Increasing chronic pain patients’ opioid prescription doses does not seem to improve pain, according to a VA study. Researchers from the Central Arkansas and Minneapolis VA health care systems and three universities looked at prescribing data of more than 50,000 VA patients taking opioids. They found that patients who had their opioid dosage increased did not have meaningful improvements in pain, compared with patients who continued to take the same dose. Learn more
College of Pharmacy Alumni and Friends Night at The Rep
It’s a Wonderful Life, Reception 5:30pm, Show – 7:00pm
The New Website is Here!
The UAMS College of Pharmacy website is undergoing a complete redesign. The site is visually very different than its predecessor, but more pertinent, so is the navigation. With a focus on recruitment and student accessibility, this new design ensures greater user-friendliness and adaptability as the redesign progresses.
Of course, a redesign is not without its hiccups… This can include broken links, graphics out of place, oddly placed frames, and visible code. We will be editing and updating throughout the next few months to correct any errors. We thank you for your patience as we move through this process.
If you have an immediate need and are unable to find answers on our website, please contact the college at 501-686-5557.
Dean Keith Olsen, Pharm. D., Invested in UAMS College of Pharmacy Dean’s Chair
Keith Olsen, Pharm.D., dean of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Pharmacy, was invested April 6 as the recipient of the College of Pharmacy Dean’s Chair.
Olsen was presented with a medallion commemorating the investiture by UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn, M.D., and Stephanie Gardner, Pharm.D., Ed.D., UAMS senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost.
An endowed chair is among the highest academic honors a university can bestow on a faculty member and is established with gifts of at least $1 million, which are invested to support the activities of the chair holder. Those named to a chair are among the most highly regarded scientists, physicians and professors in their fields. A chair can honor the memory of a loved one or may honor a person’s accomplishments.
“This will supply flexible funds to the dean to invest in high-impact and high-potential areas that the dean would otherwise not have to funds to use. It’s incredibly important,” Rahn said. “The Dean’s Chair is one of six endowed chairs in the College of Pharmacy, and they are even more vital today as we are strapped for resources in teaching and education. These enable us to advance the field in ways we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.”
The ceremony was held in the Great Hall of the William J. Clinton Presidential Center as part of the Dean’s Recognition Dinner, an annual event to acknowledge and thank donors for their financial support of the College of Pharmacy.
UAMS Cancer Researcher Awarded $1.7 Million NIH Grant to Study Prevention of Radiation-Induced Cancer
LITTLE ROCK — A $1.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will allow a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) researcher to study a potential new therapy to reduce the risk of blood cancer caused by ionizing radiation.
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Daohong Zhou, M.D., was awarded the grant for his research team’s work addressing whether the ability to restore the fitness of a person’s blood cell-generating cells — called hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) — after they undergo radiation can prevent blood cancers such as leukemia or bone marrow disorders known as myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), all of which are induced by ionizing radiation.
“Earlier this year, we published a study showing that chemotherapy induces cellular aging, also called senescence, in normal tissue and promotes adverse effects such as fatigue, cancer relapse and metastasis. Now, we will test whether restoring fitness to blood cell-generating stem cells by selectively eliminating old and damaged HSCs after ionizing radiation exposure has the potential to prevent MDS and leukemia from occurring,” said Zhou, associate director for basic research in the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
To eliminate the old or senescent cells, Zhou’s team will use a senolytic drug discovered by his research group a year ago. Senolytic drugs selectively kill old or senescent cells.
UAMS Study Finds Opioid Supply of Three Days or Less Reduces Likelihood of Chronic Opioid Use
By prescribing for a patient an opioid supply of three days or less, a health care professional can reduce the likelihood of a patient’s chronic opioid use one to three years later, according to University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) research.
In a report published online March 17 in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, UAMS researchers Bradley Martin, Pharm.D., Ph.D., Anuj Shah, a Ph.D. student, and Corey Hayes, Pharm.D., looked at people previously prescribed opioids who had not used one in six months, the number of days on an opioid prescription they received and whether they were still using opioids one and three years later.
The UAMS-funded study used 1.2 million patient records from 2006-2015 that were drawn from the IMS Lifelink+ database, which includes commercial health plan information and insurees. Any identifying information was removed from the records before the researchers analyzed them.
Among the researchers’ findings were that the likelihood of chronic opioid use increases with each additional day of medication supplied, starting on the third day, and increases the sharpest after the sixth and 31st days on opioid therapy or when a second prescription was authorized or refilled.
“A person who receives just an 11-day supply of their first opioid, their probability of them still being a user one year later is 25 percent,” Martin said. “I don’t think clinicians realize how likely that is. There’s a very significant risk that rises quickly in a short period of time.”
