The USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy (TCOP) continues to be a pacesetter for innovative education, most recently with its plans to incorporate holographic technology into its educational framework. This ambitious leap aims to elevate the learning experience for both students and faculty, fostering a more immersive and engaging educational environment.”The new holographic technology is the first of its kind in the region“, said Kevin Sneed, PharmD, dean of the TCOP and senior associate vice president of USF Health. It is set to transform classrooms and laboratories alike and bring a new layer to an already premier pharmacy program.

Kevin Sneed, PharmD, dean of the TCOP and senior associate vice president of USF Health posing in front of the Proto hologram unit.

One of the key advantages of this technology is its departure from conventional two-dimensional remote platforms like Microsoft Teams or Zoom. With holographic transmission, students can experience a lifelike classroom setting, enhancing their understanding and connection with the material.

“With our new holographic technology, we can “transport” anybody from anywhere into the classroom, such as a professor or a renowned scientist that we want to engage in our studies with, creating more diversified collaboration and learning experiences”, Dr. Sneed said.  

Proto hologram unit being custom wrapped with the TCOP’s branding.

The college also plans to use intricate three-dimensional models, structures, and processes that might be otherwise challenging to understand through conventional methods. This realism aids in grasping intricate topics more effectively.

While the full implementation of this technology in TCOP’s future location in the downtown campus is scheduled for July next year, the college’s dedication to staying at the forefront of education prompts the immediate exploration of their new holographic technology. The college plans to train its faculty before the upcoming move and create intuitive lesson plans for its students.

“The future for us starts today,” Dr. Sneed said. “Using holographic technology is just the beginning of what you can expect in terms of the technological advancement that we are going to be putting into our downtown building.”

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Story, photos, and video by Ryan Rossy, USF Health Communications and Marketing
 

The USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy (TCOP) partnered with the Florida Education Fund for a unique opportunity for masters-level students that aims to address the underrepresentation of African American, Hispanic, and female masters-level student populations in STEM related programs and careers.

Called the McKnight Graduate NANO-STEM Fellowship, this new program is based in TCOP and provides recipients with a $15,000 stipend toward their tuition as they pursue their Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology.

“Over the next seven to 10 years, there is going to be a dire need for STEM graduates in the country,” said Shyam Mohapatra PhD, MBA, TCOP graduate programs associate dean. “The Florida Education Fund has always been at the forefront of advancing educational opportunities for historically underrepresented groups.  This is a perfect match for us since we just achieved a STEM designation.”

Three stipends will be awarded annually to applicants who are:

• African American, Hispanic and/or female
• U.S. citizen or permanent resident with proof of Florida residency
• Accepted into the TCOP Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Technology program
• A fulltime student with intent to pursue a PhD in a STEM field at a university in Florida

Applicants must submit the following in addition to their online application:

• Resume or curriculum vitae
• Official transcripts from each institution attended
• Three letters of recommendation from individuals who can speak to the applicant’s academic potential
• Completed Florida residency affidavit

Recipients must agree to the stipulation in the award agreement that requires them to present their research at McKnight conferences, regularly update their program directory information, and complete periodic surveys as requested by the FEF.

In addition to financial relief, McKnight Fellows are also more likely to:

• Become competitive applicants for doctoral programs and their post-graduate careers
• Receive additional resources and gain exposure to invaluable professional networks
• Engage in unique opportunities related to pharmaceutical nanotechnology

All applicants must have all documents submitted to the FEF July 15, 2023.  For more information and instructions on the application process visit https://fefonline.org/gnsf.html

The USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy (TCOP) is calling all middle schoolers, high schoolers, and pharmacy technician students to spend one week of their summer vacation learning about the pharmacy industry during the second annual Pharmacy Career Orientation Camp, held June 19 to 23.

This four-day immersive experience will expose young students to the many opportunities available in a career in pharmacy.

