uic pharmacist, winter 2013

Pharmacist

Winter 2013 ￭ Volume 36, Number 1

Remote Control COP pioneers telemedicine

Also Inside ➟ The home infusion invasion➟�Reunion 2012

The UIC College of Pharmacy is proud to announce the establishment of the Norman R. Farnsworth Lectureship in Pharmacognsy in memory of one of its most dedicated pharmacy educators and internationally renowned, transformational pharmacognosy researchers on the chemistry, biology, and therapeutic properties of medicinal plants and natural products.

Norman R. Farnsworth, distinguished university professor, served on the UIC College of Pharmacy faculty for more than 41 years (1970–2011). During his tenure, he served as head of the Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmacology for 12 years, followed by 30 years as director of the Program for Collaborative Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences. This multidisciplinary research unit is dedicated to all aspects of collaborative studies on medicinal plants, including chemistry, biology, clinical effects, biodiversity inventory and conservation, informatics, and intellectual property rights.

Farnsworth also served as director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Traditional Medicine at UIC and was the inventor and editor of the NAPRALERT database, a relational database on medicinal plants and natural products.

“Farnsworth brought to UIC a culture of sophisticated research that has persisted. It is a legacy that we cherish. We are consistently rated one of the top five research colleges of pharmacy in the United States, and that can be traced back to Norm,” says Dean Jerry Bauman. “[His arrival] transformed us from being predominantly a teaching-oriented institution to one making major scientific contributions that complement our educational programs. Norm had the ability to recruit extremely talented colleagues and get them to work collaboratively toward common research and scientific goals.”

Born in Lynn, Mass., Farnsworth received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, where he also served as a faculty member for 15 years.

Under Farnsworth’s direction, the UIC/NIH Center for Botanical Dietary Supplements Research was established in 1999 as one of six such research centers funded by the National Institutes of Health to study botanical dietary supplements. UIC’s Center, the only continuously funded unit, focuses on studying botanicals that may improve women’s health and quality of life, specifically in the areas of menopause, premenstrual syndrome and persistent urinary tract infections.

Throughout his distinguished career, Farnsworth was the recipient of numerous national and international awards, too numerous to cite. A sampling includes three honorary doctorates and three honorary professorships as well as appointments as special delegate and commission member by former Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, respectively. A reflection of the esteem held by his peers is exemplified by the American Society of Pharmacognosy’s designating its research achievement award as the Norman R. Farnsworth Research Achievement Award. In recognition of his contribution to pharmacognostical education and research, special symposium programs honoring Farnsworth were held by the 12th Annual Oxford International Conference on the Science of Botanicals and by the American Society of Pharmaognosy at the International Congress of Natural Products Research in 2012.

To ensure the preservation of his enduring academic legacy as an educator, innovator, and pioneering researcher whose contributions have impacted not only UIC, but have also changed the face of pharmacognosy and medicinal plant research, the UIC College of Pharmacy seeks your assistance in establishing the Norman R. Farnsworth Lectureship in Pharmacognosy with an annual public lecture on topics encompassing all aspects of pharmacognosy research and education by internationally recognized researchers/educators.

Make your gift today at pharmgiving.uic.edu.

College establishes lectureship in honor of venerated pharmacognosy pioneer

Pharmacist

Winter 2013 ￭ Volume 36 Number 1

Table of Contents

Cover

“The Needle” by Heesue Kim, first-place winner of COP’s Images of Research Competition. See page 16 for details and other winners.

In Every Issue03 Dean’s Message

05 News Flash

12 Rising Stars

20 Faculty Fanfare

25 Lab Notes

26 Giving

30 The Rockford Files

46 Gallery

50 Class Notes

57 Obituaries

62 In the Loop

In This IssueThe “In-Home” Pharmacist 32With the help of pending legislation, the home infusion sector could explode into mainstream ranks and revolutionize patient care. UIC alumni pioneer this little-known practice area.

Remote Control 36Research predicts telemedicine will serve 1.8M patients by 2017 from its current estimated level of 308,000. UIC pharmacists broaden their clinical reach through this growing trend.

Reunion 2012 41Time stands still as the College celebrates history and raises a glass to the future.

Commencement 2012 46The most recent crop of COP alumni take their walk of fame!

White Coats 2012 49Welcome, Class of 2016!

A Publication for the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy Alumni and Friends

UIC Pharmacist | Winter 2013 | pharmalumni.uic.edu | 1

32

36

41

The UIC College of Pharmacy is proud to announce the establishment of the Norman R. Farnsworth Lectureship in Pharmacognsy in memory of one of its most dedicated pharmacy educators and internationally renowned, transformational pharmacognosy researchers on the chemistry, biology, and therapeutic properties of medicinal plants and natural products.

Norman R. Farnsworth, distinguished university professor, served on the UIC College of Pharmacy faculty for more than 41 years (1970–2011). During his tenure, he served as head of the Department of Pharmacognosy and Pharmacology for 12 years, followed by 30 years as director of the Program for Collaborative Research in the Pharmaceutical Sciences. This multidisciplinary research unit is dedicated to all aspects of collaborative studies on medicinal plants, including chemistry, biology, clinical effects, biodiversity inventory and conservation, informatics, and intellectual property rights.

Farnsworth also served as director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Traditional Medicine at UIC and was the inventor and editor of the NAPRALERT database, a relational database on medicinal plants and natural products.

“Farnsworth brought to UIC a culture of sophisticated research that has persisted. It is a legacy that we cherish. We are consistently rated one of the top five research colleges of pharmacy in the United States, and that can be traced back to Norm,” says Dean Jerry Bauman. “[His arrival] transformed us from being predominantly a teaching-oriented institution to one making major scientific contributions that complement our educational programs. Norm had the ability to recruit extremely talented colleagues and get them to work collaboratively toward common research and scientific goals.”

Born in Lynn, Mass., Farnsworth received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, where he also served as a faculty member for 15 years.

Under Farnsworth’s direction, the UIC/NIH Center for Botanical Dietary Supplements Research was established in 1999 as one of six such research centers funded by the National Institutes of Health to study botanical dietary supplements. UIC’s Center, the only continuously funded unit, focuses on studying botanicals that may improve women’s health and quality of life, specifically in the areas of menopause, premenstrual syndrome and persistent urinary tract infections.

Throughout his distinguished career, Farnsworth was the recipient of numerous national and international awards, too numerous to cite. A sampling includes three honorary doctorates and three honorary professorships as well as appointments as special delegate and commission member by former Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, respectively. A reflection of the esteem held by his peers is exemplified by the American Society of Pharmacognosy’s designating its research achievement award as the Norman R. Farnsworth Research Achievement Award. In recognition of his contribution to pharmacognostical education and research, special symposium programs honoring Farnsworth were held by the 12th Annual Oxford International Conference on the Science of Botanicals and by the American Society of Pharmaognosy at the International Congress of Natural Products Research in 2012.

To ensure the preservation of his enduring academic legacy as an educator, innovator, and pioneering researcher whose contributions have impacted not only UIC, but have also changed the face of pharmacognosy and medicinal plant research, the UIC College of Pharmacy seeks your assistance in establishing the Norman R. Farnsworth Lectureship in Pharmacognosy with an annual public lecture on topics encompassing all aspects of pharmacognosy research and education by internationally recognized researchers/educators.

Make your gift today at pharmgiving.uic.edu.

College establishes lectureship in honor of venerated pharmacognosy pioneer

PublisherJerry L. Bauman, bs ’76, pharmd

Dean

EditorJessica A. CanlasAssistant Director of Communications

Copy EditorRob HoffUIC Office of Publications Services

Contributing EditorsSonya BoothHugh M. CookSamuel HostettlerMichelle SkinnerDaniel P. Smith

PhotographyJoshua ClarkBarry DonaldRoberta Dupuis-DevlinKathryn MarchettiBen Stickan

DesignerKimberly HegartyUIC Office of Publications Services

College of PharmacyAdministrative Officers

Department HeadsWilliam Beck, phd

Biopharmaceutical Sciences

Judy Bolton, phd

Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy

Nicholas Popovich, bs ’68, ms ’71, phd ’73Pharmacy Administration

Janet Engle, pharmd ’85Pharmacy Practice

Vice Dean, RockfordRegional ProgramDavid W. Bartels, pharmd

Executive Associate DeanJanet Engle, pharmd ’85

Associate DeansClara Awe, phd, edd

Diversity Affairs

James Bono, mha

Business Development and Administrative Affairs

Marieke Schoen, pharmd ’88Academic Affairs

Steve M. Swanson, phd ’90Research

Thomas TenHoeve III, phd

Student Affairs

Assistant DeansDebra Agard, pharmd ’92, mhpe

Student Affairs

Suzanne Rabi Soliman, pharmd ’04Academic Affairs

UIC Pharmacist (MC 874)833 South Wood Street, Room 184MChicago, Illinois 60612Phone: (312) 996-7240Fax: (312) 413-1910E-mail: [email protected]

©2011. All rights reserved.

UIC Pharmacist would like to hear from you, and we welcome your letters:UIC Pharmacist (MC 874)833 South Wood Street, Room 184MChicago, Illinois 60612

Phone: (312) 996-7785E-mail: [email protected]

Letters may be edited for length and clarity. All reader correspondence to the magazine and its editorial staff willbe treated as assigned for publication unless otherwisespecified.

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In late fall of 2011, I received in my junk mail an envelope from U.S. News and World Report; I thought it was a request to subscribe to their magazine (we get many such requests) but, just before filing it in the round container under my desk, I remembered that they no longer publish an actual magazine. Hmmm—perhaps it’s the U.S. News and World Report request to deans to assess colleges of pharmacy in the U.S.? It was—and my reply was due that very day!

Most are familiar with the fact that U.S. News and World Report ranks most universities and colleges, and many (parents, prospective students, alumni) pay considerable attention to these rankings. What you may not know are the details of their methodology. For some professional schools (e.g., law, medicine) the rankings include objective data such as number of applicants and admissions, MCAT scores, etc.—but not pharmacy. For colleges of pharmacy, deans and one department head per college (usually the head of the department of pharmacy practice—so two questionnaires per college) receive a survey asking to rank each college from 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding) or “don’t know” based on their overall perception. That’s it! That’s the extent of the (very visible) US News and World Report rankings for colleges of pharmacy. For the most recent round of rankings, I estimate that about 250 surveys were mailed (125 colleges of pharmacy) and their published response rate for pharmacy was 39 percent, so the entire ranking is based on the perception/opinion of about 100 individuals—some of whom may have responded “don’t know.” Likely explaining the low response rate was the late arrival of the survey and its appearance; I suspect many went into the waste can like mine almost did. Because of this incredibly subjective and simple methodology, colleges of dentistry banded together and refused to fill out the surveys. As a result, U.S. News does not rank dental schools. Of course, I ranked UIC COP as a “5” and put many “don’t know,” particularly for the nearly 50 new schools started since the mid-1990s. I must admit I feel uncomfortable grading my colleagues because I really don’t know everything that’s going on at their schools, and I suspect they may feel the same way. How could they know about all the great new happenings (see this issue of the magazine) that go on at UIC!

The bad news is UIC dropped from no. 9 on the 2008 list to no. 14 in 2012—our mean score was 4.0 in 2008 and 3.9 in 2012.1 Because the top schools are so tightly bunched, a decrease of 0.1 in our mean score dropped us five spots in the ranking list. The good news is the closest Illinois college of pharmacy was ranked no. 69 (mean score 2.4). Nonetheless, because of the subjective nature of the rankings and the poor response rate, Dennis Thompson (current dean of pharmacy at Southwestern Oklahoma State University and an alumnus of our residency program) tried an alternate method2 that attempts to inject some objective data into the analysis (using research funding and citations of faculty publications in addition to the U.S. News “perception” ranking). In his 2002 analysis, we were tied for fifth place. So, for fun (sometimes I get bored), I tried a similar approach using just total research funding (compiled by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy) and the U.S. News and World Report Rankings (compiling faculty publications citations was simply too much work). The results of this analysis for the past three years are shown below:

College/Rank Perception Total Research $ X2010

1. UCSF 1 1 1.02. UNC 2 4 3.03. UIC 9 3 6.0

College of Pharmacy Rankings: The Good, Bad, and the Ugly

From the Dean


From the Dean4. Wash 5 8 6.55. AZ 9 9 9.06. USC 15 5 10.07. Minn 3 18 10.58. Utah 16 6 11.09. Mich 5 17 11.0

10. Kan 19 3 11.02011

1. UCSF 1 2 1.52. UNC 2 4 3.03. USC 10 5 7.54. Utah 10 6 8.05. UIC 14 3 8.5

6. AZ 10 9 8.57. Wash 10 10 10.08. Minn 3 18 10.59. Mich 7 17 12

10. Texas 4 19 12.52012

1. UCSF 1 1 1.02. UNC 2 2 2.03. Minn 3 7 5.04. Tex 4 9 6.55. Utah 10 5 7.56. Mich 7 10 8.57. UIC 14 4 9.0

8. Wash 10 8 9.09. OSU 7 15 11.0

10. Kan 21 3 12.0

This “modified Thompson” ranking is my story, and I’m sticking to it. You can see the top ten schools vary little from year to year and in fact they are very similar to Thompson’s 2002 ranking. In reality, there is little difference in year-to-year rankings between the top 15 or 20 colleges of pharmacy, although the University of California, San Francisco is always at the top (the University of North Carolina is pushing them, however). The actual number ranking (e.g. no. 6 vs. no. 12) of these top colleges probably means very little—each have individual strengths and challenges. UIC COP is always somewhere in the top group and with our new efforts at Rockford, curricular revision, and creation of a new strategic plan, we aim to stay there. But the next time your neighbor or acquaintance asks about the ranking of your alma mater, you can give them the back story of U.S. News and World Report ranking system for colleges of pharmacy and the real scoop.

1. http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-health-schools/pharmacy-rankings2. Dennis F. Thompson and Robert P. Sharp. “Ranking of US Pharmacy Schools Based on Perception, Funding, and Publications,” Annals of Pharmacotherapy 36, no. 9 (2002): 1477–1478.


Jerry L. Bauman, bs ’76, res ’77, pharmd, fccp, facc

Dean and Professor

News Flash


Asthma Medications Could be Linked to Irregular Heartbeat in Kids

Medications commonly used to control asthma flare-ups are linked to an increased risk of potentially dangerous heart arrhythmias in young asthma patients, according to new research at the College.

Recent studies have shown that inhaled anticholinergics (IACs) may be an effective treatment option for routine asthma management, as they help prevent spasms that cause flare-ups. The medications can also prevent the buildup of thick mucus that can accompany exacerbations.

But studies of adult patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease have suggested a link between this class of drugs and increased cardiovascular risks, says Todd Lee, lead researcher on the new study.

“Our objective was to evaluate the association between IACs and arrhythmias in young persons with asthma,” says Lee, associate professor of pharmacy practice in the Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research. “Obviously this finding raises concern because of the recent interest in the use of anticholinergics in asthma.”

Lee presented the study at this year’s American Thoracic Society International Conference in San Francisco.

Lee and his research team identified more than 283,000 asthma patients ages 5 to 24 after reviewing data from a national health plan’s claims database collected between 1997 and 2010. Among new users of asthma controller medications, including inhaled corticosteroids, long-acting beta-agonists, and IACs, more than 7,600 arrhythmia cases were discovered.

The researchers found that active use of IACs was associated with a 56 percent increase in the risk of arrhythmia, which varied based on the type of IAC used, as well as the dose, Lee says. Active users of an IAC called ipratropium had a higher risk of arrhythmia, while the risk for active users of tiotropium or a

combination of ipratropium and a short-acting beta agonist, another type of asthma medication, was not statistically significant.

“While we found an increase in the risk of events associated with the use of anticholinergics, the overall number of events was relatively small,” Lee says. “Therefore, the absolute risk of an event for an individual patient is relatively low.”

In addition, Lee says, most of the patients using IACs in the risk analysis were using ipratropium not tiotropium, which has been the focus of recent therapeutic studies.

“It will be important to determine if the risk we observed with ipratropium is seen in patients using tiotropium when there is more use of the drug in the asthma population,” he says.

Lee said the results of the study may aid both clinicians and patients in deciding which asthma medication to use in the future.

“Because of the potential risks with other asthma controller medications, it is important that patients and providers are aware of all of the potential risks and benefits for each of the classes of medications so they can make more informed treatment decisions,” he says.

Lee’s collaborators are Sruthi Adimadhyam, Glen Schumock, Surrey Walton, Min J. Joo, and Joanne McKell.

Read more about the Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research in this year’s issue of The Catalyst at bit.ly/COPCatalyst2012.

by Sam Hostettler

News Flash

Race is a key factor in properly dosing the antibiotic azithromycin in pregnant women, according to new research at UIC.

Azithromycin, one of the medicines most commonly prescribed to pregnant women, is used to treat bacterial infections, such as bronchitis; pneumonia; sexually transmitted diseases; and infections of the ears, skin, and throat.

“Many women need to receive prescription medications while pregnant, and they need to receive a safe and effective dose,” says James Fischer, professor of pharmacy practice and lead researcher on the study.

“Drug therapy in pregnant women must take into account the physiological changes accompanying pregnancy,” Fischer says. “The changes may require adjusting the dosage to ensure that the desired outcome is achieved and that the mother and fetus are not exposed to excess drug.”