Individuals starting on a long-acting opioid such as oxycontin or morphine sulfate, or a commonly prescribed opioid like tramadol, were more likely to remain on opioids than persons prescribed hydrocodone or oxycodone. The data show that prescribing three days or fewer of opioids can reduce the chances of long-term opioid use.
Martin, the senior author of the study, is a professor and head of the Division of Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy in the UAMS College of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmacy Practice. Shah, a co-author with Martin and Hayes, is a Ph.D. student in the division and a fellow at the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, and Hayes is a postdoctoral fellow in the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry.
In March 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recommendation for prescribing less than a week’s supply of opioids for acute pain and for selecting what type of opioid to prescribe when therapy is started.
“We wanted to corroborate that,” Martin said. “In earlier research, we had looked at how long it takes a chronic user of opioids to discontinue use. Entering into this research, we were wondering at what point does someone becomes a chronic user. No one had looked at when that happens. When does the transition happen between short-term to long-term use?”
Martin said while there is no clear and specific point of transition to chronic use, the longer the duration of periods of even early opioid use can lead to an increased risk of chronic use months or even years later.
UAM, UAMS Announce New Pre-Pharmacy Transfer Program
The University of Arkansas at Monticello announced on Thursday the new Rural Health Early Admissions Program, which will offer pre-pharmacy students the opportunity to transfer early to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ College of Pharmacy.
The program, created by a memorandum of understanding between the universities, is designed to help recruit qualified students from rural and underserved areas in Arkansas, according to a news release.
Five high school seniors will be accepted into the program each year, and participants will complete four to six semesters of undergraduate pharmacy pre-requisites at UAM, followed by enrollment at UAMS in the Doctor of Pharmacy program.
“The college’s goals are to recruit qualified students from rural and underserved areas of Arkansas and to attract those pharmacists back to rural areas of the state,” UAMS College of Pharmacy Dean Keith Olsen said in a news release. “We believe this program can accomplish these goals.”
UAM Chancellor Karla Hughes called the agreement a “validation of the quality of our mathematics and science program and particularly our programs in health-related professions. We have always taken a great deal of pride, not just in the remarkable acceptance rates of our graduates to medical, pharmacy and dental schools, but their success once they have been accepted.”
Morris Bramlett, dean of the UAM School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences, said the agreement recognizes “that UAM serves a rural population whose residents are underrepresented in health-related professions. This will provide another avenue to bring those students to the table and give them opportunities they might not otherwise have.”
Applicants must attain an ACT score of 25 or above, have demonstrated excellence in mathematics and science courses, have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or higher, complete an interview with UAM and UAMS faculty and administrators, and demonstrate a strong interest in and commitment to the pharmacy profession.
Once enrolled at UAM, participants must achieve a score in the 50th percentile or higher on the Pharmacy College Admissions Test, maintain a GPA of 3.25 at UAM, complete at least 69 hours of pre-requisite coursework at a grade of C or above, complete at least 40 hours shadowing a licensed Arkansas pharmacist and complete satisfactory interviews with the UAMS College of Pharmacy.
Article by Arkansas Business Staff on Thursday, Mar. 9, 2017 12:30 pm
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Harps Food, UAMS Create Program to Teach Pharmacists to Work More Directly with Patients
LITTLE ROCK — Springdale-based Harps Food Stores Inc. and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Pharmacy together have created a novel training program to teach pharmacists to work more directly with patients to improve their health.
Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians will be trained to work as a team on medication therapy management (MTM), which is medical care provided by pharmacists to ensure medications are helping patients achieve the best possible health from their prescriptions.
The program is called MTM The Future Today (mtmthefuturetoday.com) and could bring significant changes to the pharmacy profession, said College of Pharmacy Dean Keith Olsen, Pharm.D..
Peter Crooks, PhD, Named 2016 NAI Fellow
TAMPA, Fla. (Dec. 13, 2016) – The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has named 175 leaders of academic invention to NAI Fellow status.
With the election of the 2016 class, there are now 757 NAI Fellows, representing 229 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes. The 2016 Fellows are named inventors on 5,437 issued U.S. patents, bringing the collective patents held by all NAI Fellows to more than 26,000 issued U.S. patents.
Included among all NAI Fellows are more than 94 presidents and senior leaders of research universities and non-profit research institutes, 376 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; 28 inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, 45 recipients of the U.S. National Medal of Technology and Innovation and U.S. National Medal of Science, 28 Nobel Laureates, 216 AAAS Fellows, 126 IEEE Fellows, and 116 Fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, among other awards and distinctions.
