Last year Touro College of Pharmacy graduated it’s first class and was accredited by ACPE, both prerequisites to be inducted as members of the prestigious pharmacy academic honor society, Rho Chi. This year, Touro College of Pharmacy became the 100th active member of Rho Chi, with the forming of their chapter, Delta Nu. Forty five students were inducted as the newest members of the Delta Nu Chapter.

Dr. Karl Fiebelkorn, Region I Councilor of the Rho Chi Society, installed the chapter: “The vision of the Society is to instill in its members, the desire to pursue intellectual excellence and critical inquiry to advance the Pharmacy profession.  By striving to fulfill this vision, Rho Chi has become a well-recognized symbol of academic excellence.  Today, as you join our ranks, you not only accept the honor and privilege of Rho Chi membership, but also, you dedicate yourself to a lifetime of commitment to the Society and its values.”

Congratulations to these students for achieving this honor. You will forever be known as a member of the first Charter Class of Delta Nu in Rho Chi!

Delta Nu Members:

Officers:

President – Jessica Christine Cate

Vice President – Danny Tea

Secretary and Treasurer – Penina Pearl Winkler-Segal

Historian – Hannah Tchon

Class of 2012: Nicole Lindsey Baron, Renata Basis, Heather Marie Black, Charlene Dwarika, Yakov Fattakhov, Pulkit Gandhi, Shoshana Frayda Gewirtz, Rivka Hecht, Charysh R. Randolph, Fariborz Sani, Doaa Khalil Soliman Sowelam, Atara Ziegler

Class of 2013:Jennifer Ahn, Navjot Singh Bal, Erica Cheng,Christina Choi, Michelle Leah Friedman, Eugenie Hambou, Aryeh Lazarus, Thuy Nguyen, Eunbee Park, Tammy Pham, Laurance Rances, Pethidin Ung, Brittany Wallen, Jennifer Yam, David Hyuk Yoo

Class of 2014: Jillian Brown, Jessica Christine Cate, Villo’ Fiddler, Brandon Huynh, Christopher Manesis, Trung-Duong Nguyen, Hiren B. Patel, Linette Amanda Phu, Mikel Richman, Rashesh M. Shah, Tally Shuldiner, Anatoliy Sionov, Hannah Tchon, Danny Tea, Tian Tian, Penina Pearl Winkler-Segal, Lilia Yakutelov, Stephanie Rebekah Zack

In order to be eligible for collegiate membership, students must be enrolled in a professional pharmacy program fully accredited by ACPE, completed no less than one-half of the required professional didactic coursework and rank in the highest 20% of their class attaining a minimum GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale. 

It’s that time of year again where the good weather brings out good causes to walk for. For the second year in a row, the College of Pharmacy, led by our SNPhA organization, fundraised to support programs in our community that help moms have healthy, full-term pregnancies.

Not only did our students help raise awareness by participating in the March for Babies walk, they raised funds by promoting healthy exercise and eating habits within the college!

Check them out:

“I am here in honor of Steve,” begins the award presentation by Lieutenant Commander Jerry Zee, PharmD, the Regional Pharmacist from CMS (the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) and a Commissioned Officer in the United States Public Health Service. P3 Student, Steven Elrod is the recipient for the 2013 United States Public Health Service Excellence in Public Health Pharmacy Practice Award. The award was established to recognize pharmacy students’ contributions to public health pharmacy practice.

Nominated by Professor Blake Fountain, it really was a no brainer that Steve Elrod was the best candidate for this award: “The nomination letter wrote itself. I’m not a pharmacist, I came as a public health professional. Steve is from Wisconsin, and before he came to Touro, he went to Miami to work with English as a Second Language teens in literacy and helped the fight against childhood obesity. Touro was an awesome match for Steve, and I am so thankful he came here.”

Steve has fostered the creation of many great programs offered by Touro – a partnership with a local school to use their gym for recreational activities and an intramural league within Touro College. Steve has also served as the President for the Pharmacy Student Government Association and has been a part of two global practice experiences in Haiti and India helping underserved communities.

Throughout the curriculum and practice experiences Touro College of Pharmacy students are actively engaged in promoting the public’s health in the Harlem community, the New York City area and internationally. Congratulations go to Steve on his being recognized for his efforts.