The new study, published in the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, looked at how azithromycin is absorbed, distributed, and eliminated in the body. Blood samples were drawn from 78 women of Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, and African American ancestry who were receiving treatment for infection during the second or third trimester of pregnancy. Women of childbearing age who were not pregnant were included for comparison.

The elimination of the antibiotic in pregnant African American women was similar to that in nonpregnant women, Fischer says, but pregnant women who were Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic, or Pacific Islander cleared

azithromycin from the body less efficiently, suggesting that these women were exposed to higher doses of the drug than nonpregnant women, and their fetuses were exposed to higher doses than those of African-American women.

The study is the first describing how pregnancy affects azithromycin clearance from the body in an ethnically diverse population, Fischer says, and establishes a prototype for guiding the use of other drugs during pregnancy that are filtered out by the liver.

Although the study did not find any increased risk of major congenital abnormalities following exposure to azithromycin, “we always try to minimize the exposure to the baby, no matter the medication,” Fischer says.

But dose adjustments cannot be based on exposure alone, he said, because other factors, such as a diminished ability to fight infection during pregnancy, may influence outcome.

The research was funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Women’s Health and conducted at the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System, Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, Meriter Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, and the University of Michigan.

Coauthors are Mitra Habibi, Patricia Fischer, and Keith Rodvold of UIC; Gloria Sarto and Lori Wollett of the University of Wisconsin; Ruth Tuomala of Harvard University; Janice Shier of the University of Michigan; Sarah Kilpatrick, now at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; and Kinnari Khorana, now at Gilead Scientific in Foster City, California.

by Sam Hostettler

Race Determines Proper Dose of Common Antibiotic for Pregnant Women


News Flash

A growing concern with fraud and misconduct in published

drug studies has led researchers at the College’s Center for

Pharmacoeconomic Research to investigate the extent and

reasons for retractions in the research.

“We were surprised to find the proportion of retractions

due to scientific misconduct in the drug literature is higher

than in general biomedical literature,” says Simon Pickard,

associate professor of pharmacy practice and senior author

of a study published in the journal Pharmacotherapy.

Nearly three-quarters of the retracted drug studies were

attributed to scientific misconduct, he says, “which includes

data falsification or fabrication, questionable veracity,

unethical author conduct, or plagiarism. While these studies

comprise a small percentage of the overall literature,

healthcare professionals may rely on this evidence to make

treatment recommendations.”

These studies can affect the treatment of thousands of

patients, since scientific publications are often printed

months in advance. There is an average lag in time of 39

months between the original publication and a retraction

notice, Pickard says.

“Once a healthcare professional changes treatment options,

it’s not easy to reverse,” said Jennifer Samp, a fellow in

Pickard’s research group and lead author of the study.

“Staying current with new findings in scientific literature is a

priority for healthcare practitioners—especially pharmacists

—and it is important for them to know when a study has

been retracted, especially those with manipulated data.”

The UIC team found that a considerable number of the

retracted papers were attributable to two authors, one

based in Japan and the other in Germany.

Little attention was paid to the implications of scientific

publication retractions until a 1998 review documented 235

instances from 1966 to 1997; 37 percent of the retractions

were due to scientific misconduct.

Since the 1998 study, more interest has been given to

retracted studies. In 2009, the Committee on Publication

Ethics released the first set of guidelines to editors on

issuing retractions.

“These guidelines should help to reduce the extent and

impact of scientific misconduct,” Pickard says. “Ironically,

greater detection may give the impression that fraudulent

science is on the rise, when it is actually being mitigated by

these policies.”

Glen Schumock, director of the UIC Center for

Pharmacoeconomic Research, assisted Pickard and Samp

in the study, which was funded by the UIC College of

Pharmacy and Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc., which

also funded Samp’s fellowship.

Read more about the Center for Pharmacoeconomic Research—including Pickard’s essay on why he enjoys research—in this year’s issue of The Catalyst at bit.ly/COPCatalyst2012.

Facts in scientific drug literature may not be, study finds

by Sam Hostettler


News Flash

A new tool to guide decisions about safe and effective

medication use has been developed at the UIC College of

Pharmacy.

Drug formularies are used by hospitals, health systems, and

private and government insurance plans to specify which

medicines are approved or preferred for use within that

system. Formularies are compiled based on the efficacy,

safety, and cost-effectiveness of drugs.

Bruce Lambert, professor of pharmacy administration

and director of the Center for Education and Research on

Therapeutics (CERTS), headed a team that devised a checklist

of six overarching questions that provides a framework for

formulary decision making.

The new tool, tested at two teaching hospitals—the University

of Illinois Hospital and the John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of

Cook County—is designed to assist formulary committees in

evaluating drugs being considered for inclusion. If the drug is

to be added to the formulary, the tool helps determine what

restrictions, if any, should be placed on the drug.

The tool poses 48 questions, grouped into six themes,

related to the decision-making process and evidence of

need, efficacy, safety, potential for misuse, and cost.

“The questions are framed in such a way as to look for

evidence of benefit and safety before placing the drugs

on the formulary,” Lambert says. “This shifts the burden of

proof onto those who would advocate placing a drug on the

formulary, rather than the assumption all drugs should be

included.”

Before allowing a new drug on the formulary, the new tool

will encourage the formulary committee to seek out and

evaluate “a great deal” of evidence, Lambert says, “because

we shouldn’t be exposing patients to needless risks or

promoting or paying for expensive new drugs that are poorly

understood.”

The work originated from the Formulary Leveraged Improved

Prescribing (FLIP) project, funded by the U.S. Attorney

General’s Consumer and Prescriber Education Grant Program

and supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and

Quality (AHRQ). Lambert’s collaborators were Bill Galanter,

Jay Duhig, Michael Koronkowski, Amy Lodolce, Pam

Pontikes, John Busker, Dan Touchette, and Surrey Walton of

UIC and Gordon Schiff of Harvard Medical School.

Read more about the center’s work in improving patient safety and their list of 24 principles for conservative prescribing in the Winter 2012 issue of UIC Pharmacist: bit.ly/UICPharmWin2012.

New tool helps decide best drugs to place on formulary lists

by Sam Hostettler


Lab Notes

Genetic test will help dose blood thinner

Patients suffering from dangerous blood clots will receive genetic testing to help health professionals at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System prescribe the proper dose of the blood-thinner warfarin.

The UI Health System is one of the first in the nation to use genetic information to help patients receive the right dose of the drug, which consistently ranks among the leading causes of serious drug-related adverse events.

The genetic test will identify common variants in CYP2C9, an enzyme that breaks down warfarin, and VKORC1, a clotting enzyme that is the target of warfarin, says Larisa Cavallari, associate professor of pharmacy practice and one of the codirectors of the new program.

The ultimate goal, Cavallari says, is to provide personalized medicine to patients, customized to account for their unique genetic ancestry.

“The majority of pharmacogenetic research and use of pharmacogenetics in clinical practice in the United States has been in populations of European descent,” says Edith Nutescu, UIC clinical professor of pharmacy practice and codirector of the program. “We’re confident that genotype-guided pharmacotherapy in urban, underserved populations will improve the effectiveness and safety of medications.”

Warfarin is difficult to dose, and is usually begun at similar amounts for all patients, Cavallari says. It is prescribed to treat deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism and to prevent stroke as a result of atrial fibrillation or heart-valve replacement. It carries a “black-box” warning from the Food and Drug Administration for bleeding risk.

The pharmacogenetics project is a collaboration between the UIC Colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine, including the latter’s cardiology, medicine, hematology and clinical pathology departments. In addition to Cavallari and Nutescu, other directors include William Galanter, assistant professor of clinical medicine; Carol Dodge, manager of the UI Health Molecular Pathology Laboratory; Victor Gordeuk, professor of hematology/oncology; ShriHari Kadkol, associate professor of pathology; and Thomas Stamos, associate professor of medicine.

Read more about the College’s work in pharmacogenomics in the Summer 2011 issue of UIC Pharmacist at bit.ly/UICPharmSum2011.


by Sam Hostettler

News Flash

News Flash


Antibiotics that Only Partly Block Protein Machinery Allow Germs to Poison Themselvesby Sam Hostettler

Powerful antibiotics that scientists and physicians thought

stopped the growth of harmful bacteria by completely

blocking their ability to make proteins actually allow the

germs to continue producing certain proteins—which may

help do them in.

The finding, by a team at the College of Pharmacy, clarifies

how antibiotics work and may aid in the discovery of new

drugs or improve clinical therapy with existing ones. The

study is published in the October 26 issue of the journal Cell.

Among the most complex molecular machines in the cell are

the ribosomes, responsible for churning out all the proteins

a cell needs for survival. In bacteria, ribosomes are the

target of many important antibiotics, says Alexander Mankin,

professor and director of the UIC Center for Pharmaceutical

Biotechnology, who led the study.

Mankin and his colleagues picked apart the process of

protein synthesis inside the ribosome, comparing the action

of the classic antibiotics erythromycin and azithromycin and

newer drugs called ketolides, which are used to treat serious

infections.

Surprisingly, the more powerful drugs were the more “leaky”

in blocking the production of proteins.

“We were shocked to discover that ketolides, which are

known to be better antibiotics, allow for many more proteins

to be made compared to the older, less efficient drugs,”

Mankin says. “We now believe that allowing cells to make

some proteins could be much more damaging for a microbe

than not letting it make any proteins at all.”

The findings may point the way to better and more potent

antibiotics, Mankin says, but he and colleagues are “thinking

beyond just antibiotics.”

“If a chemical can be designed that binds to the human

ribosome and allows it to make good proteins but not bad

ones, such as mutant enzymes or proteins that promote

cancer, then such new drugs can treat many human

maladies,” he says.

Coauthors on the Cell paper are graduate student Krishna

Kannan and research associate professor Nora Vazquez-

Laslop. The study was funded by the National Science

Foundation.

Read more about Mankin and his research in the 2012 issue of the The Catalyst online at bit.ly/COPCatalyst2012.

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News Flash


Could ovulation be the link to ovarian cancer? Joanna

Burdette thinks it might be, and she’s working to find

out.

Burdette, assistant professor of medicinal

chemistry and pharmacognosy at UIC, is

conducting new research to discover if

ovulation increases a signaling pathway

that transforms cells of the ovary surface or

the lining of the fallopian tubes into ovarian

cancer.

Burdette has received a four-year $720,000

grant from the American Cancer Society of Illinois

for her research, which focuses on epithelial

cells, or surface and lining cells, in this case,

of the female reproductive system.

“One of the most confounding issues

of ovarian cancer is the concept that

the epithelial subtype responsible for

the disease is still not completely known,”

Burdette says.

“Preventing the disease might be attainable, but we first

need to find out where the tumors arise,” she says. “Past

research has concluded that the cancer occurs from either

the epithelial cells on the ovary, fallopian tube, or both.”

Using three-dimensional cell cultures developed in her

laboratory to monitor early cell-signaling pathways

responsible for the disease, Burdette is investigating how

cells become cancerous and whether hormones are part of

the process.

Ovulation is thought to contribute to ovarian cancer, she

says, by spurring cell proliferation; by stimulating cell-

signaling pathways in response to pituitary hormones; and

by damaging DNA via the inflammatory oxidative stress that

results from the release of the egg from its follicle.

Burdette is focusing on one particular signaling molecule,

called Akt.

“Akt is one of the most frequently activated pathways

in ovarian cancer,” Burdette says. The gene that

produces the Akt molecule, she says, is dialed up

in response to oxidative stress or the hormones

that trigger ovulation.

Burdette and her coworkers plan to grow both

the ovarian and the tubal epithelium as 3-D organ

cultures, transform the normal cells into cancer

cells, and determine which signaling pathways

are activated by the cancerous transformation.

This should confirm whether Akt is activated and

whether it thwarts the DNA-repair mechanism

differently in ovarian epithelial cells than in cells

of the fallopian tubes. Mutations in that DNA-

repair mechanism are often found in women

who have ovarian cancer.

Ovarian cancer strikes about 22,000 women in

the United States each year, according to the

Ovarian Cancer Research Fund. A woman’s lifetime

risk of developing ovarian cancer is one in 17, with most cases

developing after menopause. Symptoms include bloating,

pelvic or abdominal pain, feeling of fullness, or urinary tract

issues.

Few treatments were available in the 1970s. Diagnosis

was not possible until the cancer was advanced, and few

women survived longer than six months. Today, almost half

of patients are alive five years after diagnosis.

Burdette hopes her work will further increase the life

expectancy of ovarian cancer patients.

“Sadly, the overall incidence of ovarian-cancer death has not

changed much in 30 years,” she says.

Is ovarian cancer linked to ovulation?by Sam Hostettler

Thoughts from The Reservation

For my module 2 rotation, I decided to test the limits of

the definition of a “distance rotation.” Last August, I chose

to embark on a trip to the great state of Arizona, where I

would complete an Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience

Clerkship in the Navajo Nation in the middle of the Arizona

desert. Sure, it was more than 1,600 miles away from Chicago.

However, what made this experience feel like I was further

from home was the fact that I felt like I had ventured into a

foreign country in my own backyard.

The population of the Navajo Nation largely consisted of

people of the Navajo tribe. At first glance, one would think

the Navajo have settled into the American way of life quite

nicely; take for example, their patronage of common fast-food

establishments like McDonalds, Taco Bell, and KFC. However,

to say they have fully assimilated themselves into American

culture is not entirely true. I was privileged enough to witness

their way of life first-hand by observing sacred dances and

ceremonies that nonnatives would rarely be privy to. It was

evident that the Navajo still hold their beliefs and traditions

close to their hearts. They have found a way to integrate their

culture and proud heritage into their day-to-day “American”

lives.

I was stationed at Tuba City Regional Health Care

Corporation. With the next closest pharmacy approximately 80

miles away, Navajo around the region relied on our outpatient

pharmacy for all their medication management. The outpatient

pharmacy filled over 1,800 prescriptions each day!

My duties at the hospital involved counseling patients

on medications, pharmacokinetic dosing adjustments, and

medication reconciliations. A weekend consisting of rest and

relaxation seemed tantalizing, but exploration of the vastness

of Arizona was the better of the two options.

On weekends, my fellow classmate Bryan Phipps and I

took advantage of various outdoor activities. We hiked Mt.

Humphreys, the tallest mountain in Arizona, rafted down the

Colorado River, and even hiked to the bottom of the Grand

Canyon to camp alongside the river.

I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity by

the UIC College of Pharmacy and strongly urge future students

to pursue this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Photos courtesy of Kevin Quach

Rising Stars


By Kevin Quach, pharmd ’12

Antelope Canyon, the most famous slot canyon in the world, all due to the popularity of photographs taken there. In 2002, 11 people died from a flash flood in the canyon and now accompaniment of official tour guides is required to access the canyon. This is me displaying the tight squeeze of the canyon.

After one hour of hiking down the Grand Canyon, we (Quach; Heather Murphy, pharmd ’12, Shenandoah University School of Pharmacy; Phipps) stopped to take a picture showing the 60 lbs of gear and the vastness of the canyon. Also, if you notice, we are all smiling. That’s because it was only the beginning of seven miles of hiking down to the bottom. If we took a picture three miles from then, we would be in agony.

Rising Stars


Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River

Learning to Be More than a Student

By Jeffrey Krueger, PharmD Candidate, Class of 2014;Pharmacy Student Council President

Professional conference attendance builds careers while breaking down barriers

No doubt the faculty and staff at UIC COP are what make

it one of the premier colleges of pharmacy in the country,

and I am proud to be a student at this institution. Rather,

my intention is to underscore the criticality of developing a

complete set of professional skills as early as possible in a

professional school.

I am still “green behind the ears” in the pharmacy

world, but as an older student changing careers with

several years’ experience in the corporate world prior to

pharmacy school, I already understand the importance of

professional networking and keeping abreast of the latest

developments in my profession. Case in point, at the 2011

APhA Annual in Seattle, I visited the table of a prominent

community pharmacy chain in the exhibition hall. I asked the

recruiter about internship opportunities with the company,

and I gave her my contact information. A couple of weeks

later, I received an e-mail from the company’s Midwest

Region recruiter and started the process of successfully

securing a summer internship.

Despite my “greenness” in pharmacy, I have noticed

silos in the profession. These include community

pharmacists, managed care pharmacists, clinical

pharmacists, consultant pharmacists—the list goes on. I

believe professional events can break down these silos and

advance the profession as a whole rather than in fragments.

While the professional events I have attended so far were

specific to one pharmacy organization (importantly at

both the state and national levels), they definitely brought

home to me the message that collaboration between all

pharmacists—including student pharmacists—is critical to

all of our careers. If we, as student pharmacists, can better

learn the value of professional unity while in school, we will

carry that knowledge into our careers and foster a more

unified profession in the future.

UIC COP is now operating in its third year with a

separate campus in Rockford. During the daily grind of

I am a second-year student pharmacist at UIC. Earlier

this year, I attended the American Pharmacists Association

Annual Meeting and Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana. In

2011, I attended the Illinois Pharmacists Annual Conference in

Springfield, and the APhA Annual Meeting and Exposition in

Seattle, Washington. When these events conflict with exams,

laboratory sections, and recitation quizzes and projects—as

they inevitably do—and professors and students are forced

to adjust already hectic schedules, the question arises: Are

professional events like these worth the headache for my

instructors and me during the academic year?

