First-year students in the Belmont College of Pharmacy program have all worked to create successful machine learning models or “skills” that were certified, accepted and are now available for use by the general public on the Amazon Alexa store.

This project pathway introduced the students to the concepts and terminology of artificial intelligence and machine learning. By the end of this project, students were able to select and apply machine learning services to primarily build study aids, but the skills may be applied in the future to help solve complex research and clinical problems. The students each were able to label, build, train and deploy a custom machine learning model under the direct supervision of Dr. Anthony Blash.

The machine learning models “Opioids Quiz” and “Top 300 Drug Game” were one of the many developed to help pharmacy students study and review the most commonly prescribed drugs. These models include brand and generic names of many of the most commonly prescribed medications. The information in these skills are provided for informational and educational purposes only. They are not a substitute for professional medical advice, treatment or diagnosis.

Sara Saif, a second-year student at Belmont University’s College of Pharmacy, accepted an internship at Vanderbilt University’s Biomedical Informatics Summer Research Program. By joining this program, Saif will actively apply the subject of informatics to address healthcare challenges.

Throughout her internship, she will be working directly under the guidance of Dr. Jeremy Warner, an associate professor of medicine and biomedical informatics at Vanderbilt University. With Dr. Warner as a mentor, Saif will be able to work with data regarding the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium.

As a current student in the Belmont University College of Pharmacy, Saif not only receives a strong clinical foundation, but also valuable training on healthcare information technology and its use in the practice of pharmacy. This training in informatics has proved to be useful to her in the application process and will continue to be a valuable resource throughout her internship at Vanderbilt.