Election to NAI Fellow status is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society. According to the 2016 NAI Activities Report, published in Jul. 2016, NAI Fellows have generated more than 8,500 licensed technologies and companies and created more than 1.1 million jobs, with over $100 billion in revenue generated based on their discoveries.
On 6 Apr. 2017, the 2016 NAI Fellows will be inducted as part of the Sixth Annual Conference of the National Academy of Inventors at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. U.S. Commissioner for Patents, Andrew H. Hirshfeld will provide the keynote address for the induction ceremony. In honor of their outstanding accomplishments, Fellows will be presented with a special trophy, medal, and rosette pin.
“I look forward to welcoming and honoring the 2016 class of Fellows to Boston in April,” said Nadine Aubry, Dean of the College of Engineering at Northeastern University and NAI Fellow. “The NAI has once again unveiled a prolific group of academic inventors who produce vitally important discoveries for the betterment of society.”
“With each year I continue to be amazed by the caliber of individuals named as NAI Fellows and the 2016 class is no exception,” said U.S. Commissioner for Patents Andrew H. Hirshfeld. “Congratulations to this very deserving group of distinguished academic innovators. I was honored to once again serve as a member of the Fellows Selection Committee and look forward to recognizing this new group of innovative leaders at the induction ceremony this spring.”
Those elected to the rank of NAI Fellow are named inventors on U.S. patents and were nominated by their peers for outstanding contributions to innovation in areas such as patents and licensing, innovative discovery and technology, significant impact on society, and support and enhancement of innovation.
The 2016 NAI Fellows will be highlighted with a full page announcement in The Chronicle of Higher Education 20 Jan. 2017 issue, and in upcoming issues of Inventors Digest and NAI journal Technology and Innovation.
The 2016 NAI Fellows were evaluated by the 2016 Selection Committee included 19 members, comprising NAI Fellows, recipients of U.S. National Medals, National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees, members of the National Academies and senior officials from the USPTO, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Association of American Universities, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Association of University Technology Managers, and National Inventors Hall of Fame, among other organizations.
“It is exciting to see the NAI Fellows Program continue to grow and honor the world’s most impactful academic inventors each year,” said NAI President Paul R. Sanberg. “The 2016 Fellows exude innovative excellence and we feel truly privileged to welcome them to the Academy and recognize their remarkable contributions to discovery and invention.”
UAMS College of Pharmacy Congratulates Class of 2016’s PGY1 Matches
UAMS College of Pharmacy students are going places…nationally and professionally! On April 22, our college celebrated these students and their match-day achievements with a symbolic “pinning of the map” ceremony.
Match days and residencies are usually synonymous with medical students, but the frequency of pharmacy students choosing more training instead of hitting the job market right after earning their pharmacy degree, has grown across the country in the past decade. As recent as 2007, there were only 10 pharmacy residency positions in Arkansas. Now, there are 30. The UAMS College of Pharmacy itself offers nearly 10 residencies, including community, managed care, policy, and public health focuses.
In previous years, the UAMS College of Pharmacy has seen the number of its students accepted for residencies hover in the high single digits and mid-teens, but this year 20 students are headed to residency programs across the state and country. The following Class of 2016 soon-to-be graduates have accepted the following PGY1 opportunities:
Postgraduate Education – Class of 2016 PGY1 Matches
Brett J. Bailey, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
UAMS
Kaitlin Ann Bates, Community Pharmacy Residency,
Kroger/UAMS
Brandi Bowers, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
St. Louis College of Pharmacy and Mercy Hospital
Brandy Cooper, Pharmacy Practice in Underserved Populations and Public Health,
UAMS
Jessica Rose Enderlin, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System
Grant Thomas Florer, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
Mercy Hospital-Joplin
Eric Paul Hamilton, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
UAMS
Cora Leigh Housley, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
University of Missouri Health Care
Brady Webb Lewis, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
Mercy Hospital-Joplin
Tamela McGraw, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
University of Cinicinnati Medical Center
Leslie Moore, Community Pharmacy Residency,
Harps Pharmacy and UAMS
Rose Elizabeth Ruth Pennick, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System
Brooklyn Pruett, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
UAMS
Morgan Ramey, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
Baptist Health Medical Center
Catherine Elizabeth Renna, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics
Jordan Meredith Rowe, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
University of Tennessee Medical Center
Alicia Sutterfield, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System
Olivia Victoria Parsons Turansky, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
Baptist Health Medical Center
Claire Eileen Vines, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
University of Mississippi Medical Center
Tessa Wiley, Pharmacy Practice Residency,
Nebraska Medicine