Last October, a group of Pharm.D. students received a $10,000 PharmAlliance grant — the first of its kind to be awarded to Pharm.D. students — to support a project promoting medication safety through the creation of an educational comic series.
The project is a collaboration with students from the University of College London (United Kingdom) and Monash University (Australia). UNC Pharm.D. students Lauren Mozingo (PY3), Vraj Patel (PY3) and Clara Kim (PY4) led the international effort to launch the project.
The comic series, titled “Enox the Bear Pharmacist,” features a bear pharmacist counseling animal patients on various patient education topics related to “the big three” medication classes — opioids, insulin and anticoagulants. After a year of working with students and faculty members internationally to create the comics, the project launched via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter on August 15, 2019.
In addition to social media, the comics will be printed and distributed to community pharmacies in the U.S. and England for display.
“We are glad to see that the first two comics are well-received. We are collecting feedback surveys and we have been receiving positive responses from students, healthcare providers and the general public in PharmAlliance countries, as well as around the globe,” Patel said.
PharmAlliance is an international partnership, established in 2015, between the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University College London and Monash University. PharmAlliance has provided support for research initiatives developed by faculty and Ph.D. students from each of the three schools.
The students have been mentored by faculty at each school: David Steeb at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Andreia Bruno at Monash University, and Oksana Pyzik at UCL, as well as disease state experts from each school, to ensure the accuracy and quality of the published comics.
“It was amazing to see the passion of each of the student leaders and how we took a conceptual idea and turned it into a deliverable that can help change patients’ lives both locally and globally,” Mozingo said. “We have all truly enjoyed being creative and thinking of ways to incorporate patient education into each of our country’s unique cultures. ”
If you are interested in the comic series, follow the links below to see what the students have been working on. Afterwards, check out their survey to provide feedback to help improve the comics and help measure their impact!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/enoxthebear
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/enox.the.bear.pharmacist/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/enox_the_bear
Feedback Survey Link: https://tinyurl.com/y5eehwu9