The camp exposes participants to all aspects of the academic, clinical and research missions of USF Health. Experiences include:

• Lab tours
• USF campus pharmacy tours
• Student, staff and faculty question and answer sessions
• Hand-on experiences in pharmacies filling prescriptions
• Interactions with other health college students
• Understanding bioinformatics
• Introduction to artificial intelligence in pharmacy

One of the key teaching points of the camp is to address any misconceptions and make sure students understand the role of pharmacists within interprofessional health care teams, according to Angela Hill, PharmD, professor and associate dean of clinical affairs and community outreach leader in TCOP.  Discussions throughout the camp often speak about the “evolution of pharmacy,” as described by Dr. Hill, so students have a better understanding of how the pharmacy field continues to change and welcome in new innovations, including pharmacogenomics, nuclear medicine and nanotechnology.

Key topics include:

• Working within health care teams
• Prerequisites to being a pharmacy student
• Credentialing and making yourself more marketable as a pharmacist
• Non-clinical roles including research tech
• Master’s programs

The college has offered pharmacy orientation events since 2012 through the USF TRIO Upward Bound Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Last year, in 2022, was the first time they’ve taken the experiences and lessons learned, expanded and enhanced the hands on experiences and put it into a camp model.

“This would be the best time spent for any student to spend time with us.  This is bigger than us. This is about investing in our future,” Dr. Hill said. “We’re grateful to USF for embracing and supporting us.  We hope the Tampa Bay community can see that we care and we really want to help make sure we produce good citizens who can impact health care.”

The camp is $275 per in-person participant and $150 per virtual participant.  Participants whose parents are USF employees receive a $25 discount to participate.  For more information email Kareen Moreland at kareenmoreland@usf.edu.

Photos from 2022 camp:

Graduate programs at USF Health had promising gains in this year’s rankings from U.S. News & World Report (U.S. News), with some programs breaking into the top 50 of their rankings.

In the U.S. News 2024 Best Graduate Schools list released on April 25, USF Health’s physician assistant, nursing and public health programs ranked among the best in the country.

The rankings released April 25 did not include medical schools or law schools; those rankings were released by U.S. News May 11.

Among the notable advancements this year are the two graduate programs from the USF Health College of Nursing, each of which had major gains, and the Physician Assistant Program in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, which made the ranking list for the first time in its young history after receiving its inaugural full accreditation needed to qualify.

“Our nursing school is clearly garnering attention on the national stage as both its master’s and doctoral programs are making incredible gains in the rankings, and proving to be the best in Florida,” said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, executive vice president of USF Health and dean of the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “And the first-time ranking for our physician assistant program marks a significant milestone. While this USF Health program is still young, its inaugural ranking is among the top third of PA programs across the country. We anticipate further rankings gains as our program continues to develop.”

According to U.S. News, its methodology uses data from expert opinions and statistical indicators when measuring a program’s ranking, examining qualities students and faculty bring to the educational experience and graduates’ achievements linked to their degrees, such as job placement and research impact.

The posted results for USF Health this year include:

• #46 in Medical Schools for Primary Care: The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine improved significantly for U.S. medical schools for primary care, going from #56 last year to #46 this year, and breaking into the top 50 for the first time.
• #50 in Medical Schools for Research: The Morsani College of Medicine continues to rank well among U.S. medical schools for research, ranking at #50 this year.
• #65 in Health Doctoral Programs – Physician Assistant: The Morsani College of Medicine’s Physician Assistant program ranked for the first time, ranked at #65 this year, placing it in the top third of the more than 200 PA programs in the rankings.
• #31 in Nursing for Master’s: The USF Health College of Nursing jumped 11 spots, going from #42 last year to #31 this year, making it the top-ranked public nursing master’s program in Florida.
• #33 in Nursing for DNP: The College of Nursing also continues to improve in its DNP program ranking and skyrocketed into the top 50 for doctoral programs in the country with its 34-spot jump from #67 last year to #33 this year, making it the top-ranked public or private DNP program in Florida.
• #22 in Public Health: The USF Health College of Public Health remains the top-ranked public health program in Florida, with its rank at #22 this year.

U.S. News does not provide new rankings for all graduate programs each year, so the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy maintains its rank of #68, and the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences maintains its rank of #49.

