The Healthcare Imaginarium for Exponential Technologies, or HIETs is the brainchild of visionary College of Pharmacy Dean Kevin Sneed

Kevin Sneed, PharmD, (standing right) dean of the USF College of Pharmacy, spoke about how exciting new technologies would be integrated into the college’s currriculum starting this fall.

TAMPA, Fla. (Feb. 22, 2018) — USF Health’s Pharmacy Dean Kevin Sneed, PharmD, announced this week several key initiatives intended to integrate advanced technologies into the student curriculum and to keep the college at the cutting-edge of innovation in education, research and patient care. He spoke Feb. 20 to a gathering of business and community leaders, as well as students, faculty and staff.

“We want our USF College of Pharmacy to remain relevant not only today, but for the next 25 years,” Dr. Sneed said.  “Right from the beginning, our mission has been to revolutionize health through innovation and empowerment… Now is the time to reimagine what education will be moving into the future.”

The initiatives are part of a newly created Healthcare Imaginarium for Exponential Technologies or HIETs.   They include the introduction in fall 2018 of virtual reality content to supplement existing curriculum and help make the learning experiences of USF pharmacy students more immersive and life-like than textbooks, online content and traditional videos.

Many of those gathered used mobile device technology to record the event.

Students will put on special eyewear to view computer-generated images they could interact with. So for instance, they might experience in 360-degree, three-dimensional context the growth of plaques in coronary arteries and what happens when a stent is inserted to clear a clogged artery.  In yet-to-be-developed ways, virtual reality technology may also seamlessly combine pharmacology with physiology to simulate the effects of treatment. For example, students could visualize in real-time the action on smooth muscle airways when a bronchodilator drug is inhaled by an asthma patient. Such advanced technology could also be harnessed by health professionals as a more engaging way to educate patients about their diagnoses and care, Dr. Sneed said.

The College of Pharmacy plans to work with MediaLab 3D Solutions, a Tampa-based digital content creator, and BioLucid, a digital health company recently acquired by Sharecare, to develop a combination of virtual, augmented and mixed reality content.

USF pharmacy student Natalie Dehaney demonstrates how virtual reality technology allows students to visualize what happens inside the body when a patient experiences atrial fibrillation. She can trigger and replay the simulation of electrical conduction in the heart. 

MediaLab CEO Bruce VanWingerden said the project will be the first time the company, which works with major corporations, has ventured into academia. “This is an exciting opportunity to work with Dr. Sneed and his staff to really look at different ways to present in a new and exciting fashion information that can be difficult to convey,” VanWingerden said. “We want to take all the innovative technology and make it easy to use to further the educational process.”

Laysa Mena, a student delegate for the College of Pharmacy, describes herself as a “visual learner” who absorbs more by seeing than reading. “So I feel implementing virtual reality with our curriculum would be very beneficial and give us a better appreciation of how drugs work in the body,” she said.

Dr. Sneed announced a key initiative known as the Botanical Medicinal Research Consortium, which will team USF researchers and clinicians with local companies to conduct evidence-based  clinical research on whether non-euphoric forms of cannabis may benefit patients with certain diseases.

Another key initiative, known as the Botanical Medicinal Research Consortium, or BMRC, will bring together researchers and clinicians in USF’s colleges of pharmacy and medicine, the university’s Center for Drug Discovery & Innovation, and businesses in Tampa Bay and beyond to conduct rigorous studies on the safety and effectiveness of medical cannabis and other plant derivatives.

Many unanswered questions remain about the potential of cannabinoids, the active chemical found in the plant and elsewhere, to treat various diseases or conditions like chronic pain. The USF College of Pharmacy wants to take the lead in conducting top-quality research on medical cannabis and find the correct noneuphoric formulations that may benefit patients and their overall health, Dr. Sneed said.

