Category: General
Managed-Care Student Chapter Wins 2016 Chapter of the Year Award
October 27, 2016The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy student chapter won the chapter of the year award at AMCP Nexus 2016, held Oct. 3-6 in National Harbor, Maryland. Managed-care practice focuses on a number of different activities, including managing the drug-distribution process, ensuring patient safety through population management of medications, developing and implementing clinical programs and designing effective pharmacy benefits to ensure cost-effective drug choices that are clinically appropriate. The chapter prides itself on bringing awareness about pharmacists in nontraditional roles and promoting careers in managed-care pharmacy, said PY3Colleen McCabe, the current chapter president. “We’ve been trying … Read more
Students Win Big at 2016 SNPhA National Conference
October 18, 2016Five students from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy won scholarships for their academic achievements and service to the community at the 2016 Student National Pharmaceutical Association National Conference, which was held July 29-31 in Atlanta. Additionally, second-year Pharm.D. student Darryl Lewis was selected as national president-elect of SNPhA for the 2016–2017 year and will serve as president the following year. “One of the missions of SNPhA is to serve the underserved, so doing so well at the national conference shows that that mission aligns with UNC’s,” said Lewis, who received his B.S. in pharmaceutical sciences from North Carolina Central … Read more
Numbers Make a Difference in Patients’ Medication Decisions, UNC Study Finds
October 17, 2016Giving patients hard numbers about the likelihood of experiencing side effects from a new medication makes them more likely to take the drug, according to a new study fromthe UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Conversely, giving them similar information about the likelihood of benefiting from a drug has the opposite effect, making patients less willing to take it. A team led by Susan Blalock, Ph.D., M.P.H., a professor in and vice chair of the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, asked nearly one thousand people to review information about the risks and benefits associated with a hypothetical drug. Some participants … Read more
High Up-Front Costs Could Delay Access to Life-Saving Blood-Cancer Drugs for Medicare Patients
October 4, 2016The significant out-of-pocket costs that cancer patients can face before Medicare drug benefits kick in may delay the patients’ treatment with a new class of highly effective therapies, according to a University of North Carolina study. In the study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers report that nearly a third of a group of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, and who have federally-funded Medicare health insurance, did not start treatment within six months of diagnosis with any of three targeted drugs that have led to dramatic improvements in survival for the disease. However, patients who had access to … Read more
Blalock Named Chair of FDA Risk Communication Advisory Committee
September 27, 2016Professor Sue Blalock, Ph.D., M.P.H., has been appointed chairperson of the Food and Drug Administration’s Risk Communication Advisory Committee, effective until Sept. 30, 2018. She has been a member of the committee since 2013. Blalock is a professor in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, as well as the division’s vice chair and an adjunct professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Department of Health Behavior and Health Education. Blalock’s expertise is in the area of patient and public health education, and she is particularly interested in risk communication and the effect of pharmaceutical care, including … Read more
Young Innovators Program Immerses High Schoolers in Pharmacy and Pharma Sci
September 20, 2016Triangle-area high school students who participated in the first summer of the Young Innovators Program at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill worked in research labs, thought critically about pharmacy practice, worked at the interface of pharmaceutical science and health-care entrepreneurship and learned how to navigate the higher education environment. The 17 YIP interns, representing nine area high schools, spent 8 to 10 weeks at UNC participating in research projects in labs across the School, taking part in panel discussions and workshops and touring scientific facilities, such as the Fujifilm Diosynth … Read more
Roy Zwahlen Joins School as Assistant Dean for Innovation and Strategy
September 15, 2016Roy Zwahlen, J.D., has joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as assistant dean for innovation and strategy. Zwahlen’s first responsibility is to assist the dean in formulating, interpreting and implementing policy at the School. “Because the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s mission is to transform pharmacy practice, education and science to drive discovery, improve health and power economic growth, our bold ideas often create interesting and difficult policy and legal questions that may have never been addressed on this campus,” Zwahlen said. “Dean Blouin has asked me to ensure that we successfully navigate these unique issues and strategically plan, … Read more
Study Finds Links between Physicians Setting Cancer-Care Guidelines and Drug Industry
August 26, 2016Nearly 9 out of 10 physicians and researchers who helped develop a leading set of cancer-care guidelines in the United States reported financial ties to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study found. Of the 125 panelists who worked on setting the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s guidelines for lung, breast, prostate and colorectal cancer, 108 received some form of industry funding. The funding could include general payments for food, lodging or speaker fees, as well as research funding, according to the study published in JAMA Oncology. The majority of those payments were … Read more
Blouin Selected as Recipient of ACCP Paul F. Parker Medal
August 19, 2016Robert “Bob” Blouin, Pharm.D., dean of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and the Vaughn and Nancy Bryson Distinguished Professor, has been selected as the 2016 recipient of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy’s Paul F. Parker Medal for Distinguished Service to the Profession of Pharmacy, one of the pharmacy profession’s most prestigious awards. An internationally recognized leader of clinical pharmacy practice, education and research, Blouin was appointed dean of the School in July 2003. During his tenure, the School has seen significant growth: The faculty has grown by nearly 75 percent. The number of graduate students has grown by … Read more
Rob McGinty Joins CBMC as Assistant Professor
August 3, 2016Rob McGinty, M.D., Ph.D., has joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as an assistant professor in the Division of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry. He also has a joint appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. McGinty’s principal research interests surround structural biology and biochemistry, specifically chromatin regulation. The human genome is organized in cells in the form of chromatin by wrapping around tiny spools of proteins. Each protein spool wrapped by DNA is called a nucleosome and is the smallest unit of chromatin. Prior to coming to UNC, McGinty was a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral Fellow in the … Read more