Historic honor for College of Pharmacy Students at APhA

For the first time in University history, Northeast Ohio Medical University students brought home an APhA Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management (APhA-APPM) Presentation Merit Award for a poster presentation at the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Annual Meeting and Exposition, held this year in Seattle. Third-year College of Pharmacy students Colleen Miller and Dana Webb shared the honor with co-authors Hayley Coleman, a third-year College of Medicine student, and Pallavi Sharma, a fourth-year College of Medicine student.

“This award is important because it recognizes unique research and reports. Very few awards are given out of the 500-plus posters accepted each year. An even smaller number of those posters overall are from students — as most are from residents and pharmacists,” says Daniel Krinsky, R.Ph., professor of pharmacy practice.

The poster, titled “SOARing to New Heights: Campus Based Interprofessional Student-Run Free Clinic Improves Lives” related to the pharmacy students’ involvement and how patient outcomes changed as pharmacy students have greater representation at the Clinic, which operates out of clinical space in the NEOMED Education and Wellness (NEW) Center.

“Colleen and I were humbled by the award we received at the APhA Annual Conference in Seattle last month. We are delighted that our research efforts were recognized among such an outstanding field of presenters from all across the country. This speaks volumes about the knowledge, training and educational experiences we have received both at NEOMED and the SOAR Clinic,” shares Webb.

A group of College of Pharmacy students and graduates traveled to this year’s meeting, which convenes the nation’s leading pharmacy professionals, clinicians, researchers, educators and student pharmacists.

NEOMED alumna honored

An additional award went to Taylor Engelhart, Pharm.D. (’18), a clinical instructor of pharmacy practice, joined students at the conference, presenting her own research on the implementation of a pharmacy-based telehealth protocol for medication assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid addiction at a federally qualified health center.

Dr. Engelhart, a PGY-1 resident at NEOMED and at AxessPointe (a federally qualified health center), was selected as an APhA Presentation Merit Award semifinalist.