Yes! Why? My professors may cringe when they read this,

but, I believe, for any pharmacy student a day (if not two or three)

at a professional conference is always more valuable to the

student’s future career than a day of classes. My intention is not

to diminish the extraordinary research and clinical knowledge

that our instructors passionately confer to us in our curriculum.

In the purest sense, to engineer means to design. Drawing upon

principles of basic sciences, engineers leverage their capabilities to

create new and innovative technology to improve the life of people.

Pharmacists are the only healthcare professionals with extensive

knowledge of the chemistry, biology, and pharmacology of active

pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Applying these basic sciences,

pharmacists can design a formulation and drug delivery system

based upon properties of the APIs. These drugs ultimately improve

quality of life. Without a doubt, pharmacists are the engineers of

the healthcare world, and this was never more apparent than at the

International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering’s (ISPE) Eli Lilly

Training Conference and Tour, hosted at Lilly’s Manufacturing and

Quality Learning Center (MQLC) in Indianapolis, Indiana, this past

September. Fifteen UIC COP students attended, along with students

from University of Akron, Purdue University, and the University of

Kentucky.

The conference began with an introductory lecture: “An

Overview of the Drug Life Cycle.” It was immediately apparent

during this lecture that the UIC College of Pharmacy is preparing us

to be successful pharmacists. Eli Lilly and Company is one of seven

companies in the United States, more than 100 years old, retaining its

name since it was founded. The presentation began with a high-level

overview of pharmaceutical delivery. The presenters emphasized a

key term, “FIP Net”—fully integrated pharmaceutical network. In

order for the pharmaceutical industry to expand, it must draw upon

the diverse experiences and training from its personnel, and the

students in attendance were a prime example of this collaboration.

We then took a shuttle to Lilly’s main manufacturing facility where

we saw the manufacturing line for Humulin and Humalog insulin. Lilly

was the first company to produce insulin from recombinant DNA in

the early 1980s. Many students were astonished by the realization

that the world’s supply of Eli Lilly insulin was being produced

continuously at this site, 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. A key

concept appeared at this point in the tour that will ring true with all

pharmacists—any time product is not being produced on the line,

both the cost of the unproduced product and the lost time which

could have been used to produce product, must be considered.

Considering 300 vials of Humalog are produced per minute on the

line, any interruption in the process could easily cost hundreds of

thousands of dollars.

The second day of the conference included several topics

that are currently covered in our curriculum: genetic engineering,

Rising Stars


Lessons from the Field

by Bernard Hsu

Bernard Hsu, P2, shares a valuable experience in practical learning

classes, the unfortunate reality is that students

between the Chicago and Rockford campuses have

limited opportunities to build relationships with

each other. As a student at the Chicago campus—

more than I ever did during the school year—I had

the chance to talk with my student colleagues from

Rockford who also attended the aforementioned

professional events. For me, these events broke

down the silos between our campuses.

I believe UIC COP has a chance to build on

its exceptional research and clinical foundation

and better integrate an emphasis on professional

development into its curriculum—a curriculum which

must evolve as fast as the profession, especially

amidst the unprecedented competition new doctor of

pharmacy graduates must now face in this economy.

I now have the honor and responsibility of serving

as the Pharmacy Student Council President, and I

intend to do all that I can to promote professionalism

among my student pharmacist colleagues during my

tenure. If we do not learn to be more than students

while in school, we will not learn to be more than

pharmacists in practice.

If you the reader are practicing in any capacity

in the pharmacy profession (and especially a UIC

alumnus), whether you agree or disagree with my

views, I wholeheartedly invite your comments. Please

e-mail me at [email protected]. I also encourage you

to contact UIC COP faculty and staff with any ideas

you have to further promote professionalism in our

PharmD program. My classmates and I are not

looking for new ways to skip class; we are looking for

new ways to become better pharmacists.

If we do not learn to be more than students while in school, we will not learn to be more than pharmacists in practice.

crystallization and solid state chemistry, lyophilization,

anticounterfeiting measures, biomaterials in pharmaceuticals.

FDA GMP. Dr. Tonglei Li from the Purdue University College

of Pharmacy gave a familiar lecture on crystallization of

API, using examples of chocolate crystal polymorphs and

solubility issues of Ritonavir in 1998 due to unforeseen

polymorphic structures. Some of our students at UIC are not

aware of the type of unique training we are receiving from

the College. In some cases, this training passively enters

into our minds and subtly influences the way we think. This

was never more apparent than when engineering professors

from the University of Kentucky spoke on pharmaceutical

anticounterfeiting methods. The prime anticounterfeiting

method proposed during the lecture was a holographic

image imprinted upon solid dosage forms. Said hologram

would be produced using generally regarded as safe (GRAS)

materials and is approved for human consumption. While the

hologram is a great idea and embraced by the engineering

students, our pharmacy students were able to cite potential

problems in patient compliance due to a radical change in

appearance, provided that proper pharmacist consultation

is not performed during the drug dispensing. While the

technical nuances of the anticounterfeiting method are under

scrutiny, pharmacists already see potential and underlying

problems. It is this type of communication and cross-

functional reasoning that the pharmaceutical industry needs

to thrive, and pharmacists are an integral part of this FIP Net.

The third and final day of the conference ended with a

parenteral hands-on. We experienced first-hand lyophilization

and sterilization processes required to manufacture injectable

products. The entire process of gowning up in a bunny suit to

enter a sterile environment was demonstrated, and students

were given the opportunity to gown up. Most students were

amazed to learn that to enter the ISO Class 3 environment

costs $500 for the gowning materials, plus time to pay the

employee. However, since humans are the greatest source of

contamination in a clean environment this $500+ is essential

to uphold the integrity of the product.

Drawing upon our experiences as pharmacy students,

the ISPE GLC Eli Lilly Training Conference and Tour was a

great success for the attending students and for the UIC

College of Pharmacy as well. This was the first time in 20

years that UIC has visited Eli Lilly and Company. Posted in

our study lounge by our main lecture hall 134-1 are pictures

from Eli Lilly tours in 1939 and 1968. I can say with great

pride that during that weekend, students from the Classes

of 2015 and 2016 joined the ranks of successful pharmacists

from UIC and continued a tradition of ingenuity, curiosity, and

excellence. We are a part of our college’s history that will live

forever in the innovative minds of past, present, and future

students at the UIC College of Pharmacy.

Bernard Hsu is a doctor of pharmacy candidate from Class

of 2015. He is the president-elect for APhA-ASP and

president of the UIC Chapter of the International Society

for Pharmaceutical Engineering (ISPE). ISPE is a campus-

wide student organization centered on career opportunities

for students in the innovator and generic pharmaceutical

industries, advised by two UIC College of Pharmacy alumni:

Dr. Paul Pluta, bs ’70, and Mr. Richard Poska, rph ’76.

Rising Stars


2012 visitors: Suhair Sunoqrot, Daanish Ashraf, Nicholas Liu, Nasir Sadeghi, Corinne Puchalla, Bernard Hsu, Surafel Mulugeta, Joe Gomez, Farzan Mohammadi, Josh Uvodich, Finny Abraham.

1973

1939

UIC at Eli Lilly through the decades

Rising Stars


This past spring, the College hosted its second Images of Research competition, assembling a portfolio of the most innovative and creative images to convey the variety and profundity of research taking place at COP. The contest was open to all students and postdocs in the College, and case prizes were awarded to the top three entries. All College faculty, staff, and students were invited to vote online for their favorite images. The following is a gallery of competitors who received the most votes.

Imaging Research

First PlaceHeesue Kim, PharmD program

“The Needle”

The image captures the process of HPLC/MS run. Preclinical pharmacokinetic study of a newly discovered

compound (to be used in antibioterrorism) is performed by using an HPLC/MS machine. Drug concentration

is measured to test its microsomal stability.

Second PlaceEhsan Tavassoli, Medicinal Chemistry and

Pharmacognosy “My Garden of Neurons”

The use of transgenic mice and confocal-microscopy

methods allow for a detailed study of motor neurons

(MNs) in health and disease. This image corresponds to

a spinal cord section obtained from a transgenic mouse

expressing yellow fluorescent protein (YFP). Stained red

by ethidium bromide, nuclei of oligodendrocytes appear

as small roses dispersed amongst a garden of YFP-filled

axons pseudocolored in green. At the bottom of this

image, large tulip-shaped structures corresponding to

cell bodies of MNs are stained orange by the combined

colors of YFP and ethidum bromide. Thanks to healthy

MNs we can enjoy a walk along a beautiful flower garden!

Third PlaceJa Hye Nyung, Biopharmaceutical Sciences

“Bloody Heart”

More than a few billion hematological cells, such as

leukocytes and red blood cells, coexist in one milliliter

of human blood. Our objective was to capture rare

human disease-related cells among one million to one

billion hematological cells. While screening the results,

we found a heart-shaped leukocyte aggregation next to

the captured target cell (a single red cell). This promising

result is not only visible to the eye, but also appeals to

the heart.

Honorable MentionTristesse Jones, Medicinal Chemistry and

Pharmacognosy “Father of Motherwort”

This image depicts the pollen grains within the anther

of Leonurus cardiaca L. (Lamiaceae), Motherwort,

using a scanning electron microscope. It was used to

authenticate the plant species for UIC/NIH Center for

Botanical Dietary Supplements Research in Women’s

Health. Authentication is necessary to establish whether

the examined plant sample is the correct species. The

pollen grains are a diagnostic characteristic of this

plant. The image shows the dispersal of pollen grains

from the anther for pollination of the stigma. “Father of

Motherwort” demonstrates how what we see from afar is

more dynamic when we examine it closely.

Honorable MentionMay Fern Toh, Medicinal Chemistry and

Pharmacognosy “Joanna’s Hands”

This image represents the hands behind science

that convert ideas into cutting-edge discoveries. It

emphasizes science as a team sport and the importance

of working together effectively to form the backbone of a

successful lab.

Rising Stars


Rising Stars


Honorable Mentions

• UIC’s American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists merited numerous honors at the APhA Annual Meeting in

March. Group accolades include the National Innovative Programming

Award and Regional Operation Heart and Heartburn Awareness Challenge

Awards. Also, chapter president Tara Berkson, P4, was recognized for

placing among the top ten in the nation at the National Patient Counseling

Competition.

• UIC’s Kappa Psi Chi chapter was named Chapter of the Year at the

fraternity’s regional meeting in April. The organization won five additional

awards, including Best Chapter Presentation, Service Excellence, and

Excellence in Province Philanthropy.

• Several students were recognized at this year’s Student National

Pharmaceutical Association National Convention. P3 Juanita Bruce was

named National Chronic Kidney Disease Chair. P4s Caroline Frackowiak and Brianne Parra placed third in the Kroger National Clinical Skills

Competition, with Parra also meriting the James Blicky Hills Endowed

Scholarship. P3 Masooma Razvi was awarded the Kroger Endowed

Scholarship and was named a Wal-Mart Future Leader in Pharmacy for

Region 3. Shirley Yu was awarded the Walgreens Student Pharmacist

Excellence Scholarship.

• At the 18th annual meeting of the International Society for Quality of

Life Research, PhD student Yash Jalundhwala placed among the top

four students with his oral presentation, “Health State Selection I EQ-

5D Valuation Studies: Impact on Logical Inconsistencies and Predictive

Accuracy.”

• P3 Kelsey E. Johnson is the recipient of a 2012 Kappa Psi Foundation

Scholarship.

• Doctor of philosophy candidate Fatima Khaja, biopharmaceutical sciences,

received the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education Award for

her proposal “siRNA in Sterically Stabilized Phospholipid Nanoparticles: A

Targeted Nanomedicine for Liver Fibrosis.”

• Doctor of philosophy candidate Tsui-Ting Ho merited third place for her

poster presentation “Novel Mechanisms of Drug Resistance in Leukemia

Cells Associated with Changes in HoxA9 and microRNA Expression” at the

June meeting of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental

Therapeutics Great Lakes Chapter.

• Alice Lee, P3, was awarded an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship for 2012–13.

Alice will receive a $2,000 stipend and will create and implement a 200-

hour direct service project that addresses underserved health needs in

Chicago. P4 Tara Berkson was awarded this fellowship last year.

Soojin Jun Amata Sok, Jennifer Mourafetis, and Kristen Karlsen teamed up to win the Illinois Pharmacists Association’s first Student Business Plan Competition at the organization’s 2012 annual conference. At the same event, fellow students Rachel Ralph and Maggie Thomas took second and third place, respectively, in the Patient Counseling Competition.

After being selected as one of eight finalists, a team from UIC’S Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy student chapter placed third in this year’s national Foundation for Managed Care Pharmacy Pharmacy and Therapeutics Competition. Robin Zhou, Linda Sok, Lilly Nguyen, and chapter president Tom Karagiannis, who composed the winning team, were awarded $1,000 scholarships.

Rising Stars


Chicago Area Schweitzer Fellows Program

Since 1996, the Chicago area Schweitzer Fellows Program,

like its national counterpart, has worked to improve the health and

wellbeing of poor and underserved individuals living in and around

the city of Chicago by developing public health professionals with a

lifelong commitment to service. The Baxter International Foundation,

which has a similar focus, has provided the Schweitzer program with

nearly $850,000 in grant funding since that first year. Schweitzer

fellows—all graduate-level health professions students—participate

in a 13 month program that includes their provision of a minimum of

200 hours of direct service through a community-based organization.

Fellows also participate in several public symposia on health, as

well as community service days, in which the entire group of fellows

works together to build morale, strengthen ties, and build awareness

of the Schweitzer Fellowship Program in the larger community.

Fellows receive a stipend of $2,000.

The program is committed to carrying out Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s

mission of “reverence for life,” says Ray Wang, director of the

Chicago area Schweitzer fellows program, which is facilitated by the

Health and Medicine Policy Research Group. “Since the program’s

founding, more than 430 Schweitzer Fellows have designed and

implemented innovative projects that have helped tens of thousands

of underserved Chicago families and individuals improve their health

and wellbeing,” Wang says. “The fellows have contributed more than

86,000 hours of service and have enabled over 170 clinics, schools,

social service agencies, and churches to boost their capacity to serve

Chicago’s most vulnerable communities.”

Project design emphasizes activities that are enduring to ensure

the project will continue to benefit the community after an individual’s

fellowship has ended. In 2011, for example, Schweitzer fellow Tara

Berkson, a graduate student in the UIC College of Pharmacy, began a

project to promote healthy lifestyle choices for patients with diabetes

at Community Health, a free clinic for uninsured Chicago residents.

Berkson instructed patients on insulin administration and proper

nutrition. She also helped them develop wellness prescriptions.

“Essentially, I sat down with patients and found out about their

nutrition habits and food preferences, and we set goals for them to

work on, such as eating more vegetables,” Berkson says. “Then we

broke the goal down even further into weekly objectives. I had them

start by trying to integrate vegetables into every dinner, for example.”

Berkson also organized weekly visits with patients to a local

farmer’s market. The visit would begin with a lesson on organic and

sustainable fruits and vegetables and a discussion about what is in

season, why that matters, and what dishes that can be prepared from

them. Attendees also received gift certificates to purchase items at

the market.

The long-term vision for the Schweitzer program is to cultivate

lifelong leaders in service. “A majority of Schweitzer alumni remain

engaged with helping poorly resourced communities beyond their

fellowship year,” Wang says. To support this, six years ago the Health

and Medicine Policy Research Group launched its Fellows for Life

program, which provides ongoing networking, volunteer, and skill-

building events for past fellows. The Baxter International Foundation

is a founding sponsor.

In a recent survey of Chicago-area Schweitzer alumni, 98

percent indicated that their fellowship experience continued to be

an important influence in their personal and professional lives and

90 percent said that their current careers reflect that goal. Dr. Robert

McKersie, who was chosen to be one of the first Schweitzer fellows

when the program began in 1996, is one example of how Fellows

for Life continue to develop as leaders and remain engaged with

vulnerable populations.

McKersie spent his fellowship year directing a musical theater

production with inmates at the Cook County Juvenile Detention

Center in Chicago, helping these young people develop self

confidence and communications skills. Sixteen years later, he’s still

working with the underserved, providing much needed volunteer

medical services to thousands of patients in several small Nepalese

villages near the Tibetan border. He also serves as a mentor for

current Chicago fellows.

“The Schweitzer fellowship showed me that a collective effort

is always a powerful tool for change,” McKersie says. “I’m still in

contact with several of my year’s fellows, and I fondly remember

the group forums that we all participated in. I’m also keenly aware

that I would never have been able to participate in a project like this

without the immense support of many people all working together for

the common good.”

For more information about Baxter’s community relations efforts,

please see sustainability.baxter.com.

Schweitzer fellow Tara Berkson teaches a patient how to administer insulin at Community Health, a free clinic for uninsured Chicago residents.

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Faculty Fanfare

Prescription for professionalism


Assistant dean of academic affairs Suzanne Rabi Soliman wins award for her paper on measuring pharmacists’ professionalism.

Suzanne Rabi Soliman believes there is much more to being a pharmacist than dispensing medications.

A professional attitude and behavior are important in the practice of pharmacy, and professionalism education should be an integral part of any doctor of pharmacy program, says Soliman, assistant dean for academic affairs in the College of Pharmacy.

But how do you measure professionalism?

Soliman was among a group of administrators at seven colleges and schools of pharmacy who developed an instrument to measure this important aspect of pharmacy education.

For their efforts, they were honored by the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education with the Rufus A. Lyman Award for the most outstanding paper published in its periodical for 2011.

