Dr. Edgar Diaz-Cruz, assistant professor of Pharmacy, recently presented at the Preventive and Occupational Medicine Grand Rounds at the Meharry Medical College. The audience composed primarily of physicians and medical researchers attended the presentation titled “The Role of the Health Care Provider in the Management of Dietary Supplement Use.” As part of his appointment in the department, Diaz-Cruz has responsibility of providing coursework in natural products and assists in the development and maintenance of the Belmont University medicinal garden.

Fourth year pharmacy students, Chenette Burks and Melissa Holloway, have spent the past month at United Neighborhood Health Services (UNHS) Downtown and Mission Clinics completing their Ambulatory Care Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) with faculty member Dr. Ashton Beggs. The population at these two UNHS clinics primarily consists of homeless patients and this has proven to be a positive learning experience for the students.

“My rotation at UNHS has been such a humbling experience and being able to serve the homeless population is very rewarding,” said Holloway.  “These patients are generally so appreciative of the free medical care they receive and there is a great opportunity to educate them on their disease states and medications.”  Burks added, “This month has opened my eyes to the true depths of homelessness in Nashville. Spending time at the UNHS Downtown and Missions Clinics has challenged me to think creatively about how to care for those who cannot care for themselves, and who have unique barriers that hinder their ability to get well.”

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Dr. Anthony Blash, medication management clinical informaticist at Healthcare Corporation of America’s (HCA) corporate headquarters and assistant professor of Pharmacy presented at the Health Information Management Systems Society’s (HIMSS) 2013 Summit of the Southeast, which includes HIMSS chapters from Tennessee, Mississippi and Kentucky.

This annual two-day conference draws more than 900 healthcare information technology professionals from across the Southeast to discuss top issues surrounding the evolution of care delivery, gain greater insight into the ever-evolving field of healthcare and learn from leading experts in healthcare IT. This year’s theme was “Driving Patient outcomes through Care Collaboration.”

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Dr. Genevieve Ness, assistant professor of Pharmacy, is the lead author of an article published in the current edition (Volume 77, Issue 7) of the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education.  The study entitled “Graduating Pharmacy Students’ Perspectives on E-Professionalism and Social Media.” provides insight into graduating student pharmacist views of professionalism while engaging in social media activities.  The study was completed while Dr. Ness was a fellow with Purdue University, Eli Lilly and Company, and the US Food and Drug Administration.   She joined the Belmont faculty this summer in the College of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmaceutical, Social and Administrative Sciences.

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Dr. Eric Hobson, Professor of Pharmacy, presented an abstract at the 2013 Tennessee Public Health Association Annual Educational Conference last week.   His poster was titled  ”Teaching Patient Health Literacy Assessment and Accommodation Skills to Future Front-line Health Care Providers.” Hobson’s work is an overview of the coursework Belmont University College of Pharmacy student pharmacists complete in patient communication and assessing health literacy levels to effectively tailor patient health information.

Dr. Cathy Ficzere, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy, was elected to serve as chairwoman of the Drug Information Practice Related Network of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP). In this role, Ficzere will coordinate national drug information education and resource development opportunities. The network provide a means for clinical pharmacists with common practice and research interests to gather for professional interaction, networking, and continuing education.

Dr. Edgar Diaz-Cruz, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy, recently had an abstract accepted for presentation at the 2013 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The work is titled “Effect of letrozole is superior to tamoxifen in limiting preneoplasia in both ERα and aromatase over-expressing mice.” As co-principal investigator, Diaz-Cruz and his collaborators determined that the impact of letrozole was greater than tamoxifen in reducing prevalence of mammary gland preneoplasia in both ERα and aromatase over-expressing mice. These results suggest that letrozole should be considered as a chemo-preventive agent based on individual estrogen signaling prognostic factors.

Here is a sample of scholarly work and presentations over the past year by faculty in the College of Pharmacy.

Dr. Ashton Beggs

Peer Reviewed Manuscripts

• Beggs AE, Reeves DJ, Noel NS. Leukopenia Caused by Chronic Colchicine Administration. Am J Health – Syst Pharm. 15 Dec 2012;69:2147-2148.
• Beggs AE, Morrical–Kline KA. Wilhoite JE, Fick LB. Effect of an Educational Continue reading →

Dr. Amy Ham, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy, recently had a paper published online, ahead of print of her manuscript in the American Chemistry Society’s Journal of Proteome Research. The paper is titled “IDPQuantify: Combining Precursor Intensity with Spectral Counts for Protein and Peptide Quantification. Ham is part of a team that developed new software, IDPQuantify, to align multiple replicates using principal component analysis, extract accurate precursor intensities from MS data and combine intensities with spectral counts for significant gains in differentiation and quantification. The software is able to associate peptides with peaks that are otherwise left unidentified to increase the efficiency of protein quantification, especially for low-abundance proteins.