More on rankings for other USF graduate programs…

This year’s USF Health Research Day set new records as more participants than ever filled the USF Tampa campus Marshall Student Center on March 3 to showcase the best of their scientific work.

The 33^rd USF Health Research Day included 457 research poster presentations by students, postdocs, residents, faculty, and staff across all health disciplines. Research Day is the largest research-oriented event of its kind at USF and remains the largest celebration of health sciences research collaboration across all four USF Health colleges (medicine, nursing, public health and pharmacy) as well as with colleagues in other USF colleges, including social work and engineering.

From left, Dr. Charles Lockwood, Dr. Kim Orth, Rhea Law, and Dr. Steve Liggett.

Research Day kicked off with the Annual Roy H. Behnke, MD, Distinguished Lectureship featuring speaker Kim Orth, PhD, professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

Dr. Orth’s presentation was titled “Black Spot, Black Death, Black Pearl: Tales of Bacterial Effectors” – click here for more about Dr. Orth and her work.

Dr. Kim Orth.

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Tampa General Hospital, the primary teaching hospital for USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, was the presenting sponsor for USF Health Research Day 2023.

Following Dr. Orth’s presentation was the judging of work. Judges reviewed the posters that lined the Marshall Center Ballroom, asking the students for more detail and clarifications about their research projects. Presentations ranged from pilot, preliminary, empirical and case studies to system reviews and reviews of literature or charts.

Following the 13^th Annual Joseph Krzanowski Invited Oral Presenters by select students representing medicine, nursing, public health, and pharmacy, Research Day culminated with an Awards Ceremony in the Oval Theatre announcing the winners in 29 competitive categories – including 18 monetary awards totaling $8,600.

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For the list of Research Day 2023 award winners, click here.

For the list of Research Day judges and sponsors, click here.

More photos

Photos by Freddie Coleman, video by Allison Long, USF Health Communications

The Taneja College of Pharmacy has enhanced its foundational, didactic, and experiential curriculum to accommodate the diversity of students entering pharmacy school, many with diverse backgrounds in study, work, and life experiences. The curriculum includes components that allow students to pursue their passions, become workforce-ready, and pursue nontraditional pharmacy career paths.

As the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy’s (TCOP) new 30,000-square-foot home in downtown Tampa continues to progress, plans include a Maker Space/Creativity Lounge, a space that will connect students, faculty, and staff with leaders and innovators to promote creativity as part of professional development.

“The key to this vision is the ITEHC Academy (Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship in Healthcare). What originally started as a student-developed organization has grown to become the foundation for initiatives focused on advancing our student’s creativity, innovative and disruptive mindsets. It is now the pinnacle of the pillars and strategic plan of the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy,” said Kevin M. Olson, MBA, PharmD, CPh, assistant professor at the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy and director of the ITEHC Academy.

To help elevate and advance pharmaceutical education further, the new space will include virtual and augmented reality, a multitaction video wall, CAD drawing software, 3D printing, and holographic technology.

The space will allow various student groups, such as ITEHC, to develop innovative ideas and prototypes for health-related devices.

“Envision a space where students, faculty, staff, and community partners can come together and collaborate, a space where they can discover new ways of creating value that will advance pharmacy practice, differentiate pharmacist career opportunities, and reshape the future of pharmacy and health care,” Dr. Olson said.

Story and video by Ryan Rossy, USF Health Communications and Marketing

Rendering of the Student Commons outside the Creativity Lounge.

Rendering of the Creativity Lounge.

We all know our workmates at work, but few of us know how they spend their spare time. It can be a fun surprise to learn about our colleagues’ hobbies and interests.

One such example is with Robert Pelaia, deputy general counsel at USF, who provides legal support services for USF Health. He recently held a role in the local production of The Drowsy Chaperone, produced by mad Theatre of Tampa and held at the Straz Center of Performing Arts in Tampa (here’s the Playbill from the performance).