Professionalism can be challenging to assess, Soliman says.

“Definitions are more abstract than concrete,” she says.Soliman and her colleagues took pieces from other professionalism tools to develop what they believe is a more comprehensive and better assessment instrument. The 33-item professional assessment tool (PAT) includes five areas of professionalism: reliability, responsibility, and accountability; lifelong learning and adaptability; relationships with others; upholding principles of integrity and respect; and citizenship and professional engagement.A five-point competency scale was assigned to each question.

by Sam Hostettler

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“We wanted to develop a tool that showed improvement over time, which some of the other tools didn’t have,” Soliman says.

The PAT was tested on more than 1,200 first- and third-year pharmacy students from UIC, Purdue University, Ohio State University, University of Iowa, University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of Kansas in spring 2010. The University of Michigan assisted in the development of the assessment tool, but not in the data collection.

The findings were published in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education.

Soliman and her colleagues hope the tool will be available at all pharmacy schools.

They are interested in developing other instruments, such as peer assessors, and exploring the connection between professionalism and student engagement, she says.

Faculty Fanfare


College Researchers Merit American Cancer Society Grants

Four College of Pharmacy faculty members were awarded grants from the American Cancer Society for their research:

Xialong He, associate professor, biopharmaceutical sciences, for “Functional Significance of CDC42 Alternative Splicing in Ovarian Cancer”

Brian Murphy, assistant professor, medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, for “Use of Marine Bacteria to Overcome Drug Resistant Ovarian Cancer”

Joanna Burdette, assistant professor, medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, for “Akt Transformation of Ovarian and Fallopian Cells” Jeremy Johnson, assistant professor, pharmacy practice, for “Prostate Cancer Chemoprevention with Carnosol by Dual Disruption of AR/ER”

The American Cancer Society is the largest, nonprofit funder of cancer research in the United States. Nationwide, ACS funds more than $460 million in ongoing grants. Currently, there are 67 active grants totaling $27 million dollars in Illinois.

The Class of 2012 honored three educators for their commitment to students: associate professor of biopharmaceutical sciences Francis Schlemmer, phd ’77, was awarded the Golden Apple Award; Isaac Cha, res ’00, clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice, family and community medicine, and biomedical sciences, was named Preceptor of the Year; and Jill Cwik, pharmd ’06, res, was named External Preceptor of the Year.

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Volunteer to judge in 2014!

Join us for this competition and lecture sabbatical, which will feature our students presenting scientific posters for our faculty, alumni judges, and guest speakers.

Check out previous events online:• bit.ly/COPResearchDayPix2012

(photo gallery)• bit.ly/COPResearchDay2012

(video)• bit.ly/COPCatalyst2012 (magazine

wrap-up, p. 22-23)

Missed Research Day?

Interested in judging? Please contact Ben Stickan at

(312) 636-7491 or [email protected].

Faculty Fanfare


At the Illinois Pharmacists Association Annual Conference this year in Naperville, two College of Pharmacy faculty members were honored for their service to the profession.

Professor and head of pharmacy administration Nicholas Popovich, bs ’68, ms ’71, phd ’73, was the recipient of this year’s IPhA Pharmacist of the Year Award. The honor recognizes an Illinois pharmacist who has made outstanding contributions to pharmacy practice, the profession, and IPhA.

Popovich says he knew as a teenager the career path he wanted to follow after he and his parents attended an open house at a Chicago pharmacy. The field incorporated two of his passions—science and helping people.

One of his mentors in the UIC College of Pharmacy, Daniel Nona, encouraged him to pursue an academic career. Even after almost 40 years, Popovich says he has not lost his passion for teaching pharmacy students.

“Teachers touch eternity,” he says. “They never know where their inspiration ends. I revere my opportunity to be an educator and influence those who I instruct and guide.”

Popovich spent nearly 28 years on the faculty of the Purdue University School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences before returning to UIC in 2002. He has been recognized often for his service to the field. He served as president and chairman of the board of directors of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and received five Rufus A. Lyman Awards for

the outstanding annual research article published in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. In 1997, he received the Distinguished Educator Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.

At Purdue, Popovich received five undergraduate teaching awards within the college and the university-wide Amoco Foundation Undergraduate Teaching Award. He was inducted as a founding fellow in Purdue’s Teaching Academy in 1997.

At UIC, Popovich received the UIC College of Pharmacy’s Urban Health Program Distinguished Faculty Award in 2005. Two years later, he was the recipient of the American Pharmacist Association Gloria Niemeyer Francke Leadership Mentor Award.

Popovich says he is grateful for his latest honor while adding that he could not do it without the support of staff and colleagues.

“I share this award with those pharmacists who dedicate themselves every day to patient care,” he says. “They are my true heroes and true pharmacists of the year.”

High Honors at IPhA

IPhA president Todd Evers (left) bestows the prestigious Pharmacist of the Year Award to Nick Popovich. Initially presented in 1950, this is considered the organization’s oldest continuing honor.

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Faculty Fanfare


William T. Beck was named a 2012 UIC Distinguished Professor.

Beck is internationally recognized for his work in the field of tumor resistance to drug therapy. He joined the UIC faculty in 1996 after 20 years on the faculty at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Beck, who serves on a number of scientific advisory boards and NIH review panels, is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a UIC university scholar.

Beck maintains and active lab, and his work, which focuses on translational cancer research and the molecular pharmacology of cancer, has been continuously funded by the NIH National Cancer Institute for the past 30 years.

The distinguished professor designation was created to recognize and honor UIC faculty at the rank of professor who have made major impact upon their field through scholarship, creativity, and leadership. Recipients are selected by a panel of current UIC distinguished professors and university scholars, the Campus Research Board, and the Vice Chancellor for Research.

Beck named Distinguished Professor

Marlowe Djuric Kachlic (right) receives the Distinguished Young Pharmacists Award.

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Marlowe Djuric Kachlic, pharmd ’05, was the recipient of the Distinguished Young Pharmacists Award. The national award is presented by Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Companies and honors an up-and-coming pharmacist, an individual who shows tremendous commitment to the profession and his/her community, leadership potential, professional aspirations, and involvement in community service.

Djuric Kachlic completed her undergraduate degree in chemistry at Valparaiso University before earning her doctor of pharmacy degree from UIC. She currently serves as clinical assistant professor and as director of the Community Pharmacy Residency Program at the College of Pharmacy.

An active member of the American Pharmacists Association, Djuric Kachlic has served in a number of roles for that organization, including New Practitioner Mentor from 2006 to 2008 and ASP (UIC Chapter) faculty advisor (2007–present). She is also a member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. At the state level, she served as IPhA Conference and Education Committee chairperson from 2010 to 2012 and is a member of the Illinois Diabetes Pharmacists Network. From 2008 to 2009, Djuric Kachlic served as a member of the planning committee for the Illinois Immunization Patient Advocacy Leadership Summit. She also continues to serve as a trainer for pharmacists participating in immunization certificate programs.

Honors merited by Djuric Kachlic include the APhA Foundation Incentive Grant for Practitioner Innovation in Pharmaceutical Care “Gerd Management Program,” UIC Advisor of the Year (APhA-ASP), the Rising Star Award presented by the UIC College of Pharmacy Alumni Association, and the Caught in the Act Award presented by the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System Family Medicine Center.

Finally, Djuric Kachlic has also volunteered her services for community events, including the American Diabetes Association Diabetes Camp, UIC Flu-Shot Kick Off Event, Arab American Network Health Fair, Holy Family Church Health Fair, and the New Age Services Corporation Health Fair.

Faculty Fanfare


Clara Awe, associate dean for diversity affairs, was named among Who’s Who in Black Chicago for 2012. Other UIC inductees included chancellor and John Corbally Presidential Professor Paula Allen-Meares and Cynthia Boyd, director of the Great Cities Neighborhood Initiative.

Larissa Cavallari, associate professor of pharmacy practice and adjunct associate professor of biopharmaceutical sciences, was elected to a three-year term as an American College of Clinical Pharmacy Research Institute trustee.

Isaac Cha, clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice in Rockford, was appointed to the National Board of Medical Examiners® (NBME) Pharmacology and Biochemistry Test Committee and to the United States Medical Licensing Examination® (USMLE) Step 1 Pharmacology and Biochemistry Test Material Development Committee (TMDC) for a two-year term. Cha is the only PharmD committee member writing for this medical licensing exam.

Seungpyo Hong, assistant professor of biopharmaceutical sciences, is a 2012 recipient of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists New Investigator Award. This honor includes a one-time grant of $25,000.

Denys Lau, associate professor of pharmacy administration, is interim section editor of Pharmaceutical Economics & Health Policy at Clinical Therapeutics, an international peer-reviewed journal of drug therapy, as of March.

Jose Napolitano, postdoc in medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, has been selected as a U.S. Pharmacopeia Research Fellow for 2012–13.

Edith Nutescu, clinical professor of pharmacy practice and pharmacy administration and director of the Antithrombosis Center at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System, was appointed to the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Board of Directors. Her term will continue through October 2014.

James Thielke, clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice, is chair-elect of the Immunology/Transplant Practice Research Network of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.

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Lab Notes


Through its Proof of Concept Gap Funding Initiative, UIC’s Office of Technology Management provides awards of up to $75,000 to UIC researchers who have technology disclosures on file with the university. This is one of four research projects that received funding in July. More projects will receive funding this fall.

There’s no treatment for liver fibrosis, a disease that affects 112,000 patients and kills about 29,000 Americans each year. The only option: a liver transplant.

Hayat Onyuksel and her team of researchers are working to change that.

They’re developing a gene therapy that delivers a specific molecule, small interfering RNA (siRNA), to specific cells in the body. Using nanomedicine, researchers can specifically target the gene that carries the disease without affecting healthy genes in the body, says Onyuksel, professor of pharmaceutics and bioengineering in the Department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences.

“There’s a huge promise and impact if it works, and it will be a big evolution in gene therapy,” she said.

“Gene delivery is cutting-edge research—almost every disease is now associated with some type of gene.”

Onyuksel, whose earlier research focused on drug delivery, has expanded her work to gene delivery, a method for introducing foreign DNA into cells.

The idea for the project came from one of Onyuksel’s graduate students, Fatima Khaja.

“We’re still at the very early stage, testing it in vitro,” Onyuksel says.

“Hopefully we’ll get some promising preliminary data on animals. That will be a very important step.”

The technology could eventually be used to treat other diseases, she said.

“If we can see how this is possible with this disease, we can always expand our system to different genes, like cancer or heart disease,” she said. “It will have a huge impact.”

Targeting Liver Disease with Gene Therapy

by Christy Levy

Researcher Hayat Onyuksel (center) with doctoral student Fatima Khaja (front) and postdoctoral student Antonina Kuzmis, studies gene therapy.

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Dear Alumni & Friends,

Nearly a year ago, we were celebrating the completion of the largest fundraising

campaign ever completed by the University of Illinois at Chicago College of

Pharmacy. The numbers below reflect our success, which our alumni and friends

made possible. This was, far and away, the most successful campaign in the

College’s history. We are proud to say that even in a struggling economy, our

number of gifts and the size of those gifts have been increasing the last few years.

Thank you for your growing support and remember that every gift of any size truly

does make a positive difference in the course of our students’ lives.

Our sincere thanks for your support,

Christopher Shoemaker

Director of Advancement

Giving


From the Director

Campaign Statistics

• Official Duration: July 1, 2003 – December 31, 2011

• Total number of gifts: More than 8,000

• Largest gift: $3.5M bequest

• Professorships/Chairs: Five—first gifts of their kind to the College

• First-time gifts: 2,251

0

5

10

15

20

25

0

5

10

15

20

25

$19.7 M Initial Goal

$23.9 M TOTAL

Giving

The news shook Asta Statkevicius, pharmd ’12,

with emotion.

In February, the recent UIC College of

Pharmacy graduate learned that she had been

selected as the inaugural recipient of the Kirklys

Family Scholarship, an annual college-wide

scholarship award created through the generosity

of Therese Meilus Kirklys, bs ’77, and her family.

Clinical assistant professor Brad Cannon,

pharmd ’94, Statkevicius’s preceptor, informed

Statkevicius of the honor and shared a bit

of Kirklys’s story and background. Quickly,

Statkevicius noted the similarities. Both women

had come to the United States from Lithuania as

children, each facing the challenges of adjusting to

a new country and culture. Both had also juggled

pharmacy studies with motherhood, committed

to crafting better lives for themselves and their

families.

“I started crying as I learned Therese’s story

knowing full well some of the challenges she faced

and sacrifices she had to make,” says Statkevicius,

who earned her degree on May 3. “Seeing the

parallels between Therese’s experience and mine

makes this honor that much more special.”

In the fall of 2011, Kirklys established the

Kirklys Family Scholarship Fund. Both of her

sons—John Kirklys, pharmd ’90, and Andrew

Kirklys, pharmd ’94—earned their degrees at UIC,

as did Andrew’s wife, Pauline, pharmd ’95. The

annual honor is reserved for a current student who

also manages the responsibilities of motherhood.

“I wanted to set up the scholarship for those

facing responsibilities similar to those I had faced

as a student,” Kirklys says. “It’s intended for

someone motivated to go to school, but overloaded

with responsibilities.”

Kirklys says she had long ago made a personal

pledge to help others facing challenges similar to

those she had encountered as a mother attending

pharmacy school. The Kirklys Family Scholarship

Fund is the result of that philanthropic spirit.

“I hope this scholarship offers a helping hand

to others and sparks their own success stories,”

Kirklys says.

Indeed, Kirklys knows a thing or two about

crafting a successful professional career.

Getting a late start at the UIC College of

Pharmacy, Kirklys was older than most of her

classmates. As many of her friends graduated from

pharmacy school and began running independent

pharmacies, they often joked with Kirklys that she

needed to finish pharmacy school and pass the

Personal and professional history spurs alumnae to establish scholarship fundBy Daniel P. Smith


Giving


boards quickly so that they could take some much

needed time off. Kirklys turned those jokes into

sincere promises.

“I told so many that once I graduated, I would fill

in for them and give them time off,” Kirklys recalls.

“And many of them held me to it.”

After graduating from UIC in 1977, Kirklys

fulfilled the promises she made to those friends and

colleagues.

As pharmacists increasingly called Kirklys to

fill in, she had to seek out others who could cover

shifts in the 24/7 pharmacy world. With no shortage

of opportunity and eager to help pharmacists enjoy

a much-needed break, Kirklys created a roster of

former classmates and other pharmacists willing to

stand in.

“Word got out that when you needed help,

call Therese,” Kirklys says. “Things just started to

snowball from there.”

As the requests mounted, Kirklys founded

Pharmstaff, Ltd. in 1982 to provide qualified

pharmacists for temporary and permanent

placements. Under Kirklys’s direction, the Chicago-

based company flourished, becoming a national

leader in pharmacy staffing and holding a presence

in many states throughout the country.

“We grew by referral and because of our strong

reputation, which is everything in the field of

pharmacy,” Kirklys says. “We didn’t compromise.

We held the highest professional standards and that

gave us valuable credibility.”

“[Building Pharmstaff] was like climbing Mount

Everest—one step at a time and then you’re at the

top,” she adds.

As Pharmstaff evolved and thrived, however,

Kirklys became less and less involved in

pharmacy. The duties of business ownership,

such as overseeing Pharmstaff’s administrative

responsibilities and adhering to swelling

government regulations, took over and began to

sap Kirklys’s time, energy, and interest.

By 2002, two decades after founding

Pharmstaff, Kirklys prepared to exit the business.

While a long list of suitors pursued the staffing

enterprise, Kirklys elected to sell to the Florida-

based Medical Staffing Network.

“In leading Pharmstaff, I was being pulled away

from pharmacy, which is what I really enjoyed,”

Kirklys says. “When Pharmstaff was sold, there

was a feeling of relief to be away from the stress

of running a business. However, I felt a loss of

interactions with pharmacists, a group of intelligent,

dedicated, and dependable professionals.”

An ardent supporter of the pharmacy

profession, Kirklys holds a resume replete with

professional affiliations that showcase her passion

for the industry. She was a founding member of

the Lithuanian American Pharmacists Association,

a past president of the Greater Chicago Chapter

of the Illinois Pharmacists Association, a six-year

member of the board of the Illinois Pharmacists

Association, a member of the American Society

of Hospital Pharmacists and the American

Pharmaceutical Association, and more.

“I believed in my profession, and being involved

was inspirational and motivational,” says Kirklys,

who held a passion for math and science as a child.

“I created a professional network that became a real

jewel in my life.”

In 1991, Kirklys, at the invitation of the dean

of the College of Pharmacy at the Lithuanian

University of Health Sciences, journeyed to her

native Lithuania, which remained under Soviet

occupation. It was her first trip back to the

European nation since leaving as a child.

Giving


There, Kirklys was received by the chairman

of the Supreme Council of Lithuania Vytautas

Landsbergis, the nation’s Minister of Health, and

the dean of the University of Vilnius. She saw

Soviet tanks roam the streets, quickly noting the

suppressed spirit of the Lithuanian people as a

result of the oppression they faced under the brutal

Soviet economic blockade.

“It was an unbelievable, eye-opening

experience,” she says.

Visiting the university and its students, Kirklys

saw outdated, inferior Soviet medical textbooks.

It was a problem she would work to solve upon

returning to the United States.

