The College of Pharmacy recently participated in a health screening exercise with Special Olympics Tennessee.  Seventy-five Davidson County Olympians, who compete worldwide in various events, were screened for athletic readiness.  College of Pharmacy faculty and students were involved in screening medication profiles of the athletes, making sure proper cautions concerning allergies, exposure to the sun, drug adverse effects, and drug interactions were not an issue for these participants.

According to Joanne Drumright of Special Olympics, “the process went very smoothly, and we hope to scale up the screening, inviting athletes from a much broader area in an upcoming event”.  Participants from the College included Dr. Andy Webster, Dr. Phil Johnston, and three fourth-year PharmD students: Marian Roufael, Razia Shamsuddin and Darrilyn Prout.

Student and faculty from the College of Pharmacy recently participated in The Academies of Nashville’s Career Exploration Fair.  Approximately 5,000 high school freshmen attended the event to learn more about career opportunities in health/public services, hospitality/tourism, arts/media/communications, business and engineering. The College partnered with Walgreen’s and Nashville State to educate potential students on professional opportunities related to pharmacy.

Student pharmacists in the Class of 2015 recently spent a morning serving The Little Pantry That Could. This organization is a small food pantry with a big heart! Located in the basement of the West Nashville United Methodist Church on Charlotte Avenue, they provide staples and fresh produce to approximately 80 to 90 families a week – people without homes, retired people, single moms and children. Real People With Real Needs. Their goal is to do more than provide food – they strive to make a personal connection with every shopper and let them know that they are cared for.

Dr. Ashton Beggs, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy, recently made a presentation to the Geriatrics and Gerontology Interest Groups of Vanderbilt Medical Center Department of Nursing Education, Meharry Consortium Geriatric Education Center and the Center for Quality Aging.  The presentation was entitled “Review of Pharmacologic Alzheimer’s Therapies”.

Dr. Michael McGuire, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy, made a presentation last month to the Belmont University Psychology Club as part of the activities of Mental Health Week. Dr. McGuire presented a session on prescription drug abuse.

Thirty-five members of Belmont’s Student National Pharmaceutical Association (SNPhA) and faculty walked in the Oct. 5 HIV/AIDS Walk for Nashville Cares and  raised more than $1,700 through individual donations and a bake sale to benefit the organization. Nashville Cares provides life-saving services to Middle Tennesseans living with HIV/AIDS  as well as offers education, prevention and awareness of HIV/AIDS.

SNPhA members attended an HIV 101 Seminar, during which a speaker from Nashville Cares spoke to members on the history of HIV/AIDS in the United States, the importance of education and prevention and the specific challenges that patients with HIV/AIDS face.

The students also hosted a unique Q&A session on Oct. 10 with Kevin Hartman, pharmacist and owner of Nashville Pharmacy Services. Hartman is AAHIVP-certified by the American Academy of HIV Medicine, meaning he is a pharmacy specialist in HIV care. Hartman is a great source of information regarding how pharmacists can better serve special populations of patients.

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.

Two Belmont Pharmacy students recently published a review of the movie, Nerve, in Mental Health Clinician, a monthly publication of the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP).   CPNP is a professional society of pharmacists practicing in the psychiatry and neurology specialties.

The two PharmD students, Meg Aldstadt and Kelly Maguigan, under the guidance of Dr. Michael McGuire, Assistant Professor in the College of Pharmacy, provided a review of how social anxiety disorder and medications used to treat it were depicted in the movie, an indie favorite where a young man battles the disorder with the help of a psychology student.

In the review, Aldstadt and Maguigan conclude that while Nerve provides an excellent portrayal of social anxiety disorder, it falls short in depicting relevant treatment options   They write: “Anxiety disorders respond to cognitive strategies and pharmacotherapy, but Nerve does not present any current, accepted treatment options. Instead, Aurora (the psychology student character) hurries Josh (the main character) through some experiments with her thesis deadline as the goal. It is not reasonable to expect an individual to improve in such a short period of time. We believe that she actually harms Josh more than she helps him. While the movie’s representation of treatment options fails, it does demonstrate the complexity of Josh’s disorder. It realistically shows the impact of inappropriate treatment, as opposed to giving the viewer a cinematic ending where he improves regardless of the quality of therapy.”

Dr. John Barnwell, a 2013 graduate from Belmont University College of Pharmacy, was recently awarded the Mylan Excellence in Pharmacy Award and was recognized in the official publication of the American Pharmacist’s Association, Student Pharmacist.  While a student in the College of Pharmacy, Barnwell was an active leader in various pharmacy organizations including American Pharmacist’s Association, American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists, Phi Delta Chi, Phi Lambda Sigma and Rho Chi. He resides in Nashville, Tenn. and is employed by Kroger.

Dr. Julie Masterson (Class of 2012) recently completed a PGY-1 residency at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center in Knoxville and has accepted a clinical pharmacist position at LeConte Medical Center in Sevierville, Tennessee.

Dr. Masterson will serve as the first clinical pharmacist at LeConte and will develop clinical programs to aid patients in the East Tennessee area.  She will work as a member of an interdisciplinary team to make pharmacy related interventions where appropriate.  She will focus on completing consults and making interventions via Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE) based on generated reports.

Dr. Masterson states that she will be implementing policies and protocols with pharmacists from other local hospitals to help standardize pharmacy care among the different treatment centers of which LeConte is a member.