Brittany Wallen, a P4 student, will be the recipient of the NYSCHP 2013 Corporate Member Scholarship Award. This is the 2nd year in a row that a Touro College of Pharmacy student is the recipient of this award. The award was open to all students in the last two years of pharmacy school.

Her winning essay on “Discuss the Proper Use of Social Media in the Professional Environment” was selected from all the 7 schools in New York State.

She will be attending the Annual Assembly at Verona, NY to receive the award which consists of a $1500 scholarship awarded by the corporate sponsors and a framed certificate.

Brittany has been involved with NYSCHP early on in her student career and has recently matched with the Bronx VA for a residency. We are very proud of Brittany’s accomplishments!

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Get the Facts:  Have you checked your final Fall Semester grades? Are you academically on-track for your career goals? This is a great time to meet your with Academic Advisor to discuss your goals!

Assess Your Strategies: How well did you handle your commitments last semester? Did you budget your time and money effectively?  Assess the strategies that you used for success last semester in order to identify areas that you can improve on this spring! If you find that there’s an area where you need a little (or a lot) of professional help, contact Counseling Services (Suzannah Callaghan) to get help devising a plan to make Spring Semester super successful!

Set New Goals: Didn’t get a chance to do all you wanted to last semester? Now is a great time to start something new: a new job, a new study group, a new club, or even a new outlook on academics! Students that set goals are more likely to make strides towards and achieve them. Remember, goals should be specific, measureable, achievable, realistic and time oriented (i.e., have a deadline).

We live in a globalized interdependent world where everything from diseases to cures easily cross borders. There’s never been a more relevant time to study global health.

This fall, 61 students of the Touro College of Pharmacy, NY, enrolled in Dr. Joyce Addo-Atuah’s Global Health course to do just that. The course, which examines disparities in global disease burdens, places an emphasis on the role of the pharmacist and its impact on the world stage. As the United Nations is a key player in global health, about half the class elected to attend a tour of its headquarters on Monday, December 3^rd.

The tour began with an introduction to Secretary Generals of the UN, both past and present, and the role the UN plays in global health issues. Our guide, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, showed us what the UN and its committees have achieved in the past, what they are trying to do now, and the possibilities for the future.

Of all the things we saw, two were probably the most compelling. Watching a General Assembly meeting in session, history in the making, was just plain cool. And the symbolic display of each of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was especially relevant, as we had just learned about them in class. MDGs provide a framework for promoting global health in the context of development. Most of the targets of MDG4 (Reduce Child Mortality), MDG5 (Improve Maternal Health), and MDG6 (Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases) require access to safe, effective and affordable medications, as well as pharmacists to ensure that the right medications, in the right doses and formulations, are received by the right patients at the right time and are used correctly to achieve maximum therapeutic benefits.

This course taught us that pharmacists in global health have many responsibilities: They’ve assisted national governments in developing their National Essential Medicines Lists, managed pharmaceuticals in under-served populations, and coordinated pharmaceutical services during disasters and relief situations.

Wherever we choose to work as future pharmacists in this globalized world, we are all looking forward to using our knowledge and skills to make a difference in peoples’ well-being.

This past spring, Touro College of Pharmacy implemented its Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and Education Program (PDAPEP). Prompted by high rates of prescription drug abuse among teens in Staten Island, PDAPEP is part of New York Senator Charles Schumer’s initiative to combat prescription drug abuse. Along with pharmacy students of Long Island University and St. John’s University, TCoP students visit select Staten Island high schools to promote the dangers of prescription drug abuse.

PDAPEP is an ongoing student-led, faculty-mentored project that endeavors to build relationships with students, teachers, parents, and community members, as well as local organizations on Staten Island who are working to address the prescription drug abuse problem. At the end of the last academic year, PDAPEP members carried out educational events at Curtis and Tottenville high schools, and are in progress to do the same again this year. Through presentations, high school students were engaged via video testimonials from formerly addicted teens, interactive information sharing, and role playing.

Our dedicated team members work diligently throughout the school year. Currently, PDAPEP is recruiting members who will continue this legacy. We are excited to welcome them to our team very soon!