This play follows a show-within-a-show structure, creating a musical within a comedy that pokes fun at the many facets that characterize musical theater. The plot includes mistaken identities and dream sequences, looking at a fictitious “famous” musical through the eyes of a fan of musical theater. As he narrates and plays that show’s soundtrack album, the musical comes to life in his living room. The original U.S. stage performance of The Drowsy Chaperone opened on Broadway in 2006.

In the recent production in Tampa, Pelaia played Aldolpho, a character who is a bit of a womanizing cad who is very impressed with himself, and who takes part in a ploy to derail the wedding of the two main characters in the fictitious musical. Like other roles in The Drowsy Chaperone, Aldolpho’s character employs Vaudeville-style acting and good comic timing, and Pelaia met that mark as he played Aldolpho.

Participating in community theater is not new for Pelaia – he has been acting since he was in elementary school and involved in community theater for a few decades. In high school, he connected with community theater group in his hometown in New Jersey and, at the start of his career after college, he connected with community theater in Jacksonville. In Tampa, he’s in touch with theater groups throughout the Tampa Bay area.

Pelaia’s acting interests cross all genres and he has acted in a full range, from drama to musicals.

He urges others to get involved in community theater but to know that the commitment can’t be taken lightly.

“Rehearsals are nearly every evening of the week, so getting involved in a production that isn’t nearby means you will drive a lot for a few months to get to rehearsals and then go to every performance, which can typically run for several weeks, including at several weekends,” he said.

With a full-time career, he is careful when choosing productions with which to be involved.

“For me, it has to be a show I really like and the location is also a key factor,” Pelaia said. “It’s a big commitment of time and it has to fit into your schedule.”

Pelaia appreciated the positive response he received for his involvement and role in The Drowsy Chaperone.

“I’m honored by the outpouring of support,” he said.

And now that his USF Health colleagues know about his talent for acting?

“We work with people every day and yet we have no idea what they do in their spare time,” he said. “So, while it’s rewarding to share my interest in acting with others, it’s a great opportunity to hear what their interests are, too.”

Images courtesy of Chaz D. Photography

Faculty across several disciplines at USF Health earned National Institutes of Health funding to streamline prenatal, obstetric, pediatric, treatment, behavioral and community health care for patients with opioid use disorder.

Called CADENCE (Continuous and Data-Driven Care), the new program will better serve pregnant patients and new parents, as well as their infants, as they navigate the care they need for managing opioid dependence.

Co-principal investigators for the HD2A R61/R33 grant are Kimberly Fryer, MD, MSCR, assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, and Jennifer Marshall, PhD, CPH, associate professor in the USF Health College of Public Health, and fellow in the Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center.

The primary aim of the new program is to streamline the integration of four “clinics” – or areas that patients might typically access separately. By streamlining these disciplines, care and scheduling will be more coordinated and holistic, and health outcomes of the parent and baby could greatly improve.

The four USF Health clinics being streamlined include office based opioid treatment (OBOT), the maternal family medicine prenatal/obstetric clinic, the PEDI pediatrics clinic, and behavioral health/mental health service.

A “secret shopper” study led by Dr. Marshall a year ago found that only about 20 percent of over 1000 attempts for pregnant women with Medicaid experiencing opioid use disorder were able to set appointments for prenatal care, indicating that many providers may hesitate to take these patients because they do not have the capacity or know how to connect their patients to the addiction treatment critical to helping these patients succeed in caring for themselves and their babies.

By bringing the four primary disciplines together, patients will have access to integrated, continuous, care that will improve maternal engagement in recovery or treatment for maternal opioid use disorder at delivery, neonatal outcomes, and timely referral to early intervention.

The new CADENCE includes two components: a data stage that will create in the first two years an interactive data dashboard that tracks maternal, neonatal, and infant outcomes for pregnancies affected by opioid use disorder and pilot the CADENCE program within USF Health and Hillsborough County; and an implementation stage in the third, fourth and fifth years that will focus on measuring improvement in clinical outcomes at the program level using the data from the dashboard and assessing the implementation and costs of the CADENCE program.