At a medical convention in New Orleans,

Kirklys approached various publishers and printers

inquiring what they did with their overruns and

older textbook editions. After learning that printers

paid to have the older texts destroyed, Kirklys

spearheaded an effort in which millions of dollars in

medical textbooks and journals were shipped and

distributed via various nonprofit organizations to

Lithuania.

“The printers didn’t have to pay to destroy

usable textbooks, and we were able to help the

medical profession in Lithuania get current material

where previously they had none,” Kirklys says of

the win-win effort that saw shipping containers full

of medical texts and references flood the county

and enter the hands of doctors, pharmacists,

students, and other medical professionals.

It’s a similar spirit for helping others that

propelled Kirklys to establish the Kirklys Family

Scholarship Fund. She says pharmacy opened

up a world of opportunities and friendships for

her, reason enough to support others, including

mothers like Statkevicius, find their way into “a

wholesome professional group” that delivers

essential healthcare services.

“Pharmacists really are the unsung heroes in

the medical world,” Kirklys says. “So often, they’re

finding better solutions, halting misuse, and helping

people live better lives.”

Cannon says many UIC pharmacy students

wear different hats in their lives, including

parenthood, making the Kirklys Family gift a timely

one.

“We have so many who sacrifice so much to be

here and work hard to push through a challenging

curriculum,” Cannon says. “Therese and her family

are clearly reaching out to people who face the

challenges of parenting and attending school.”

Cannon identifies Statkevicius as a fitting first

recipient for the Kirklys family Scholarship, calling

her “responsible, on task, and eager to lend a

hand.” Her ability to balance motherhood with a

rigorous academic slate, Cannon says, serves as “a

testament to her tenacity, energy, and spirit.”

While Statkevicius says the award will help her

put a dent in the student loans she accumulated

while attending UIC, she believes it also speaks

to the positive ripple effect the Kirklys family is

working to create.

“Next year, someone else will receive this

scholarship and that will change her life,” says

Statkevicius, who is preparing for the birth of her

second child this summer. “In the coming years, so

many students will benefit from the goodwill of the

Kirklys family and this gift, which is clearly inspiring

others to do more and be more.”


The Rockford Files

Meet the White Coats

Seven COP alumni joined Regional Vice Dean Dave Bartels in welcoming the Class of 2016 at Rockford’s third White Coat ceremony held on August 22. Of the 46 students matriculating at Rockford, six have been admitted to the campus’s Rural Pharmacy Education program, which trains future pharmacists for practice in medically underserved rural areas of the state.

Photos by Brian Thomas Photography

Want to see more photos? Visit our complete online gallery of both White Coat ceremonies at flickr.com/uicpharmacy.

Volunteer to coat a student in 2012! Contact Deb Fox at [email protected] or (312) 996-0160.

Alumni Coat PresentersBob Heyman, bs ’52Scott Meyers, bs ’76Rojean Olmstead, bs ’72Allison Schriever, pharmd ’99Judy Sommers-Hanson, pharmd ’95Tom Warzecha, bs ’83

Rockford Files

Jim and Virginia Bono, benefactors of the James D. and Virginia M. Bono Rural Pharmacy Scholarship, congratulate P1 Adam Hood, this year’s recipient.


The “In-Home” Pharmacist: Though growing in size and scope, the home-infusion field remains a little-known option to many pharmacists.by Daniel P. Smith


E arly in her professional career, Anna Nowobilski-Vasilios, bs ’79, witnessed the potential power of home-infusion care, an experience that sparked her nearly three-decades-long run in the field.

As a woman with terminal cancer lay in the hospital, the patient requested a return home to live her final days on her terms. Doctors answered her wishes, sending her home on pain management as a revolving door of visitors shared farewells.

“I could see how meaningful this was to her and her family,” Nowobilski-Vasilios recalls.

For Nowobilski-Vasilios, the experience solidified her commitment to the home-infusion profession, one that liberates patients from the hospital setting and affords pharmacists direct influence on care.

“Home infusion’s a special way for pharmacists to provide their knowledge and expertise to patients,” says Nowobilski-Vasilios, now a Chicago-based healthcare consultant.

Though swelling numbers of patients in need of intravenous medications receive their treatments at home, effectively swapping a hospital stay for home care, the home-infusion industry remains little known to many, including pharmacists, students, and consumers. Yet, financial considerations and developments in clinical administration of therapies have finally thrust alternate-site infusion therapy to the mainstream brink.

Growing, growing, growing By most accounts, home infusion grew organically from a practical response.

For instance, two innovative pharmacists in northern California founded Option Care, one of the early originators of home-infusion care, in 1979.

After a teenager lost function of his GI tract following an auto accident, hospital staff taught him self-care during his stay, including the administration of intravenous feedings. As the teen grew increasingly eager to resume a normal life after a year in the hospital, his physicians agreed to send him home. Doctors referred his IV preparation and clinical monitoring to the aforementioned pharmacist duo.

The decision attracted some buzz and the two pharmacists began lecturing about their unique practice. As interest in their work spread, the

pharmacists expanded the business footprint of their home-infusion concept as Option Care and had franchised more than 200 local sites by 1990. (In 2007, Option Care’s company-owned locations were purchased by Illinois-based Walgreens and now compose part of the company’s infusion and respiratory division.)

Throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s, the home-infusion field expanded, largely in the area of parenteral nutrition. Whereas patients requiring such therapy were often hospitalized for months or even years, a number of forward-thinking doctors connected patients to pharmacists to deliver alternate-site care.

As the twentieth century closed and the new millennium opened, nearly every pharmaceutical that kept a patient in the hospital for a long period of time became fodder for home infusion. Meanwhile, various intravenous fluid manufacturers began establishing home-infusion divisions, a strategic business move that created a new marketplace.

Recent years, meanwhile, have witnessed even more dynamic growth.

The National Home Infusion Association (NHIA), an Alexandria, Virginia-based organization that represents home infusion companies, reports that the traditional infusion-therapy market continues to grow at a 3–5 percent annual clip. In the last decade alone, the alternate-site infusion therapy sector has swelled to $11 billion in U.S. healthcare expenditures.

From local independent pharmacies to national corporations, the NHIA estimates that there are currently about 1,000 infusion pharmacies across the country, many driven into the game by favorable profit margins and more personal patient care.

Once dominated by local players, an active mergers-and-acquisitions marketplace from major healthcare players, including Walgreens, which now boasts more than 85 home-infusion locations nationwide, as well as private-equity firms has consolidated the still-sprouting industry. In addition, many hospitals also now provide their own home-infusion services.

Growth has been driven by a range of factors, including an aging population, technology, infection rates, and a flurry of new IV drugs and biologic products treating an assortment of diseases.

“Virtually any product that can be administered in the hospital setting can be offered in the comfort


and convenience of the home,” says Steve Kennedy, pharmd ’89, the national director of Walgreens Infusion and Respiratory Services and a 20-year veteran of the home-infusion field.

Consumers have also contributed to the growth. Many patients desire a return to “normalcy” while recovering from an illness and express a preference for receiving treatment outside of an institution and in the comfort and familiarity of one’s home. Home infusion also holds particular appeal to those with difficulty reaching a hospital or clinic, including those in rural areas, those with weakened immune systems, and the elderly.

Above all, however, pure dollars and cents have propelled the home-infusion surge. In many cases, home-infusion therapies can be administered for roughly one-tenth the cost of typical inpatient hospital stay, which provides cost savings to all parties involved.

Still under the radarFor all of its gains, however, the still-less-than-four-decades-old

field continues battling for attention.Norman Cheung, pharmd ’06, admits he knew nothing about

home infusion as a student, even as the category continued to sprout around him. Indeed, residencies and rotations rarely touch the home-infusion world, while few resources link students and pharmacy professionals to the practice area.

It wasn’t until 2010 when Cheung visited a colleague at Walgreens that he better understood the scope of home-infusion work and considered it a professional opportunity.

Now settled into a spot as a clinical pharmacist at Walgreens, Cheung says he’s relished the opportunity to develop new knowledge, coordinate patient care, and discover his profession from a novel perspective.

“The hardest part was learning the nursing skill set,” he confesses, a nod to the interdisciplinary nature of home-infusion work.

Indeed, the pharmacist’s role in home infusion is demandingly different than other professional areas, as pharmacists tackle direct dealings with patients, caregivers, and a diverse medical team. Pharmacists generally set up the supply and delivery of the medication, while coordinating care with nursing professionals.

Combining the clinical skills of the hospital with the customer service skills of the retail setting, the home-infusion pharmacist directs various aspects of patient care, including clinical assessment, monitoring the therapy plan, determining the best route of administration, and patient follow up.

“In providing the therapies and acting as consultants to the physicians, the pharmacist is the hub of the patient-care wheel, which is an incredible position to be in as a clinician,” says NHIA vice president of clinical affairs Nancy Kramer.


The National Home Infusion Association (NHIA), a trade association that represents the burgeoning home-infusion marketplace, provides a glimpse into the field’s scope and accelerating growth.

• NHIA members provide over one million parenteral therapies each year

• Home-infusion therapies treat a wide range of diseases and medical conditions, including osteomyelitis, cellulitis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, congestive heart failure, cancer, diabetes-related complications, immune deficiencies, and immune-mediated neuropathies.

• Anti-infectives are the most commonly infused therapy in the alternate-site setting.

• NHIA members compound 4.6 to 7.5 million prescriptions annually.

• Medicare remains the only major payer that does not cover all the essential components of home-infusion therapy. Only the actual drugs are covered under Medicare Part D, and a very limited number are covered under the DME benefit of Medicare Part B.

• A 2010 study issued by the General Accountability Office (GAO) reported that home-infusion therapy provides costs savings and quality patient care with no unusual utilization.

Home Infusion: A growing industry at a glance

Toss in the entrepreneurial side, wherein pharmacists oversee their own budget and sales, and the home-infusion field is one that holds distinctive appeal.

“The home-infusion field is one that allows pharmacists to take their abilities and develop them in a variety of areas from sales and marketing to management and clinical,” says Lisa Betts, pharmd ’91, general manager of Walgreens Immunoglobulin Program.

Whereas pharmacists in the retail setting largely wait for a patient to return for a refill, the home-infusion pharmacist remains more engaged with patient care.

“There’s follow up with the patient, assessment, and coordinating care with nurses and other medical team members that gives the pharmacist considerably more control and involvement,” Nowobilski-Vasilios says.

All of this, Kennedy says, has spurred increasing interest from pharmacy students and working pharmacists to elevate home infusion into the professional consciousness, particularly from those who desire more direct contact with patients.

“In home infusion, you feel like you’re treating a person more than a disease,” Kennedy says, adding that it’s rewarding to “get to know the patient and get feedback.”

On the brinkIn spite of its merits and growth, Kramer calls the still-

emerging awareness of home infusion a “sheer numbers issue.” By the NHIA’s account, there are approximately 4,000 full-time positions for pharmacists in the home-infusion arena, a slim figure that Kramer says challenges the field to make headway on the education front.

“Most care is provided in the acute-care setting, so that’s what people are certainly most familiar with,” Kramer acknowledges.

Furthermore, Kramer says home infusion demands a tremendous amount of trust from physicians, who must rely on the professional skills of nurses and pharmacists as well as the self-reliance of patients. There remains a persistent worry that patients or their caregivers unskilled in the use of medical equipment can mistakenly infect the patient, that devices will malfunction, and that inappropriate amounts of medication can slip into a patient’s system.

As technology and training have curtailed many of these fears, physicians have gradually acknowledged the quality of life and cost benefits that home-infusion care delivers.

“Awareness of alternate-site infusion therapy among physicians and subscribers has grown; thus, we see a rise in therapies,” Kramer says.

And if current legislation sitting before Congress passes, the home-infusion sector is positioned to explode into the mainstream ranks.

Though many private insurers provide coverage for home-infusion therapy, Medicare Part D stands defiant. While the government program covers the drugs, it does not pay for the patient’s pharmacy or nursing services, supplies, or equipment that make up about 50 percent of home-infusion therapy’s costs.

“Medicare patients are the only ones in the country effectively denied home-infusion care,” NHIA vice president of legislative affairs John Magnuson says.

It’s a situation Magnuson and many home-infusion advocates, including partners at the AARP, the American Diabetes Association, and the American Association of People with Disabilities, are fighting to remedy.

Currently sitting in both houses of Congress, the bipartisan Medicare Home Infusion Therapy Coverage Act seeks to provide Medicare beneficiaries access to safe, high-quality, cost-effective home-infusion therapy.

“No one stands in opposition to this effort and many people recognize this is an area that needs to be fixed,” Magnuson says.

If the legislation passes, many anticipate massive growth in the home-infusion sector as the practice becomes more widely accepted, scores of Baby Boomers come on line, and cost-efficient care becomes an increasing focus of hospitals and insurers.

“Home infusion is poised for a large expansion—that much is true,” Betts says.



Remote Control

UIC pharmacists broaden their clinical reach with entry into telemedicine

e

by Daniel P. Smith


Each week, Juliana Chan takes a seat in a nondescript room at the Benjamin Goldberg Research Center on UIC’s west campus and begins reviewing notes. In a moment, a video screen before her brightens and a live image flashes. A patient enters the picture; a nurse stands at his side. Moments later, a physician pops onto the screen. Enabled by the wonders of twenty-first century technology, the three parties, located miles and seemingly worlds apart, exchange greetings. Then, the questions begin flying. A medical examination and consultation process is underway. Far less sci-fi and far more modern-day reality, this is the growing field of telemedicine. Utilizing technology much like Skype, telemedicine allows medical personnel to visit patients “face-to-face” from a live video feed. The emerging field is adding a new dimension to the work of pharmacists across the nation, including clinicians like Chan and her UIC colleague Melissa Badowski, who are leading multidisciplinary telemedicine teams at UIC to address hepatitis C and HIV, respectively, in Illinois’s prisons. “It’s an opportunity many never imagine existing until they see it with their own eyes,” Chan says of telemedicine. Thanks to technology’s ever-quickening pulse, pharmacists are increasingly entering this new frontier in medical care, eliminating gaps in service, expanding their clinical role and serving oft-overlooked populations in more cost-effective and results-oriented ways. “This is more than just innovative,” UIC professor of pharmacy practice and medicine Keith Rodvold says of Badowski and Chan’s telemedicine efforts. “This is truly telemedicine: medical professionals sitting side by side and working as a team to deliver cohesive care for the patient.”

Telemedicine defined The Washington, DC–based American Telemedicine Association defines telemedicine as “the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications to improve patients’ health status.” Electronic communications can include videoconferencing,

transmission of still images, and remote monitoring of vital signs—tech-driven elements that can develop healthcare in areas with limited access to specialized care. Telemedicine services include specialist referral services from almost 50 different medical subspecialties, patient consultations utilizing audio and still or live imagery to render a diagnosis and design a treatment plan, remote patient monitoring using devices to collect and send data to a monitoring station for interpretation, and even continuing education credits for health professionals. Equipment and staffing needs, meanwhile, are relatively minimal: computers and DSL lines, firewalls and videoconferencing equipment, technological diagnostic tools, and trained staff on the opposite side of the live feed. The telemedicine field has developed as healthcare institutions look to expand their offerings of products and services. As a result of telemedicine’s innovative momentum, patients receive the expert care that might elude them. “We’re counseling in real time and managing side effects,” says Badowski, an HIV expert who serves as a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice.

UIC’s leading role When Badowski arrived at UIC in 2010, with fresh experience setting up an HIV inpatient service, leadership tabbed her to establish pharmacy services in telemedicine, an arena UIC wanted to enter. “There was a loose framework in place, but not much beyond that,” Badowski recalls. Within months of her arrival, Badowski had the HIV telemedicine clinic up and running with one Illinois correctional facility immediately on board. Badowski sees every HIV patient when they first enter prison and, alongside a physician and case manager, has routine follow-up meetings with prisoners. Just as Badowski was launching the HIV telemedicine clinic, Chan was opening UIC’s hepatitis C telemedicine clinic. Chan, a clinical associate professor in the Departments of Pharmacy Practice and Medicine who’s been at UIC for 13 years, says the school had been in talks with the Illinois Department of


Corrections (IDOC) about telemedicine programs, specifically in the areas of HIV and hepatitis C, since the mid-2000s. IDOC stood eager to find a partner who could not only provide direct patient care, but also secure government pricing on drugs under the 340B Drug Pricing Program, a move IDOC leaders said would save $4 million annually. “The fact of the matter is that patients in prison were not being taken care of by specialists, which wasn’t the most productive or cost-effective process,” Chan says. For years, in fact, the issue of HIV and hepatitis C in Illinois prisons had been a persistent and costly one. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice, more than 450 Illinois prisoners, about 1 percent of the state’s incarcerated population, were living with HIV as of 2008. In October 2007, Illinois released its “Viral Hepatitis Strategic Plan” and announced that “although [hepatitis C] prevalence among prison inmates is three to five times greater than that in the general population, access to viral hepatitis screening and prevention services are not routinely available in Illinois prisons.” Prior to UIC’s telemedicine efforts, most of the state’s prisons had one doctor overseeing a patient’s care. Well-intentioned and professional as the doctors might have been, none were HIV or hepatitis C experts. This not only meant health challenges for those Illinois prisoners infected with HIV or hepatitis C, but also posed a health risk to correctional staff and, upon a prisoner’s release, the general population as well. UIC’s telemedicine clinics changed that for hundreds of Illinois inmates, providing care from a team of specialists—a physician who directs the diagnostic decision making and a pharmacist who leads decisions on medications. Today, Badowski and Chan’s telemedicine teams serve more than two-dozen Illinois correctional facilities. Most inmates have a nurse with them on the telemedicine feed. The nurse will take the patient’s vitals and provide the direct examination. When necessary, the UIC physician or pharmacist can utilize high-tech tools, including stethoscope equipment and an exam camera, to gain further insights. “We bring in high-quality subspecialty care,” Badowski says. “We’re improving quality of life as well as efficacy, safety, and care of treatment.”

