before and after each safety alert was conducted by Poisson distribution. Overall and new cisapride usage increased after the first alert, which occurred in February 1995 (p<0.05). After the second alert, in September 1995, growth in new prescriptions ended but total prescriptions continued to grow (p<0.05). After the third alert, in June 1998, growth in total use ended and the number of new prescriptions declined (p<0.05). The final two alerts (June 1999 and January 2000) were met with significant declines (p<0.05 for both). Troglitazone was the subject of two alerts in October and December 1997. After these, overall usage increased (p<0.05), whereas the number o new prescriptions decreased (p<0.05). The third alert, in July 1998, caused no change as total prescription use continued to grow (p<0.05), whereas the number of new prescriptions decreased (p<0.05). A fourth alert, in June 1999, resulted in a decrease of overall usage and new prescriptions (p<0.05 for both). CONCLUSION: Numerous safety alerts were required for each drug before drug usage declined. The decline in overall use was slower than the decline in new prescriptions, possibly indicating a need for increased assessment of refilled prescriptions after the release of new safety data.