This program of integrated, continuous, care will be rapidly refined using a data-driven approach towards improving maternal engagement in recovery or treatment for maternal opioid use disorder at delivery, neonatal outcomes, and timely referral to early intervention.

A long-term aim of the project is to develop a model that can be shared throughout Florida and at other academic medical programs to help pregnant women in their communities.

Faculty and clinical staff from both USF Health and Tampa General Hospital learned the nuances and best practices of ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) at a special course held on the TGH campus last month.

The recent ECMO course provided the newest information associated with the life-saving procedure and was led by Kapil Patel, MD, associate professor and director of the USF Health Center for Advanced Lung Disease in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and director of the TGH Lung Transplant Program, and M Raheel Qureshi, MD, assistant professor and associate medical director of the ECMO program in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, and associate director of the Lung Transplant Program at Tampa General Hospital.

ECMO is used in critical care situations, when the heart and lungs need help as the patient heals. In ECMO, blood is pumped outside of the body to a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back to tissues in the body. Blood flows from the right side of the heart to the membrane oxygenator in the heart-lung machine, and then is rewarmed and sent back to the body.

This method allows the blood to “bypass” the heart and lungs, allowing these organs to rest and heal.

Many providers and hospitals around the world saw an uptick in patients needing ECMO as part of the COVID-19 care they received in intensive care units. Now, as COVID continues to subside, expanding training on ECMO better prepares health care teams and hospitals if another surge of COVID – or other related viruses – take hold.

Published studies show that hospitals and facilities with more ECMO experience have better outcomes. ECMO is complex in its execution, requiring trained staff and specialist equipment, making the USF Health/TGH training course a critical part of preparation for another COVID surge or pandemic.

Health care providers across the country learned very quickly during the pandemic that ECMO could save lives and it was used largely in patients with COVID-19 with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Published studies show importance of carefully selecting patients for a critical care treatment requiring intense staffing, specialized equipment and advanced expertise.

The USF Health/TGH training sessions mean that more providers are prepared to treat patients sooner with ECMO and improve outcomes.

Photos by Freddie Coleman and Ryan Rossy, USF Health Communications

USF Connect – Student Innovation Incubator Orientation.

Two students in the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy (TCOP) launched a company that may have the newest innovation in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease, and their work opened the way for acceptance to USF Connect, the university’s premier technology and design incubator.  

TCOP pharmaceutical doctoral students Siegrid Pregartner and Laura Borgerding founded Janus AI (Artificial Intelligence), which designed a tool that aims to aid in the early detection of Alzheimer’s using AI technology.

The goal of their company is to give patients with Alzheimer’s disease the opportunity to take control of their lives and make the best healthcare decisions they can before the disease progresses too far.

“There are treatments coming out every single month for Alzheimer’s disease and the amount of money for research increases every single year but, we still do not have a way to know who does and who does not have the disease before symptom onset. Our tool will be able to diagnose patients for when more effective treatments come out to give people extra years to their lives when they are comfortable and in control,” said Pregartner.

USF Connect – The Business Incubator Program.

Recently, their health care startup company won first place and $15,000 at the Florida Blue Health Innovative Challenge, and has been accepted into USF Connects cohort.

“Winning the challenge will not only help us to develop our business but, also it made us realize that this could be a genuine business that could change lives,” Pregartner said.

Students who join a cohort through the USF Connect Incubator will be able to gain access to an abundance of resources such as business experts, legal, and investors. That will assist them in growing their business, concept, and product.

“USF Connect is going to help build a cohesive model and connect us with mentors that will help us with the implementation of our prototype and how to move forward as a business,” Borgerding said.

By utilizing their artificial intelligence tool, they could also contribute to further research and prove that certain drugs have a preventative effect on Alzheimer’s.

“Having the dean and our professors support us from the start at The USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy, has been more than them just doing their job… that is them caring about our future and I think that has been the most important factor in our success,” Borgerding said.

(Left to right): Siegrid Pregartner and Laura Borgerding

Story and photos by Ryan Rossy, USF Health Communications and Marketing