Both Badowski and Chan also utilize their clinics for training. UIC residents and fellows gain their introduction to telemedicine’s unique environment through Badowski and Chan, while pharmacy students can participate in a telemedicine rotation as well.

The future for telemedicine When Badowski first got involved with telemedicine, she feared she would lose the “hands-on” aspect of patient care. Two years in, however, she sees that telemedicine retains the humanistic approach she so enjoys. “You’re giving specialty care where there otherwise would be none and still doing it face to face,” she says. At UIC, Badowski and Chan’s efforts are only the beginning of pushing the limits of innovative, off-site care. The university currently maintains telemedicine efforts in dermatology, as well as a pediatric ENT telemedicine clinic that serves rural areas on a quarterly basis. Plans to establish a telemedicine psychiatric clinic have also been discussed internally, a clear sign that UIC embraces its mission to establish new methods of patient care, instruct and prepare future medical professionals, and engage in scholarly activity. “Many of us are looking to do research on how telemedicine can expand,” says Badowski, adding that she believes telemedicine will eventually expand into nursing homes and other venues in which patients require quick access to medical specialists. While still a relatively new, emerging field, Chan says telemedicine can no longer be labeled “futuristic.” In addition to UIC’s clinics, there are dozens of telemedicine clinics across the United States serving residents in rural areas, patients in VA hospitals, and other immobile or distant populations. “Developments in technology and telemedicine are giving a lot of people the specialized care they couldn’t have accessed before,” Chan says. “It’s saving time, money, and lives.” Such favorable components, Rodvold contends, will continue to drive telemedicine’s advancement in the years ahead, thereby giving pharmacists an opportunity to embrace a more clinical perspective. “As telemedicine grows, pharmacists will have an opportunity to expand their role in patient care,” Rodvold confirms.


Under the telemedicine umbrella stands telepharmacy. Much like its parent discipline, telepharmacy embraces professional service from an off-site location. Generally storefront shops, even closed Main Street pharmacies, these remote sites—essentially surrogates for the “home pharmacy”—are staffed by trained nonpharmacist personnel and carry medication and electronic systems just as a traditional pharmacy would. Courtesy of a live video feed, the supervising pharmacist directs the fulfillment process and counsels the patient. Telepharmacy first began making headlines around the turn of the century, largely driven by the closing of small-town drugstores and a well-documented shortage of pharmacists. Championing telepharmacy as a way to address labor costs and make a single pharmacist more efficient, telepharmacies have sprouted in recent years as entrepreneurial pharmacists and ambitious companies explore financially savvy ways to deliver medications with convenience and speed, but without concern about having enough customer volume to fulfill business objectives. In recent years, various studies have supported the implementation of telepharmacy services in multihospital health systems, specifically citing expanded hours of service, improved speed in the processing of medication orders, and increased clinical pharmacy services and cost avoidance.

Telepharmacy develops as a branch of telemedicine


ICHP is a statewide association of progressive pharmacy practitioners, technicians, faculty, students, and pharmaceutical representatives - active and retired.

We strive everyday for the advancement of pharmacy practice and improvement of patient care in the state of Illinois and across the nation.

For more information or to join the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists, call (815) 227-9292 or visit www.ichpnet.org.

Advancing Excellence in the Practice of Pharmacy

What’s in it for me? ICHP CAN PROVIDE YOU:

▶ Innovative models of practice

▶ Continuing education programs

▶ KeePosted newsjournal

▶ Networking opportunities

▶ Protect your rights in Springfield

▶ Liaison with Board of Pharmacy

▶ Support of pharmacy practice

▶ An investment in your profession

Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists

UIC Pharmacist | Spring 2011 | www.uic.edu/pharmacy | 25

Reunion 2012Held on November 3 at Harry Caray’s Italian Steakhouse at the Westin Lombard, the UIC College of Pharmacy Reunion 2012 brought together nearly 200 alumni, students, faculty, and staff. Graduates and current students raised glasses to celebrate the College’s history, honor its recent achievements, and toast its bright future.

Photography by Joshua Clark


1947–52

1962

1972

1982

Class Photos

1967


1977

1992

1997

2002

2007


The College of Pharmacy Alumni Associaton woud like to thank the following sponsors for their generous support of the 2012 Pharmacy Alumni Reunion. Without their beneficence, this celebration would not have been possible.

Jewel-Osco PharmacyIllinois Pharmacists AssociationIllinois Council of Health-System PharmacistsUniversity of Illinois Alumni AssociationUIC College of Pharmacy

Each year, the College of Pharmacy Alumni Association recognizes the accomplishments of outstanding graduates at Reunion. The following individuals represent the College’s legacy of excellence.

Honoring Excellence


2012 Loyalty Award Recipients Established in 1957, this award is bestowed upon alumni of the

University of Illinois who have made significant, notable, and meritorious

contributions and who have consistently demonstrated exceptional

loyalty, commitment, dedication, and service to the University of Illinois

Alumni Association for the advancement of their alma mater.

This year, the College of Pharmacy is honored to have two alumni

receiving this award, Abe Dorevitch and Bob Heyman.

Abraham “Abe” Dorevitch, pharmd, bs ’62 Born 1941 in Chicago, Abe Dorevitch earned his bachelor’s in pharmacy

at the College in 1962. Five years later, he moved to Israel and has

lived in Jerusalem since 1968. Retaining his U.S. citizenship, Dorevitch

became an Israeli citizen in 1970. Conscripted into the Israeli Defense

Forces that same year; he completed an officer’s course in the Medical

Corp.

Dorevitch served in the IDF for more than 20 years, including stints

serving in a field hospital in the Sinai Desert during the 1973 Yom Kippur

War and also in Lebanon during the 1982 “Peace for the Galilee War.”

He was discharged in 1992 at the rank of captain.

In 1980, Dorevitch returned to the United States and earned his

PharmD from Mercer University in Atlanta, Georgia. He then completed

a residency in the psychiatric clinical pharmacy at the V.A. Hospital in

Memphis, Tennessee.

From 1982 to 2002, Dorevitch was employed as an on-site medication

advisor at two leading psychiatric hospitals in Jerusalem. He currently

holds an appointment as senior clinical lecturer at the Hadassah-

Hebrew University Faculty of Medicine, where, for the last 25 years, he

has taught classes to pharmacy and medical students on the optimal

use of psychiatric medications.

In 2011, the Israeli Society of Clinical Pharmacy honored Dorevitch with

its Lifetime Achievement Award.

Robert “Bob” Heyman, rph, bs ’52Since graduating from the College of Pharmacy in 1952, Robert M.

Heyman, PSC, has enjoyed a career practicing pharmacy in both

community and hospital settings. Most recently, Heyman was employed

as a registry pharmacist at St. Francis Hospital, and, previously, as a staff

pharmacist at Dominick’s Finer Foods.

While enrolled in the College, he joined Delta Kappa Sigma fraternity in

1949. This group later became part of Rho Pi Phi. Within the organization,

Heyman has held many chapter and national offices, including two years

as supreme councillor. He has also enjoyed the privilege of being the

fraternity’s first and only executive director.

Heyman shares three children with his late wife, Elissa. He also has

three grandchildren. Seven years ago, Heyman married his current wife,

Devorah, who added her two sons to the Heyman family and “lights up

my life every day,” he says.

“Through her I have something I never expected—siblings and nieces

and nephews. Ain’t life grand.”

2012 Alumnus of the YearGarry Zage, rph, bs ’77 One of the highest honors given to an alumnus by the College of

Pharmacy, the Alumnus of the Year Award recognizes a graduate

who stands as an innovator, exhibits leadership, and has contributed

significantly to the pharmacy profession. Garry Zage receives this year’s

top honor in recognition of an exceptional career.

Garry Zage has over 35 years experience in the pharmacy industry,

including more than 15 years in automation technology. Zage is the only

CEO of a pharmacy automation company who is also a pharmacist.

Prior to purchasing Kirby Lester, Zage cofounded and spent 10 years

running a private consulting and development firm that advised and

developed strategies with new healthcare start-up businesses. Zage

also held several executive business-development, as well as corporate

sales and marketing, roles with Baxter International prior to starting the

consulting firm.

Immediately after graduation in 1977, Zage worked as a pharmacist

at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. Zage also

was in hospital pharmacy management and was promoted to hospital

administrator over professional services (including pharmacy) at St.

Joseph Hospital in Chicago.

Zage served as president of the Illinois Council of Health-System

Pharmacists and sat on the board of directors of the Illinois Pharmacists

Association. In 1984, Zage was recognized for outstanding leadership

by a young pharmacist when he received the Edmond P. Barcus

Memorial Leadership Award from Illinois Pharmacist’s Association. He

currently serves on the board of directors for the Epilepsy Services of

Northeastern Illinois and is a member the UIC College of Pharmacy

Advisory Board.

Honoring Excellence


Join us for the inaugural

Norman R. Farnsworth Lectureship in

Pharmacognosy

Featuring guest lecturer Paul Coates, PhD

Director, NIH Office of Dietary Supplements

March 22, 201312:30 p.m.

UIC College of PharmacyRoom 134-1

833 South Wood StreetChicago

Reception immediately following

RSVP by March 15 to [email protected]

To learn more about the Farnsworth Lectureship, see

inside front cover.

Gallery

Commencement 2012Photography by Roberta Dupuis-Devlin and Al DiFranco

On May 3, the College congratulated 213 graduates as they made the transition from being students to becoming alumni. William Marth, bs ’77, president and CEO of Teva Pharmaceuticals—Americas, presented the evening’s keynote address. Pharmacy Alumni Board president Sharon Park, pharmd ’04, led the graduates in reciting the Oath of a Pharmacist.

Degrees awarded

163 Doctor of Pharmacy31 Doctor of Philosophy 7 Biopharmaceutical Sciences 10 Medicinal Chemistry 12 Pharmacognosy 2 Pharmacy Administration19 Master of Science 2 Biopharmaceutical Sciences 9 Forensic Science 5 Medicinal Chemistry 1 Pharmacognosy 2 Pharmacy Administration

The Oath of a Pharmacist I promise to devote myself to a lifetime of service to others through the profession of pharmacy. In fulfilling this vow:• I will consider the welfare of humanity and relief of suffering my primary concerns.• I will apply my knowledge, experience, and skills to the best of my ability to ensure optimal

outcomes for my patients.• I will respect and protect all personal and health information entrusted to me.• I will accept the lifelong obligation to improve my professional knowledge and competence.• I will hold myself and my colleagues to the highest principles of our profession’s moral,

ethical, and legal conduct.• I will embrace and advocate changes that improve patient care.• I will utilize my knowledge, skills, experiences, and values to prepare the next generation

of pharmacists.I take these vows voluntarily with the full realization of the responsibility with which I am

entrusted by the public.



Top of the classSeven valedictorians score perfect GPA

Matthew Steven Brew

Samantha Cabrera

Su Young Choi

Alexander Kantorovich

Sarah Ann Larison

Yee Ming Lee

Sarah Elizabeth Sullivan


Gallery

Commencement 2012

Thomas TenHoeve III, associate dean for student affairs, presided over the entry processional and provided closing remarks.

Dean Jerry Bauman, bs ’76, res ’77, kicked off the evening and recognized this year’s valedictorians.

Chancellor Paula Allen-Meares offered greetings and congratulations from the university.

William Marth, bs ’77, gave the evening’s keynote address.

Alumni Board President Sharon Park, pharmd ’04, led the recitation of the Oath of a Pharmacist.

To view more photos from this and other events, visit flickr.com/uicpharmacy.

About the Class of 2016

• Enrollment in Chicago: 162• Enrollment in Rockford: 46• Average GPA: 3.56• Average PCAT composite: 76th

percentile


Volunteer to coat a student in 2012! Contact Deb Fox at [email protected] or (312) 996-0160.

Chicago White Coats 2012

On August 23, UIC’s next class of future pharmacist and pharmaceutical industry researchers were welcomed into pharmacy school at the Chicago campus before an audience of proud friends and family. Eleven alumni volunteers joined Dean Bauman presenting the Class of 2016 with their new white coats and reciting the Pledge of Professionalism.

Photos by Barry Donald

The College of Pharmacy thanks its 2012 Alumni Coat Presenter volunteers:

• Don Bauer, bs ’69

• Dennis Bryan, bs ’74

• Netty Chavez, pharmd ’04

• Tommy Chiampas, pharmd ’10

• Nazia Fatima, pharmd ’07

• Cindy Flores, bs ’76

• Bob Heyman, bs ’53

• Eva Lazzara, bs ’84

• Sharon Park, pharmd ’04

• Joannie Wang, pharmd ’91

• Garry Zage, bs ’77

Find images from Rockford’s White Coat Ceremony on page 30. For even more photos, visit our complete online gallery of both White Coat ceremonies at flickr.com/uicpharmacy.

1941 Milton Yanow, bs, of Sarasota, Florida, is 95 years old and celebrates 26 years of marriage to his wife. After completing his degree at UIC, Yanow enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1942, where he served in the Chemical Warfare Service, which was tasked with defending against chemical, bioloical, radiological, and nuclear weapons. When his group became the Chemical Corps in 1946, Yanow ended his tenure with the Army and returned home to Chicago. He first gained employment at a steel casting company on the south side, then went onto a position with Motorola before opening his own pharmacies. Yanow insisted on placing the pharmacy areas within his stores at the front windows, which, at the time, was considered unusual. He recalls filling prescriptions “in plain view of people waiting for the bus. Their noses were pressed up against the windows with amazement.” At 75, Yanow took up the hobby of portrait painting, which eventually became a paid endeavor once he honed his talent. Today, Yanow says he’s not sure if he’s “been living in Florida since 1970 or since I was 70 years old.” Yanow enjoys crossword puzzles and listening to science and history programs. Yanow has three children, including one son who still lives in the Chicago area and another son and daughter who reside in Springfield, Illinois, and in Oregon, respectively, and four grandchildren.

1951 Frederic Yanow, bs, of Northbrook, is employed as a pharmacist at Moon Lake Pharmacy in Schaumburg.

1962 Abe Dorevitch, bs, of Jerusalem, Israel, became a grandfather this past May with the birth of baby boy Gil, whose name means “joy” in Hebrew. Read more about Dorevitch, recipient of the

2012 University of Illinois Alumni Association Loyalty Award, on page 44.

1967 Michael H. Schrank, bs, of Northbrook, is employed as a pharmacist at Walgreens in Lake Forest. This year, he celebrates 45 years of service with the company.

1968 Henri Manasse, Jr., bs, of Downers Grove, retired after 16 years as executive vice president and CEO of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. He now returns to the UIC College of Pharmacy as professor and dean emeritus and will maintain his positions as professional secretary of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) based in The Hague, Netherlands, and as chair of the FIP Education Initiatives Steering Committee. He is now the executive vice president emeritus of ASHP. In honor of Manasse’s accomplishments and legacy, the UIC College of Pharmacy has established the Dean Henri R. Manasse, Jr., Scholarship. See the inside back cover for details.

1968 Nick Popovich, bs ’68, ms ’71, phd ’73, of Chicago, professor and head of pharmacy administration, was pleased to have been joined by fellow Class of ’68 alumni Craig Kueltzo and Dennis Jacobson along with Connie Kasprazak, pharmd ’87; Henri Manasse; Larry Stern; and Dennis West, bs ’67, for a mini-reunion lunch celebrating their 44th graduation anniversary at Mon Ami Gabi in Oak Brook this past July. The group looks forward to celebrating their 45th in 2013 with even more members of the Class of ’68. Interested alumni are encouraged to contact Popovich at [email protected].

1969 Richard Morrison, bs, of Bothell, Washington, retired after

33 years of service as pharmacist investigator and chief investigator with the Washington State Board of Pharmacy. He continues to serve on the University of Washington School of Pharmacy Admissions Committee as clinical associate professor and as a member of the National Association of Board of Pharmacy Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination Review Committee. He also celebrates 40 years with his wife Shari.

1972 Ben Mui, bs, of Vernon Hills, is employed as a pharmacist at Walgreens in Lake Forest. This year, he celebrates 45 years of service with the company.

1974 Dennis Bryan, bs, of Chicago, is the recipient of the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management’s 2012 Distinguished Achievement Award in Administrative Practice. This award recognizes the achievements of an individual who has made significant or sustained contributions to the provision of pharmaceutical care within administrative practice. Bryan, a pharmacy consultant with W.B.C. Pharmacies, Inc. was selected for numerous contributions to the profession of pharmacy, specifically his efforts to expand pharmaceutical care models with a patient-centered focus and his work to gain recognition for pharmacist-provided services. Bryan has been actively involved in pharmacy leadership at both the state and national levels. He has served as an APhA-APPM officer and moderator. He is a member of both the American Pharmacists Association and the Illinois Pharmacists Association, the latter of which he has served in multiple leadership positions, including stints as president and vice president. Bryan, who holds an

Class Notes


MBA from DeVry’s Keller Graduate School of Management, serves on the boards of directors for the UIC College of Pharmacy, the University of Illinois Alumni Association, and the Chicago Asthma Consortium. An APhA fellow, Bryan’s honors include the University of Illinois Alumni Association Loyalty Award and the UIC College of Pharmacy Jesse Stewart Community Service Award.