Mark Kindy, PhD (left), professor of pharmaceutical sciences, is the College of Pharmacy’s liaison for the Botanical Medicinal Research Consortium, and Kevin Olson, PharmD, MBA, assistant professor of biopharmaceutics and clinical research, is the liaison for the Entreprenerial Academy, a collaboration with the Muma College of Business. 

“Plant-derived compounds are the future of medicine, and we’re looking forward to collaborating with the University of South Florida in this area,” said Garyn Angel, chief strategy officer for ANANDA Scientific, a company that produces nonpsychoactive and nonabusive oral cannabinoid health products. “Evidence-based clinical research is needed for cannabinoids to enter Western medicine.”

Dr. Sneed also announced that the BMRC would collaborate with the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, one of the first academic programs dedicated to investigating cannabis to lead public policy and public health decisions.

Other HIETs initiatives include:

• With the College of Engineering, USF Pharmacy will work to advance personalized medicine that tailors therapy based on an individual’s genetic makeup. As the technology of medicine and drug development continues to shrink down to the nanoscale, USF has also started a Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology master’s program to teach students how to deliver medications in new, more precise ways.

• The College of Pharmacy will join forces with the Muma College of Business to create an Entrepreneurial Academy that inspires innovation and start-up companies.  The aim is to help pharmacists think like entrepreneurs so they can better enhance heath care outcomes and cost-effectiveness.

• Clinical trials: Through its WE-CARE program (Workgroup Enhancing Community Advocacy and Research Engagement), the College of Pharmacy partners with key stakeholders to increase participation of minority and medically underserved populations in clinical trials.  The program seeks to ensure that all communities have access to genomic clinical research as technology advances.

-Photos by Torie Doll, USF Health Communications and Marketing

View USF College of Pharmacy Class of 2015 Match Results

By Saundra Amrhein

It’s that time of year when attention turns to medical schools and the jittery students awaiting the announcement of their residency assignments on Match Day.

But this year for the first time in the University of South Florida’s history there is another crop of students counting down to March 20: the inaugural doctoral graduating class of the College of Pharmacy. Their participation in Match Day marks both individual student accomplishments and dramatic changes in the entire health care industry.

About 47 percent of the USF College of Pharmacy’s first 48 graduating students participated in the Match. Some of them are pictured here with College of Pharmacy Dean Kevin Sneed, PharmD, center.

Of the College’s first 48 graduates, 23 opted to participate in the Match for obtaining a one-year residency, reflecting a rising movement toward the specialized credentialing of pharmacists as health care shifts to a team-approach and pharmacists assume a larger role in patient care.

“This is a very significant transformation in health care,” said Kevin Sneed, PharmD, founding dean of the USF College of Pharmacy and senior associate vice president of USF Health.

He added that the growing number of pharmacy residencies, pharmacological specializations and clinical training opportunities reflect the movement of pharmacists from the back-end of filling prescriptions to the “interprofessional” role in patient management, care and diagnosis.

“This is where health care is going,” Dr. Sneed said.

Nathan Seligson, a Match Day participant, conducted his final rotation as a USF pharmacy student in the Bone Marrow Transplant clinic at Moffitt Cancer Center.  He is supervised here by Janelle Perkins, PharmD, USF associate professor of pharmacotherapeutics and clinical research. Seligson matched at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, TN.

To be sure, pharmacy residencies have been around since the 1930s, when they were considered internships and mostly involved preparing pharmacists in hospital pharmacy management, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, or ASHP.

In the 1970s, residencies in clinical care grew rapidly, leading to accreditation standards, and in the 1990s, the ASHP recognized 15 specialized areas of practice, according to its website. In 2005, in conjunction with other pharmacy associations, the ASHP set forth new national residency accreditation standards that established the postgraduate year one (PGY1) pharmacy residencies and specialized residencies in postgraduate year two (PGY2).

