Monina R. Lahoz

Partners in Public Health: Public Health Collaborations With Schools of Pharmacy, 2015:

To collect data on public health collaborations with schools of pharmacy, we sent a short electronic survey to accredited and preaccredited pharmacy programs in 2015. We categorized public health collaborations as working or partnering with local and/or state public health departments, local and/or state public health organizations, academic schools or programs of public health, and other public health collaborations. Of 134 schools, 65 responded (49% response rate). Forty-six (71%) responding institutions indicated collaborations with local and/or state public health departments, 34 (52%) with schools or programs of public health, and 24 (37%) with local and/or state public health organizations. Common themes of collaborations included educational programs, community outreach, research, and teaching in areas such as tobacco control, emergency preparedness, chronic disease, drug abuse, immunizations, and medication therapy management. Interdisciplinary public health collaborations with schools of pharmacy provide additional resources for ensuring the health of communities and expose student pharmacists to opportunities to use their training and abilities to affect public health. Examples of these partnerships may stimulate additional ideas for possible collaborations between public health organizations and schools of pharmacy.

Improving Health Information Literacy of Early Adolescents Using a Lead Poisoning Curriculum

The purpose of this community outreach project was to improve health information literacy skills and lead poisoning knowledge in underserved early adolescents. An interactive curriculum focusing on one website (MedlinePlus) and one health issue (lead poisoning) was developed and used at an inner city school. Pre- and post-program surveys were used to assess the effectiveness of the curriculum. Results showed statistically significant improvements in both health information literacy skills and lead poisoning knowledge of 42 sixth graders. University-led community outreach collaborations to deliver an interactive curriculum in the school setting is a successful model for teaching health information literacy skills to early adolescents.

Treating Allergic Asthma with Omalizumab

Asthma is a chronic condition with characteristics that make it an ideal target for interventions used within disease state management in managed care settings. It affects a substantial population of patients and imposes an increasingly significant global societal burden. Despite the availability of many asthma medications and easily accessed publications providing step-wise guidance for asthma management, there are still patients whose condition is not well controlled. Hence, there is a continuing need for unique treatment options. Omalizumab is a subcutaneously administered monoclonal anti-IgE antibody that reduces free IgE concentrations and promotes down-regulation of IgE receptors on basophils. This relatively new pharmacologic intervention has been shown to reduce inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) and rescue medication requirements, and improve asthma control and quality of life in patients with moderate to severe allergic asthma with disease poorly controlled by ICSs. However, because of its high cost relative to other asthma drug therapies, health plans/payers must ensure that criteria for its use are clearly identified so as to target patients who will most likely benefit from such therapy. Omalizumab may need to be restricted to asthma patients with severe persistent allergy who are categorized as ‘high risk’ (e.g. patients with a recent history of frequent intubations, emergency room visits, overnight hospitalizations, or intensive care unit admissions for asthma exacerbations) who remain symptomatic despite appropriate maximal maintenance therapy for the severity of their disease. If restricted to this narrowly defined population of patients with allergic asthma, cost-of-care studies suggest that the high cost of this product could be offset by savings resulting from the less frequent use of high-intensity medical services for asthma exacerbations.

Digital health evaluation workshop for interprofessional healthcare students

The use of online resources by patients for their daily health needs has escalated with the proliferation of mobile devices and mobile apps. While healthcare professionals can help their patients access quality online resources and tools, they may not have received the education and training to do this effectively. To meet this educational need, a daylong workshop was developed at a health sciences university that aimed to increase awareness of students in various health disciplines of mobile health-related apps and federally sponsored websites that provide patient-friendly medical information.

Assessing the Effectiveness of an Evidence-based Practice Pharmacology Course Using the Fresno Test.

Objective. To assess the effectiveness of an evidence-based practice (EBP) pharmacology elective course to teach EBP skills using the Fresno Test (FT). Methods. Pharmacy faculty members and medical librarians developed the elective course and offered it to two cohorts of doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students. A pre/post intervention study design was used. Seven of 12 FT items were chosen to measure specific EBP skills: Ask, Access, Appraise and Apply. Pre/postcomposite and FT item mean scores were compared using Student’s t test with p<0.05 set as significant a priori. Results. Composite FT mean scores increased significantly for both cohorts. Mean scores for both cohorts increased significantly in four of the seven FT items but on different FT items. Conclusion. As a profession that commonly uses evidence-based guidelines, developing and integrating an EBP course in the PharmD curriculum is worth considering.