1975 Linda Grider, bs, of Oswego, is a clinical assistant professor at the UIC College of Pharmacy. Grider

(left) along with daughters Kristin and Katharine, completed the 2012 Bank of America Chicago Marathon. She is married to Bruce Grider, bs ’74.

1976 Cindy Flores, bs, of Chicago, was inducted into the 2012 Chicago Filipino American Hall of Fame and was recognized with the Woman of the Year Award. A proud COP aluma, Flores serves on the College of Pharmacy Alumni Board of Directors. In her community, she also serves as treasurer of the Federation of the Philippine American Chambers of Commerce and is cochair of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations for Cook County.

1977 John McGinnis, bs, of Mendon, New York, considers himself “semiretired” and is currently performing an internship toward

designation as a Certified Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor. He holds an MBA from Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, and an MS in psychology from the University of Phoenix.

1977 Tom Westerkamp, bs, of Arlington Heights, was installed as president of the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists in September. He is currently employed as medical information manager at Baxter Healthcare in Deerfield.

1978 Jeri Rothman, bs, of Wilmette, works as an investigational drug services pharmacist at Rush University Medical Center. She also holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. She and her husband, Joel, served as mission cochairs for an American Technion Society mission to Israel this past summer. The ten-day mission also brought their group to St. Petersburg, Russia, and raised more than $6.2 million for the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Israel’s leading science and technology university.

1983 John Krstenansky, bs, of Redlands, California, was named professor and director of medicinal chemistry in the Department of Pharmaceutical Science and Research at the Marshall University School of Pharmacy in Huntington, West Virginia.

1985 Khalil Rabie, bs, of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is pharmacy director at American Hospital Dubai and also serves as an adjunct clinical tutor at the University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Previously, he was pharmacy manager at King Fahad National Children’s Cancer Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for nearly 10 years.

1988 David J. Klug, bs, ms ’94, of Dumfries, Virginia, is director of Business Development, Federal, State, and Homeland Security for MorphoTrak, Inc., of Alexandria, Virginia. MorphoTrak is a world leader in multibiometric technologies for fingerprint, iris, and facial recognition and an acknowledged expert in identification systems. Klug helps his clients meet a wide range of security needs for people, companies, and governments, including identity management, personal rights for residents and travelers, physical access to airports or other high-value sites, and logical access, either online or via secure terminals. A new product that he is helping to launch is the MorphoIDentTM, a mobile fingerprint identification device for law enforcement agencies that enables field personnel to gather real-time identification in a matter of minutes. Other projects include the HIIDE device for high-volume remote enrollments of iris, fingerprint, and facial images for use in authoritative databases, including the Department of Defense Automated Biometric Identification System, ARGUS for rapid and real-time watchlist subject facial identification, and the Morpho Biometric Engine, a multibiometrics feature extractor and matcher for high-availability and large-scale systems like the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System.

1991 Sabah Hussein, pharmd, of Chicago, was the recipient of the 2011 Bowl of Hygeia. Originally developed by the A. H. Robins Company, this award recognizes pharmacists across the nation for outstanding service to their communities. Selected through their respective professional pharmacy associations, each of these dedicated individuals has made uniquely

Class Notes


Class Notes

personal contributions to a strong, healthy community. Hussein is currently an assistant professor at the Chicago State University College of Pharmacy. Today, the American Pharmacists Association Foundation, the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations, and the state pharmacy associations maintain responsibility for continuing this prestigious recognition program. The Bowl of Hygeia is on display in the American Pharmacists Association Awards Gallery located in Washington, D.C.

1991 Michael Tiberg, pharmd, of Traverse City, Michigan, received the 2011 Pharmacist of the Year award, conferred by the Michigan Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Tiberg serves as a clinical pharmacy specialist in infectious diseases at the Munson Medical Center, as well as an adjunct assistant professor of clinical pharmacy at Ferris State University.

1996 Margaret H. Tomecki, pharmd, of Lemont, is employed as the director of pharmacy development and research for the America Pharmacists Association in Washington, D.C. She serves as lead staff liaison to and oversees the operations of the APhA Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management. She also manages practice development-related projects, services, and activities including MTM and medical home projects. In addition, Tomecki oversees the direct operations of the APhA e-Communities and serves as a APhA expert and representative on immunizations. Since leaving the College of Pharmacy in 2007, where she had worked as a clinical assistant professor, she has joined the UIC Pharmacy Alumni Board of Directors. When Tomecki is not working or traveling, she and her husband Henry devote their time and energy to their

three children, Jacqueline, Joseph, and Juliana.

1997 Sharon Ayd, phd, of Hawthorn Woods, is chief scientific officer at Pinnacle Biologics in Bannockburn. Previously, Ayd had been consulting with Pinnacle, leading the regulatory, quality, and scientific affairs team. Ayd has a breadth of experience in entrepreneurial-minded organizations. Most recently, she was vice president of global research and development operations for the One 2 One business unit at Hospira, Inc. Previously, she held a number of operating and senior management positions at start-up biopharmaceutical companies. She earned her bachelor’s in chemistry and biology from Northeastern Illinois University and her MBA at Lewis University.

1997 Linda Chang, pharmd, mph ’04, of Rockford, was appointed assistant dean of medical education at the UIC College of Medicine at Rockford. Chang has been with the university for 12 years and teaches both pharmacy and medical students. She serves on several College of Medicine committees, including student promotions and the M2 curriculum committee, and is the M2 course director for Essentials of Patient Care. Chang also provides primary patient care and assessments at the L.P. Johnson Family Health Center. She will maintain this role one day per week where she will continue to help train medical students and family medicine residents. Chang is a clinical assistant professor with the College of Medicine and has an appointment with the College of Pharmacy. She has given numerous presentations on multiple topics, including geriatric pharmacology, women and diabetes, and herbal supplements.

She has published in both the family medicine and pharmacy journals on topics such as the treatment of hyperlipidemia, migraine headache, and medications of choice for severe gastroesophageal reflux disease.

1998 Jennifer (Troutman) Torres, pharmd, of Chicago, is employed as a pharmacist at Supervalu. She and her husband Yamel have two children, Sarah, born in 2002, and Yamel, Jr., born in 2006.

1999 Mark Bachleda, pharmd, of Charlotte, North Carolina, along with wife, Joy, and daughter, Olivia,

welcomed a new addition to their family, Jakob, in November 2011. Bachleda is currently employed as executive director of regional sales at Amgen, Inc.

2000 Heather Schumann, pharmd, of Roseville, California, works as an associate professor of clinical and administrative services at the California Northstate University College of Pharmacy in Rancho Cordova, California. She was previously faculty at the UIC College of Pharmacy with a clinical practice site in the emergency department at the University of Illinois Hospital. Schumann has several years of didactic teaching and clinical precepting experience. She served as director of UIC’s ASHP-accredited PGY2 Emergency Medicine Pharmacy Residency program, one


Class Notes


of only three such programs in the nation. Besides emergency medicine, Schumann’s areas of interest include trauma, toxicology, and cardiology. She looks forward to establishing a PGY2 emergency medicine pharmacy residency program at California Northstate.

2003 Amber Beitelshees, res, is employed as an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. Earlier this year, her editorial, “Personalised Antiplatelet Treatment: A RAPIDly Moving Target,” was published in the March 29, 2012, online edition of The Lancet. Beitelshees earned her PharmD at the University of Florida in 2001, then went on to complete a residency in pharmacy practice at UIC. In 2005, she completed her postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular pharmacogenomics and master of public health in epidemiology. After serving on the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, she returned to the University of Florida as an assistant professor in pharmacy practice. In November 2008, Beitelshees joined the University of Maryland’s Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Nutrition. In her faculty profile, Beitelshees notes that her research focuses on improving outcomes in the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. By understanding the genetic determinants of variability in drug response, she hopes to optimize individuals’ drug therapy more efficiently and effectively. Her group is particularly interested in determining how variability in genes involved in lipid and glucose metabolism can be used to predict improved safety and efficacy of the chronic medications used to treat

cardiovascular disease. Her lab uses genetic epidemiology, clinical pharmacology, and functional genomics to address these questions.

2003 Fredyc Diaz-Castillo, phd, of Cartagena, Colombia, is a professor at the University of Cartagena and director of the Laboratorio de Investigacines Fitoqumicas y Farmacolgicas at Universidad de Cartagena Subgerente Cientfico de Investigaciones y Proyeccin.

2004 Lucas Chadwick, phd, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, is employed as quality manager at Bell’s Brewery in Galesberg, Michigan.

2004 Suzanne Rabi Soliman, pharmd, of Orland Park, assistant

dean of academic affairs and clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice, and her husband, Will, welcomed baby boy Jude William, on January 13, 2012.

2005 Adam Bursua, pharmd, and his wife Vika (Gylys), both of Riverside, welcomed a baby boy, Lukas Linas, to their family this past May.

2005 Francisco, phd, and Margaret Rausa, pharmd, of Vernon Hills, welcomed their third daughter, Eva Margaret, to their family in September.

2005 Baldomero J. Sagrado, Jr., pharmd, of Lorton, Virginia, is a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, currently serving Congress as

the department head for pharmacy at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. As one of two pharmacists for Congress, he works with five Navy attending physicians and a staff of corpsman to operate an on-site clinic, which handles everything from routine care visits to 911 calls and boasts its own ambulance service, drug therapy and travel clinics, and outpatient pharmacy. As a pharmacy student, Sagrado was active in Kappa Psi, serving as both a chaplain and regent, and worked as a technician at Walgreens. During his P3 year, he decided to enlist in the Navy and, seven years later, has enjoyed deployments to Guam, San Diego, and Kuwait, prior to his current duty post. Sagrado did not complete a residency following his graduation, but proudly notes that he has learned so much since his graduation. Through assignments to both inpatient and outpatient service, the military has given him vast leadership opportunities as well as ever-increasing responsibilities and

opportunities for personal growth and career advancement. Recently married and newly promoted, Sagrado reminisces fondly on his days at Whitney Young High School and growing up in Albany Park.

2005 Megan Wagner, pharmd, and husband, Matt, pharmd ’03, welcomed their daughter, Raelen Emma Wagner, to the family in May. Megan is a staff pharmacist with Supervalu and is primary preceptor for the PGY1 Community Practice Residency Program affiliated with UIC.

2006 Jill Bates, pharmd, of Cary, North Carolina, is a clinical pharmacy specialist in hematology/oncology within the University of North Carolina Healthcare System and is also a clinical assistant professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in Chapel Hill. An active member of ASHP, she is currently chair-elect (2012–13) of its executive committee. She has two children: Alexander Robert, 3, and Payton Grace, 1.

2006 Jason Wang, phd, of Danbury, Connecticut, is employed as the primary care lead with the U.S. Health Economics Outcome Research

group at Eisai, Inc., in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

2007 Kyle Shick, pharmd, of Rockton, is employed as a clinical staff pharmacist with OSF

HealthCare in Rockford. He and his wife Heather welcomed their son, Benjamin Matthew, in June.

2008 Katharine Eckmann, pharmd, of Island Lake, is employed as a pharmacist at Supervalu, from whom she was awarded the 2012 Rookie of the Year honor.

2009 Mihaela (Popescu) Jason, pharmd, of Baltimore, Maryland,

married Chris Jason on June 30, 2012, in Cleveland, Ohio. The ceremony took place at St. Mary Romanian Orthodox Cathedral, and the reception was held at the Club at Key Center. The couple honeymooned in Maui. Mihaela is currently a transplant clinical pharmacy specialist at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

2010 Eucharia Igwe, pharmd, of Corpus Christi, Texas, works as a staff pharmacist at Walgreens in her

town. She and her husband, Harold, are coowners of Harchik® Resale Shop, also located in Corpus Christi. The couple buys and sells antiques, collectible items, and housewares. Their youngest daughter, Emma, 6, was born when Igwe was a P1. They have two other children, Obinna, 11, and Ella, 12. “If not for the support that I was given by COP staff and faculty, I would not be where I am today, living out my dream of being a pharmacist,” she says.

2011 Xiaochen Luo, ms, of Hoffman Estates, joined the Walgreens home infusion and specialty pharmacy group in June 2011 as a pricing analyst, analyzing contract and utilization data, and updating and negotiating prices with PBM and health plans.

2011 Morolake Olaleye, pharmd, of Chicago, enjoyed additional holiday cheer last year, welcoming twins Janelle and Joshua on December 18, 2011.

2012 Nicole Avant, pharmd, bs ’01 UIUC, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, is pursuing a residency in community pharmacy at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She gave birth to a daughter, Nala, on January, 20, 2012.

Class Notes


After 12 years as the CEO of the University of Illinois Hospital, John DeNardo, moved to the UIC School of Public Health to become the director of the Master of Healthcare Administration Program.

“The last 12 years have been among the most professionally rewarding of my life. I have also been fortunate to participate in teaching the next generation of healthcare leaders as adjunct faculty in both the College of Pharmacy and the School of Public Health,” wrote DeNardo in a farewell blog post to UI Hospital employees.

Before joining the University of Illinois Hospital in 2000, DeNardo was a pharmacist, pharmacy administrator, and a top administrator at three Veterans Administration hospitals in the Chicago area.

He began his career in healthcare at UIC as a student in the College

of Pharmacy, earning a bachelor’s in 1971 and a master’s in 1974, followed by a master of public health from the University of Michigan in 1984.

DeNardo says that during his time as CEO, one of his guiding principles was to treat people the way he would want to be treated.

He extended this to patients by always emphasizing that hospital staff and physicians should take care of patients “the way we would want our mother, father, sister, or brother to be taken care of.”

“He cares about everyone at this place and it shows in all his interactions,” said Joe G. N. “Skip” Garcia, vice president for health affairs, at a farewell reception for DeNardo in August.

COP Alumnus and Former Hospital CEO Moves to Public Health


Daschner liners keep it cleanHaving recognized a need to minimize the indirect contamination of packaged medications in hospitals, Robin E. Hannan, bs ’84, and Diane I. Funk, bs ’81, began a seven-year process of researching, publishing, and, ultimately, patenting an infection control for medication storage bins. Along with partners Curtis Hannan and Pam Carsten, their company, Daschner Bin Liner Solution, Inc. now sells bin liners for Pyxis and Omnicell machines that help guard against nosocomial infections by guaranteeing a clean, economical, and disposable dispenser for medication in hospitals. The liners provide a sanitary alternative to conventional medication cassette bins and drawers that often receive inadequate cleaning, which can become a site for indirect contamination and result in potentially dangerous and costly infections of patients immunocompromised by AIDS, transplantation, or cancer therapy. The disposable bin liners come in a variety of sizes to fit most carts and cassettes. To learn more or receive copies of their studies, please contact Robin Hannan at [email protected] or Health Care Logistics, Inc. at (800) 848-1633.

Class Notes

Former Hospital CEO John DeNardo (right) celebrates with George Kondos, professor of medicine, at DeNardo’s farewell reception. DeNardo, who moved to the School of Public Health, says his 12 years leading the hospital “have been among the most professionally rewarding.”

by Sherri McGinnis Gonzalez

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Randy Lambert, bs ’71, is the recipient of the Illinois Pharmacists

Association Lifetime Service Award, established to honor

pharmacists in all practice settings who have, through example,

integrity, and longevity, served as role models for those in the

profession. Lambert, who is currently employed as interim

director of experiential education at Roosevelt University College

of Pharmacy, has enjoyed a long and distinguished career. He has

held positions as a pharmacy manager in community pharmacy

and an operations manager in corporate pharmacy and is also

active in pharmacy academia. Among his honors, Lambert is a

member of Rho Chi and is a past recipient of the Edmond P.

Barcus Memorial Leadership Award. He is also active in a number

of pharmacy professional organizations, including the American

Pharmacists Association, the American Association of Colleges

of Pharmacy, the Illinois Pharmacists Association, the Dupage

Pharmacists Association, and the North Suburban Pharmacists

Association. Throughout his career, Lambert has also generously

served his community. He is active with Health Reach, Inc.,

which serves medically underserved residents of Lake County,

where he works as a pharmacist. He has also served as director

and treasurer of this not-for-profit while assisting them to set its

strategic goals. Lambert is a member of the Medical Reserve

Corps, Skokie Department of Public Health, where he is a

licensed member who is able to serve as supplement to local

resources in the event of medical or public health incidents.

Robert Anselmo, bs ’81, was honored by IPhA as the recipient

of this year’s Outstanding Pharmacist Coach Achievement

Award, which recognizes the achievements of an individual who

has made significant contributions to the provision of patient-

centered care within the practice areas represented by the Illinois

Pharmacists Network through the Patient Self-Management

Programs. Anselmo is a past member of the Illinois State Board

of Pharmacy and has practiced retail/community pharmacy and

clinical ambulatory care pharmacy for 31 years. Over the last six

years, as a PSMP pharmacist-coach, he has seen his patient

population grow with diabetes patients who have special needs

or are complicated cases. He travels to the employers’ offices,

plants, and his own clinical-only pharmacy office for diabetes

and cardiovascular health coaching visits. Anselmo was

instrumental in the development of the Midwest Business Group

on Health’s “Taking Control of Your Health” program that has

helped hundreds of patients and a number of major employers,

including the City of Chicago, find success in efforts to improve

patient health, while reducing the costs for diabetes. During

the development of the program, he strongly championed the

effectiveness of pharmacists as diabetes and lifestyle coaches.