The Match process for pharmacy graduates, run by the same service that directs the Match residencies for general medicine graduates, has been growing steadily. For instance, the number of graduating pharmacy students and new practitioners participating in the Match at both levels has grown from 3,284 in 2010 to 4,799 in 2014, according to the National Matching Services. Likewise, in that same timeframe, the number of positions offered in the Match has increased from 2,276 to 3,394.

Meanwhile, the number of pharmacists becoming board certified in a pharmacy specialty has skyrocketed in just over a decade – from 3,600 in 2002 to 18,000 in 2013, according to a recent article in ASHP Intersections. The largest category is for pharmacotherapy, which can be practiced in a variety of settings, followed by oncology and ambulatory care, which is fast growing as care shifts from in-patient to out-patient settings and the need soars for medication management over chronic diseases, the journal reported.

USF pharmacy student Athar Naif, right, at a community rotation in Pharmacy Plus at the Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare. Here she looks over some prescription information with pharmacy technician Nicholas Stephens. Naif will be doing her residency at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa.

The publication and ASHP officials also attributed the growth of specializations to the greater role pharmacists are playing in direct patient care in primary settings. Reflecting that change, pharmacists have won provider status in five states, including California in October, 2013, with legal statewide recognition of their roles in providing direct patient care and counseling, managing multi-drug medication regimens and participating in long-term follow-up care.

The growing opportunities for pharmacists in aspects of patient care – along with the required advanced training to go with it – accompany a nationwide shortage of primary care physicians as millions of Americans enter the health care system following the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

USF’s pharmacy students, set to graduate this spring, plan to ride that wave as they pursue their goals and passions.

Shafaat Pirani, 26, has all his hopes in one place for the Match by listing just one preference – a major university-affiliated medical center on the West Coast. His interests include a combination of pharmacogenomics (or the study of the role of genetics in drug response), oncology and psychiatry.

If he doesn’t get matched with his preference, Pirani, like his classmates, plans to enter what’s called the “scramble” – when unmatched applicants and programs seek each other out.

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“We’re committed to a residency,” Pirani said of himself and his fellow students.

He believes the training would help make him a better overall clinician in the future as well as pave the way for a possible teaching position. While he always knew he wanted to enter the health and medical field, he decided upon pharmacy after spending time more than a dozen years ago in the hospital with his grandfather, who suffered from diabetes and hypertension. Pirani watched as a pharmacist entered the hospital room to discuss his grandfather’s various medications with his grandmother. He said he started to see the large roll pharmacists play in patient care.

Years later, after already placing a deposit on a northern pharmacy program, he had a brief encounter with Dr. Sneed.

“It changed my life,” he said of that 20-minute conversation that convinced him to come to USF and its new College of Pharmacy. He sensed Dr. Sneed’s pioneering spirit regarding the future of pharmacy. “He’s a visionary.”

Ahead of the Match, Pirani was calming his nerves by staying busy with his rotations at Lakeland Regional Medical Center and a weekend job at a pharmacy in Clearwater.

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Athar Naif, 27, also was distracting herself with rotations at the new Morsani Center’s Pharmacy Plus and studying for board exams, trying to put the Match out of her mind until the announcements. Having interviewed at eight locations, she ranked five on her Match list of preferences – including a top-tier out-of-state teaching hospital, and several community hospitals in Central Florida.

“It’s exciting and nerve-racking at the same time,” she said.

Naif was offered a job at a major pharmacy chain, but she declined in order to pursue a residency and further training. One day she wants to work with transplant patients, both with the medications in preparation for transplant procedures as well as the life-time patient care through medications afterward.

“In the end, wherever I end up going, it will be a good experience,” she said. “I’m putting my faith in the Match program.”

Nathan Seligson, 26, hopes to one day combine research and clinical care, possibly either through an academic medical center or through the pharmaceutical industry. His interests at the moment are in pharmacogenomics, pharmacokinetics and oncology.

The residency experience, he believes, gives young pharmacists the opportunity to hone clinical skills, applying specialized drug knowledge and patient care knowledge to a particular disease or patient population. He’s interested in designing research around patient care.