PDAPEP Team: Amy Bui, Jessica Cate, Steven Elrod, Michelle Friedman,Sharon Gayed, Johnny Jiang, Umeer Khan, Huy Nguyen, Elizabeth Panek, Dhru Patel, Krina Patel, Nishale Patel, Sejal Patel, Tammy Pham, Eileen Sordo, Danny Tea, Albana Toci, Chelsea Terranova, Hanh Thai, Tally Shuldiner, Peter Ung, Kathleen Wong, Tiffany Wong, Jennifer Yam, Stephanie Vu.

Faculty Advisors: Craig Kovera, PhD, Ronnie Moore, PharmD,  Dipan Ray, PhD, RPh

During the Hurricane Sandy disaster, the east coast was devastated and downtown New Yorkers were lost in the darkness. I believe that the unsung heroes of the Hurricane Sandy disaster were pharmacists and staff. During the entire week that Touro was closed and rotations were called off, I spent every single day working 9+ hours in the pharmacy to help displaced New Jersey and New York residents obtain their crucial medications necessary to maintain their chronic conditions. On Tuesday, October 30, the morning after the storm, the pharmacist and I traveled by foot to work to open the pharmacy. We were heralded by the many patients and doctors in the area as being the only pharmacy open on the entire Upper East Side and worked tirelessly as we obtained emergency supplies of medications and comforted those displaced by the storm. The following days I worked, I encountered patients displaced from all over; from the Jersey Shore and New York City alike. A particularly touching situation was when I comforted a Seaside Heights, NJ man in tears as he recounted his home in ruins literally floated away from him. I displayed empathy and worked with his mail order pharmacy to obtain his life-saving medications. The examples I have are countless. So many pharmacists I encountered endured 3+ hour commutes to ensure the pharmacies were open to serve displaced patients, while they themselves and their families were dealing with the stress of being displaced. By keeping the pharmacy open and helping those in dire need, pharmacists and staff were the unsung heroes in wake of the Hurricane Sandy disaster.

There are many needy organizations. Find the one that can best use your resources – time or money – and volunteer! Even a little bit makes a big difference.

On October 13th, 2012, we participated in “Immunity in the Community,” an outreach event hosted by Brooklyn Hospital Center. My fellow Touro students David Yoo and Henry Le along with Dr. Berrios-Colon from Touro volunteered at this event on an early Saturday morning. According to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Community Health Profile 2nd edition, the percentage of Bushwick and Williamsburg individuals residing below the poverty line surpassed that of Brooklyn and NYC as a whole. Access to healthcare in this area is lacking as a staggering 1 in 3 individuals have no means of access to a primary care physician. The primary objective of this event was to help narrow the health disparity gap by establishing free health screenings and vaccinations to the underinsured and underserved community of Bushwick.

Henry Le provides blood pressure screening and medication counseling

Free blood pressure screenings and influenza vaccinations (provided by Brooklyn Hospital) were made accessible to the public at the New Jerusalem United Methodist Church in Brooklyn. Medication appropriateness and compliance was assessed if blood pressure readings were not at goal. We counseled individuals on the importance of maintaining medication compliance supplemented with therapeutic lifestyle changes for additional blood pressure reduction.

Dr. Berrios-Colon administers the inactivated influenza vaccine to a first time patient

Since access to care is especially lacking in this community, prevention through immunization was emphasized as the best medicine. We screened for contraindications to the inactivated influenza vaccine prior to administration and counseled on possible side effects to watch for. Dr. Berrios-Colon vaccinated forty members of the Bushwick community during this event.  More than half of the vaccinated reported being “first timers.” These patients never received an influenza vaccine during their entire life.

 “Immunity in the Community” was a very memorable experience for us. Implementing the knowledge and clinical skill sets we acquired during our ambulatory care rotation to help the underserved community left us with an immense feeling of gratification. The positive responses we received reinforced the very reason for selecting pharmacy as a lifelong career as many expressed their sincere appreciation for our efforts. Every little bit counts to make a difference in our community!

The pharmacy immunization team from the left: Henry Le, David Yoo, Dr. Berrios-Colon, Jennifer Yam