Category: Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy
Only One State Requires Suicide Prevention Training for Pharmacists, Study Finds
August 15, 2018Despite a wealth of suicide prevention training available to health care professionals, only the state of Washington requires pharmacists to complete suicide prevention training, according to a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Sixteen suicide prevention training resources, and five developed specifically for pharmacists, were identified in the study, which was led by Delesha Carpenter, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. The study was published in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. Suicide rates have increased 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, making suicide the 10th leading cause of death in the … Read more
Many N.C. Pharmacists Have Not Offered or Dispensed Naloxone, UNC Study Finds
August 13, 2018Nearly one-third of North Carolina community pharmacists have never offered patients the opioid reversal agent naloxone, and approximately 20 percent have never dispensed it according to a survey conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. More than 80 percent of pharmacists who responded to the survey worked in pharmacies that stocked naloxone. However, many pharmacists never offered or dispensed naloxone despite the drug’s wide availability and the existence of a statewide standing order that allows pharmacists to dispense naloxone to patients and caregivers who may benefit from it, according to the study led by Delesha … Read more
Megan Roberts Joins DPOP as Assistant Professor
August 2, 2018Megan Roberts, Ph.D., has been hired as a tenure-track assistant professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in the the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy. Roberts earned her Ph.D. in health policy and management from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in 2015. She received her undergraduate degree from Davidson College, where she studied biology and Spanish. Roberts is joining the School after a fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. There, she worked as a cancer prevention fellow in the institute’s Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences. Roberts has also worked as a predoctoral fellow … Read more
Seyerle Joins DPOP as Assistant Professor
July 23, 2018Amanda Seyerle, Ph.D., has been hired as a tenure-track assistant professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, starting July 30. Seyerle will join the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy. Seyerle earned her Master of Science in Public Health in 2013 and her Ph.D. in epidemiology in 2016, both from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she studied anthropological and molecular genetics, as well as history. Seyerle has spent the last two years as a postdoctoral research fellow in cardiovascular disease epidemiology at the University of Minnesota … Read more
Carpenter Wins AHEC Innovation Grant for Pediatric Opioid Prescription Research
May 21, 2018The North Carolina Area Health Education Centers awarded an Innovation Grant to Delesha Carpenter, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., to create an online module that prepares medical residents to communicate with pediatric patients and their parents about opioids. The grant of more than $45,000 will allow Carpenter, an assistant professor in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, to develop an online module to teach medical residents to effectively engage pediatric patients and their parents in shared decision-making about treatment with opioid medications. Currently, there are no national opioid prescribing guidelines for pediatric patients, which can … Read more
UNC Video Helps Kids with Asthma Ask Doctors More Questions about Care
May 9, 2018Adolescents with asthma are more likely to ask questions during doctor visits after viewing a video on the importance of being involved during asthma visits and receiving a list of questions and checking off the ones they want to ask the doctor, according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Asthma patients ages 11 to 17 who watched the 11-minute video and used the one-page list of question prompts interacted with and received education from their doctors at a higher rate than the control group in the study, which was led by Betsy Sleath, … Read more
Continuing Education for Pharmacists Falls Short on Naloxone
February 16, 2018Pharmacists who are allowed to dispense naloxone, an opioid reversal agent, without a prescription are often uncomfortable talking to patients about the drug, and the profession’s continuing education programs aren’t helping, according to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Over the past 20 years, opioid-related overdoses have increased fourfold, killing more than 42,000 people in 2016. As of January 2017, pharmacists in 13 states were able to dispense naloxone without a physician prescription. Those states were Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. Researchers at … Read more
Sleath Receives APhA-APRS Research Achievement Award
January 24, 2018Betsy Sleath, Ph.D., is the recipient of the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science 2018 Research Achievement Award. The award recognizes outstanding, meritorious achievement in any of the pharmaceutical sciences. Sleath is the George H. Cocolas Distinguished Professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and chair of the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy. She is the co-director of the NCTRACS Community Engagement Core and director of the child and adolescent health program at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. She is also an adjunct professor in epidemiology and health policy and management … Read more
Fang Promoted to Associate Professor, Granted Tenure
December 4, 2017Gang Fang, Pharm.D., Ph.D., has been promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Fang’s research centers on evaluating treatment utilization and outcomes in populations and pharmacoepidemiology, especially in cardiovascular disease. Fang’s research primarily focuses on estimating real-world comparative treatment effectiveness and safety, identifying optimal treatment strategies, assessing treatment variation in large populations, assessing quality of care related to the treatment variation, medication adherence, and treatment disparities particularly in the elderly and minorities, and developing innovative analytical methods using observational data from large health-care-utilization … Read more
Carpenter, Corbett Win Chancellor’s Entrepreneurial Workshop
December 1, 2017UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy faculty members Amanda Corbett, Pharm.D., and Delesha Carpenter, Ph.D., M.S.P.H., were among the winners of this year’s Chancellor’s Faculty Entrepreneurship Workshop. The two-and-a-half day workshop, called “The Entrepreneurial Mindset – Maximizing Faculty Impact,” split participating faculty members into teams guided by entrepreneurship educators from across the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to create an innovative solution to a problem. At the end, the groups pitched their project to a panel of judges. Corbett is a clinical associate professor in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics and associate director of global engagement at … Read more