“It’s not research for the sake of research but could change clinical practice,” said Seligson, who spent six weeks on rotation at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He was particularly interested in long-term effects of treatments on survivors of childhood cancers, effects that are still not largely understood. After residency training, he hopes to pursue a research fellowship.

For now, he was focusing on his rotations at Florida Hospital in Connerton and the Moffitt Cancer Center, keeping the Match out of his mind until the day of the announcements.

“I’m trying not to think about it too much,” Seligson said.

Dr. John Clark – an assistant professor who is the director of both the pharmacy residency programs and the Office of Experiential Education within the College of Pharmacy – has created an elective course on post graduate residency training. He encouraged the students to get as much training as possible and to keep striving for a residency, even if they have to enter the “scramble.”

“This is a career-changing move,” Dr. Clark said.

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Photos by Eric Younghans and Klaus Herdocia, USF Health Communications and Marketing 

They were welcomed by the leaders of each college and school within USF Health – a united front showing the power of collaborative caring.

The incoming College of Pharmacy Class of 2017 represents the largest class in the school’s short history. The college’s rigorous, innovative four-year curriculum will push the 107 students to stretch the limits of their brainpower, creativity and energy —  but not without plenty of tools and support, said COP Dean Kevin Sneed, PharmD.

The USF College of Pharmacy Class of 2017 is off to a rapid pace in training for the future of health care.

“USF Health is not just about pharmacy, or medicine, or any other single health profession,” Dr. Sneed said last week at the new pharmacy students’ orientation. “It’s about all our health professions coming together to provide better care for our patients.”

“It will take all of us working together, not only in the clinical setting, but also at the population and community levels to do what needs to be done to create healthier communities,” said Donna Petersen, ScD, interim senior vice president of USF Health and dean of the USF College of Public Health.

The call for collaboration and interprofessionalism was echoed by each of the other USF Health leaders who greeted the class:   Allesa English, MD, PharmD, director of MD Career Advising at the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine; William S. Quillen, DPT, PhD, director of the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences and associate dean, Morsani College of Medicine; Michael Barber, DPhil, director of the School of Biomedical Sciences and associate dean for Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs at Morsani College of Medicine; and Connie Visovsky, PhD, RN, associate dean of student affairs and community engagement for the USF College of Nursing.

As part of their orientation, the new USF pharmacy students participated in team-building exercises at Riverfront Park, including working with fellow students to negotiate the ropes course.

Dr. Sneed challenged the new students to think of themselves as “professionals in training” and to embrace a future requiring a new breed of healthcare professional who can lead, innovate and work effectively in teams.   

“This is a brand new realm of health care we’re moving into with pharmacogenomics, informatics and mobile health technology,” he said.  “We’re challenging our faculty, staff and you to come up with a new and better way to deliver health care… We can’t predict all the changes, but we can give you the leadership skills you will need to implement meaningful change.”

College of Pharmacy Class of 2017 Demographics

–          Gender:  107 students:  51% women; 49% men

–          First Generation: 26% are first in their families to attend college

–          Residency:  92% from Florida, 8% out-of-state

–          Ethnicity:   17% Asian/Pacific Islander, 11% Black, 16% Hispanic, 50% White, and 6% undisclosed

–          Countries of birth:  In addition to the U.S., includes United Arab Emirates, Albania, Egypt, Canada, Moldova, Jamaica, South Korea, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mexico, Nigeria, Haiti, Bolivia, Ghana, and Germany

–          Undergraduate majors:  Primary majors are biomedical science, biology/microbiology, and chemistry/biochemistry, but other degrees include public health, business, nursing, nutrition, biomedical engineering, physiology, and sports medicine.

Ready, set… zipline!

One of the students’ first assignments requiring building consensus was choosing a class song that would carry them through a rigorous, innovative four-year curriculum. Their selection — Tom Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down.”

Photos by Eric Younghans, USF Health Communications