Belmont pharmacy students recently attended the 126th annual Tennessee Pharmacist’s Association meeting in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Kelly Maguigan (’14), Mandy Newman (’14), Alexander Tu (’16) and Kyle Robinson (’14) (pictured at right) represented Belmont’s College of Pharmacy in the Self Care competition.  Dr. Traci Poole, advisor of Belmont’s chapter of the Tennessee Society of Student Pharmacists, stated, “It was wonderful to see our student pharmacists engaged with their state association in a variety of ways, ranging from discussion of policy in our House of Delegates to the Self-Care Competition.”

Several Belmont pharmacy faculty participated in the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy annual meeting from July 13 through 17 in Chicago, Ill.  The meeting is the primary source of innovations in teaching in colleges and schools of pharmacy, offers a large selection of faculty development opportunities and provides a merging of academia and accreditation issues.

Belmont faculty learned new techniques in the areas of student recruitment, student remediation, the scholarship of teaching and practice innovations as well as learned new standards of accreditation, new CAPE competencies and software products.

Marilyn E. Thompson Odom presented at a round table session on Assessment of Student Learning and Level of Empathy Through Use of Creative Expression. Elisa Greene, Ashton Beggs, Mark Chirico, Alisa Spinelli, Condit Steil, Kristina Wood and Phil Johnston–presented Integration, Innovation and Collaboration at Belmont University College of Pharmacy at the poster session. Leigh Ann Bynum, Hope Campbell and Lindsay Hahn presented Making Cross-Linkages Work Between Clinical and Management Classes in the College of Pharmacy at the refereed poster session. Andrew Webster and Angela Hagan served as administrative representative and faculty representative, respectively, in the House of Delegates.  Phil  Johnston served on the Council of Deans.

Dr. William Gibson ’12, has accepted a position as a Clinical Pharmacist for Central Washington Hospital following completion of his PGY-1 residency.  Central Washington Hospital is a 206 bed Regional Level III Trauma and Heart Center and is the major medical facility and referral center for patients in the North Central Washington area.  Dr. Gibson will provide pharmacy services for a spectrum of clinical disciplines including general medicine, oncology, cardiology, pediatrics, intensive care, obstetrics, surgery, and emergency medicine.  He states that his residency gave him the opportunity to better determine his specific practice interests and that Central Washington Hospital is a great place to begin his career.

Class of 2016 pharmacy student Amy Schnees has received a Mary Molina Education Scholarship. This $2,500 award is given to doctoral students who excel academically.  Applicants must either work for or be a dependent of an employee within Molina Healthcare. Schnees worked closely with Belmont Pharmacy Assistant Professor Dr. Edgar Diaz-Cruz to prepare her application.   This summer Amy has been working with Dr. Amy Ham and colleagues at Vanderbilt University to study resistance of targeted drug therapies for colon cancer.

Class of 2012 Belmont College of Pharmacy Alumni, Dr. Rebecca Lucas Chapman and Dr. John Pustulka, are currently co-coordinating the summer internship program for Walgreens in the north and south Nashville areas.  Dr. Chapman states that the majority of students in the program are currently enrolled in pharmacy school at either Belmont or Lipscomb.  The main focus of the program is to develop strong future pharmacists who prefer to practice in a community setting.  The program provides not only real-life experiences to the interns but the tools and resources that the current community pharmacist utilizes on a daily basis.

In addition, Dr. Chapman has recently accepted the position of pharmacy manager for Walgreens in Hermitage, Tennessee. Dr. Chapman will be implementing quality assurance protocols to increase drug safety, providing medication therapy management services as well as overseeing drug inventory. Dr. Chapman’s store is located near Tulip Grove in Hermitage.

Dr. Zachary Renfro (Class of 2012) has accepted a position as a Community Pharmacy Account Specialist with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in east Tennessee. He will assist in implementing community pharmacy-based initiatives that are aligned to shared GSK and retail chain headquarter objectives. The Community Pharmacy Team with GSK will focus 100% of its efforts on community pharmacy and will serve as the GSK point of contact for community pharmacists.

Dr. Renfro will work with Community Pharmacists in both independent and retail settings to encourage and support patient interventions/outcomes that result in better patient care in diseases such as asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and hypertriglyceridemia. The primary function will be to work with community pharmacists at the store level to encourage/support patient interventions that result in better patient care (i.e. medication adherence), specifically on GSK products such as Advair, Serevent, Flovent, Avodart, Jalyn, and Lovaza. This is a relatively new position within the pharmaceutical industry, with GSK being the first company to create it approximately 3 years ago.

Dr. Renfro has worked as a resident the past year with the Tennessee Pharmacist’s Association.

Dr. Kelley Kiningham, assistant dean of student affairs and associate professor in the Pharmaceutical, Social and Administrative Sciences Department, coauthored an article accepted for publication in Cancer Research. The article, “KEAP1 is a Redox Sensitive Target That Arbitrates the Opposing Radiosensitive Effects of Parthenolide in Normal and Cancer Cells” identifies a mechanism by which differences in cellular redox status can be targeted to kill tumor cells, while protective of normal tissue when radiation is used as a therapeutic. Kiningham states that finding pharmacological approaches to protect normal tissue during treatment of patients with cancer is important to reduce side effects and improve compliance.