Throughout his career, Anselmo has demonstrated a sincere

commitment to representing his patients with a personable,

positive, and encouraging style.

COP Alumni honored by IPhA


Class Notes

Lambert was presented the IPhA Lifetime Service Award by IPhA Board Member Laura Licari.

Anselmo was presented the Outstanding Pharmacist Coach Achievement Award by IPhA Clinical Coordinator Starlin Haydon-Greatting and Denise MacKenzie, past award recipient.

Alumni

1934 Anastasia Esposito, phc, of Lemont, July 7.

1937Wilson Lacey, phc, of Libertyville, July 17. A native of Grand Ridge, Lacey served in the U.S. Army Medical Administrative Corps during World War II, where he met his wife, Mary McSweeney. The couple settled in Mundelein, where they reared five children. While there, Lacey purchased the Wauconda Pharmacy, renaming it Lacy Drugs. He was active in the Wauconda Chamber of Commerce, Lions Club, and American Legion. In 1977, he retired from practicing pharmacy. A Cubs fan, Lacey also enjoyed playing the violin, traveling, and playing golf, poker, and bridge.

1947Raymond Parks, bs, of Mesa, Arizona, November 1, 2011. During his career, Parks was employed at Harris Pharmacy in Arlington Heights.

1948Edmund Ewald Kietzer, Jr., bs, of Burlington, Wisconsin, July 25. A Chicago native, Kietzer was a World War II Veteran. For 30 years, he worked at Keeler Pharmacy in Chicago. He was a member of Kappa Psi.

Clarence Charles Lev, bs, of Skokie, December 22, 2011. In 1940, Lev began his career as an elevator operator at Michael Reese Hospital, working his way through pharmacy school. He eventually became director of pharmacy at Michael Reese in 1953, a position he held for 33 years until he retired in 1986. During that period, he witnessed the growth of that hospital into a world-renowned medical center and the largest teaching hospital in Chicago. From the very beginning of his career, Lev devoted himself to public service for the underserved. He was a consultant to the Drexel Home, which housed and cared for the Jewish elderly, for more than 30 years. He also worked with other members of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, namely Mount Sinai Hospital, the Orthodox Jewish Home, Park View Home, and Rest Haven Hospital. Lev was also active in pharmacy professional organizations, serving on the boards of directors for the Illinois Pharmaceutical Association, the Illinois Academy of Preceptors in Pharmacy, and the Illinois Pharmaceutical Services Foundation; as a founding member and on the board of directors for the Illinois Council of Hospital Pharmacists; on the executive committee for the Northern Illinois Society of Hospital Pharmacists; the Illinois Hospital

Association; as vice president of the Heath Careers Council; and as president of the Illinois Society of Hospital Pharmacists. Always one who liked to speak, Lev organized and served as the chairman of the speakers bureau for the ISHP and gave numerous talks about drugs and pharmacy to the PTA, local churches, and community organizations and was a guest on various radio shows. He served on the advisory committee to several pharmaceutical companies, among them being Upjohn, Hoffman La Roche, and Merrell Dow. He was one of the first hospital pharmacists on the state board of pharmacy appointed by the governor. Lev organized and served as the first chairman of the Drug Purchasing Committee of the Consortium of Jewish Hospitals, which is now a healthcare alliance known as Premier, the nation’s largest pharmaceutical buying group. He served on the committee that first organized the pharmacy purchasing committee of the Chicago Hospital Council. In 1968, Lev was named Illinois Hospital Pharmacist of the Year. In 1975, the Hungarian government invited Lev to evaluate their pharmaceutical companies and products.

1951Joseph G. Cannon, bs, ms ’53, phd ’57, December 17, 2011. Born in Decatur in 1926, he served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946. Cannon joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy in 1956. He took a position the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy in 1962, where he eventually became professor of medicinal chemistry. While at Iowa, Cannon was named Dale E. Wurster Research Fellow in 1986, and, in 1994, he received the Iowa Regents Award for Faculty Excellence. Cannon was awarded the title of professor emeritus in 1996. In 1997, he was named recipient of the Smissman Bristol Myers Squibb Award in Medicinal Chemistry. Cannon also participated in the founding of the Residential School on Medicinal Chemistry that is presented annually at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. He also taught there for many years. This program is designed for chemists and biologists interested in broadening their understanding of the fundamental principles of small-molecule drug-discovery research and preclinical development. Outside the academic setting, Cannon taught an American Chemical Society short course on pharmacology for chemists, which he created and offered repeatedly for approximately 27 years. As a result, Cannon was honored with an ACS Outstanding Teacher Award in 2006. He served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, Chirality, Annual Reports in Medicinal Chemistry, the Indian Journal of Heterocyclic Chemistry, and the sixth edition of Burger’s Medicinal Chemistry and

Drug Discovery. For many years, he served as the book review editor for the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Cannon’s research interests included synthetic organic chemistry, chemical pharmacology, heterocyclic chemistry, structure-activity relationships, and the stereochemistry of nerve hormones and of nerve hormone receptors.

1952Wanda Cooke, bs, of Phoenix, Arizona, January 14, 2010. During her career, she had served as pharmacy director at Thunderbird Samaritan Hospital in Glendale, Arizona.

Alfred W. Rakebrand, bs, of Lombard, November 25, 2011. He had previously worked as president and coowner of Nosek Apothecary in Westchester.

1960Michael J. Middleton, bs, of Libertyville, February 2012. During his career, he had worked at Aurora Pharmacy in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

1962Joseph Cipriano, bs, of Mount Prospect, November 5, 2011. His brother, Richard, bs ’60, and son Michael, bs ’83, are fellow COP alumni.

Daniel Bednarz, bs, of Chicago, June 12.

Matthew Kutza, Jr., bs, of Chicago, February 27, 2007.

1968Glenn R. Vann, bs, of La Grange, June 2012. Vann had spent much of his career working as a pharmacist at Vann’s Family Pharmacy in his hometown.

1970Thomas Mills, bs, of Rockford, May 16. A Rockford native, Mills was a member of Kappa Psi and followed in his father’s footsteps with his career choice. After completing his degree at UIC, Mills

worked briefly in suburban Chicago, where he met his wife, Billie Diane Fox, whom he married on September 15, 1972. The following year, the couple moved to Rockford, where Mills managed the pharmacy at Union Hall in Rockford and Loves Park. He eventually opened his own pharmacy, Val-U-Mart, in Logli Supermarket. He also worked at Crusader

Obituaries



Obituaries

Clinic, Kroger, and Snyder Pharmacy, and filled in as a temporary pharmacist at Walgreens and CVS.

1971James Russel Esgar, bs, md ’76, of Danville, July 30. Born in Morris, Esgar moved to Africa to practice medicine for a Methodist Mission Board after earning his medical degree at the UIC College of Medicine at Peoria. When he returned to the U.S. Esgar worked at Easter University and McKinely Health Services as a physician for Student Health Services. Most recently, he worked as a clinical pharmacist at the Veterans Affairs Illiana Health Care System in Danville until he retired in 2011. Esgar, who was a member of the Vineyard Church and the American Medical Association, wed Sandy Lamb on June 1, 2010. A New York Yankees Fan, Esgar enjoyed running, yard work, listening to music ad spending time with his family.

1973Michael E. Donovan, bs, md ’80, of Poplar Grove, August 9. Donovan met his wife, Catherine, while in pharmacy school. Donovan served as a pharmacist in the U.S. Public Health Service on the Navajo Indian Reservation at Chinle, Arizona. During his career, he practiced medicine in Waukesha, Whitewater, and Monroe, Wisconsin, and Stockton, Freeport, Kewaunee, Cambridge, and Rockford, most recently serving as a family practice physician for Monroe Clinic in Durand. In his spare time, he enjoyed stargazing, bike-riding, traveling, listening to folk music, and caring for his patients.

1977David Rohn III, bs, of Chicago Heights, September 13, 2011. He had worked as a pharmacist at St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights. According to his wife, Rita, Rohn, who died of cancer, was so encouraged by pride in his alma mater that he donated his body to the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System for research.

JoAnn Vilutis, bs, of Frankfort, May 20.

Faculty

Stanley Susina, bs ’48, ms ’51, phd ’55, of Hoover, Alabama, September 1. Born in Berwyn, Illinois, Susina served in the U.S. Army during World War II, in Pacific campaigns and Japan. He was honorably discharged at the rank of sergeant. While studying at the College of Pharmacy, Susina met his late wife Betty (Knauss), bs ’48. He then went on to become an associate professor in the College. In 1962,

he became a professor at Samford University’s School of Pharmacy, now McWhorter School of Pharmacy, in Birmingham, Alabama, where he eventually served as acting dean. While at Samford, Susina earned his law degree and was honored with the Buchanan Award for teaching excellence. He retired in 1992. In 2002, Susina and his wife received the Distinguished Service Award from McWhorter. During his career, he served as president of the Chicago Retail Druggist Association and Jefferson County Pharmacy Association, the latter of which he also served as secretary. He also served on the board of directors of the Jefferson County Mental Health Association and the Jefferson County Drug Abuse Coordinating Committee. Susina was a recipient of the A.H. Robbins Bowl of Hygeia in 1974 for outstanding community service in pharmacy. In his community, Susina was active in Rotary International, the Audubon Society, Friendship Force, and Daybreak Grief Support Ministry. He was an avid reader and supporter of the Hoover Public Library. Susina and his family were longtime members of the Luthern Church of Vestavia Hills, serving as an elder and in the church’s Braille ministries. In 2007, he and his wife received a 25-year service award from Firehouse Shelter.

Steve Totura, of Tucson, Arizona, died on December 5, 2011, after a battle with brain cancer. Totura served as supervising farm foreman of the UIC COP Pharmacognosy Field Station in Downers Grove from 1979 to 2002. As such, he played an integral part on the department’s pharmacognosy research team and participated in numerous field collections and cultivation projects. Just prior to his retirement, he was responsible for the implementation and maintenance of the Dorothy Bradley Atkins Medicinal Plant Garden, which is adjacent to the College on Wood Street.

Amy Elizabeth Lodolce, 38, a faculty member in the College of Pharmacy known as an advocate for students, died of complications from endocarditis on August 31 at RML Specialty Hospital in Hinsdale.

“She was a vital part of our faculty and an incredible contributor to all of our programs,” says Dean Jerry Bauman.

Lodolce was clinical assistant professor of pharmacy and assistant director of the college’s Drug Information Group.

“She was visible across the state, active in a number of pharmacy organizations, and a frequent lecturer at statewide meetings,” Bauman says.

Lodolce received a doctor of pharmacy degree from UIC in 1998. After completing a pharmacy residency program at Michael Reese Hospital, she joined the College of Pharmacy in 1999 as a clinical assistant professor, clinical pharmacist, and drug information specialist. She was promoted to assistant director of drug information in 2005.

“Especially for a lot of the female students and residents, she was a great example of what we wanted to do, which was the perfect balance of life and career,” Lara Ellinger, clinical assistant professor of pharmacy, told the Chicago Tribune.


We’ve come a long way. Help support our progress.

Make a gift to the College of Pharmacy Annual Fund

Your contribution provides critical unrestricted income that directly supports faculty recruitment, student scholarships, research, classroom renovation, and more.

The success of the College, its alumni, students, and faculty could not be possible without the continued support we receive through our annual fund.

Support the UIC College of Pharmacy today!pharmgiving.uic.edu


Manasse received the award at the organization’s 47th Midyear Clinical Meeting in Las Vegas.

Manasse, who was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1996, is professor of pharmacy administration at UIC and professional secretary of the International Pharmaceutical Federation. He is former chief executive officer and executive vice president of ASHP, where he directed the organization from 1996 to 2011.

At ASHP, his efforts led to the advancement of global professional health-system practice, the extension of pharmaceutical education and training, and greater awareness by other health professionals about the critical role of pharmacists in safe medication use.

“Dr. Manasse’s work across the globe spreading the word about how pharmacists can improve patient care has been instrumental in changing the hearts and minds of decision makers in government, regulatory bodies, and the medical

establishment,” says ASHP president Kathryn Schultz.Manasse received his bachelor of science in pharmacy from UIC in 1968, a master’s in educational psychology from Loyola University Chicago, and a PhD in pharmacy administration from the University of Minnesota. He served as the UIC College of Pharmacy dean from 1981 to 1993.

“Under Henri’s leadership as dean, the college experienced significant growth in research and clinical education, including the adoption of the entry-level doctorate of pharmacy curriculum,” says current dean Jerry Bauman. “He played an integral role in making the college one of the top pharmacy schools in the country.”

Manasse’s work has raised the visibility of health-system pharmacists as key players in medication safety in many countries and World Health Organization regions. He has educated high-level government officials, health ministers, and university leaders in health facilities worldwide on the importance of safe medication

use. Manasse is a vigorous public-policy advocate for pharmacist services in caring for patients.

The Francke Medal was established by ASHP to honor individuals who have made significant contributions to international pharmacy practice. Francke was a key leader of ASHP in its formative years, noted for his long service to American and international pharmacy.

Manasse was recipient of the 2007 Harvey A.K. Whitney Lecture Award. Seven universities, including the University of Salamanca, have awarded him honorary degrees. He was awarded a fellowship in the International Pharmaceutical Federation in 2008 and has been listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare, and Who’s Who in the World. He is also the author of several books and has published extensively in health journals.

Henri Manasse, Jr., dean emeritus of the College of Pharmacy, received the 2012 Donald E. Francke Medal presented annually by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).

Pharmacy medal bestowed upon former dean


See if your employer sponsors a matching gift program and make your contribution go even further! Learn more by visiting www.uif.uillinois.edu/matching.

If you’re a College of Pharmacy alumnus or ASHP member, chances are, you’ve heard of Henri R. Manasse, Jr., PhD, ScD.

As a strong visionary and inspirational leader, former dean Manasse helped to move the college and profession forward having set an audacious goal of Doctor of Pharmacy for every graduate of the UIC College of Pharmacy. This was an early first step for a man who would go on to spend his career working to serve, represent, and rightfully elevate pharmacists who practice in hospitals and health systems across the country.

Educated as a pharmacist at the University of Illinois in 1968, Dr. Manasse went on to earn a master of arts in educational psychology from Loyola University Chicago and a PhD in pharmacy administration from the University of Minnesota. Through his education, training, and life experiences, Dr. Manasse developed a unique set of skills, perspective, and philosophy regarding his chosen professional. He would go on to serve a number of leadership positions, including dean and professor of pharmacy administration at the College, vice chancellor for health sciences at the University of Illinois Medical Center, vice president for health sciences at the University of Iowa, and chairman of the Board of the University of Iowa Health System before serving as the executive vice president and chief executive officer of the American Society of Health‐System Pharmacists. Throughout his long and accomplished career, he was always focusing on opening new doors and redefining care models for pharmacists to use their extensive clinical knowledge to contribute at the forefront of patient care.

Given his extensive and impactful career, the College hopes to ensure Dr. Manasse’s legacy of leadership with the creation of a $25,000 endowed scholarship in his name.

But we need your help. Please consider a $250 gift to the Dean Henri R. Manasse, Jr., Scholarship Fund.

Your gift, combined with those of other alumni, will honor a visionary leader who has impacted the lives of our alumni as well as the professional for many years to come.

Give your gift today. Visit pharmgiving.uic.edu.

Support the Dean Henri R. Manasse, Jr., Scholarship

For the full calendar of events, visit the College of Pharmacy Office of Advancement and Alumni Affairs online at events.pharmacy.uic.edu.. Questions? Contact Deb Fox at (312) 996-0160 or [email protected].

UIC College of Pharmacy (MC 874)833 South Wood StreetChicago, Illinois 60612

IN THELOOP

Nonprofit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDChicago, IllinoisPermit No. 4860

February 26CHALLENGE OF THE DEANS7 p.m. Tip-offUIC Paviion525 South Racine StreetChicago, IllinoisChallenge at halftimeFree-Throw CompetitionWright State vs. UIC

March 1–4APHA ANNUAL MEETINGLos Angeles, CaliforniaUIC Pharmacy Ice Cream SocialDetails to be announced.

March 14ILLINOIS PHARMACY LAW UPDATE CPE5:30–7 p.m.UIC College of Pharmacy833 South Wood StreetChicago, IllinoisFree event. For details or to attend, contact [email protected].

March 22FARNSWORTH LECTURESHIP IN PHARMACOGNOSY12:30 p.m.UIC College of PharmacyRoom 134-1833 South Wood StreetChicago, IllinoisReception immediately followingRSVP by March 15 to [email protected].

May 16PHARMACOLOGIC TREATMENT FOR EYE DISEASE CPE 5:30–7 p.m.UIC College of Pharmacy833 South Wood StreetChicago, Illinois*Will include broadcast to Rockford campusFor details or to attend, contact [email protected].

SAVE THE DATE

April 4HONORS CONVOCATIONUIC College of Pharmacy833 South Wood StreetChicago, Illinois

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