In Canada, cannabis became legal to produce, distribute, purchase and use non-medicinally for adults on October 17, 2018. Though Canada is only the second country in the world to adopt this legalization, other countries have also implemented more lax cannabis laws in recent years.
In April, 150 students from across North America and beyond logged on for HackRx, a three-day hackathon organized by about fifteen University of Waterloo and University of Toronto pharmacy students.
Angie Puim (Rx2011) and her sister Gina DiVizo (Rx2013) are Waterloo Pharmacy alumni and co-owners of Preston Medical Pharmacy in Cambridge. The pharmacy was founded by their father thirty-five years ago.
At Preston, they’ve built a partnership with Community Living Cambridge, an organization that supports people with development disabilities.
“We’ve provided medications for the Community Living Cambridge residences for the past thirty years,” Angie says. “In April, when it came time to vaccinate their residents and caregivers, they called us to help out.”
2021 marks 10 years since OPSIS was founded. Left: participants in the first OPSIS conference in 2011. Organizers for that conference included Kaitlin Bynkoski and Robyn MacArthur who are current staff and faculty for the School. Right: Participants in OPSIS 2021.
“We all have dark days,” says Fatimah Jaffer, an Rx2015 graduate who has worked as a hospital pharmacist in London since 2019. “A particularly difficult conversation with a patient's family, the news that one of your patients passed after a long struggle, or a hectic day on the wards is enough to leave you feeling defeated.”
Since it opened in March, the Health Sciences Campus Clinic has been staffed by a hardworking local health care providers and volunteers. The Region’s third-largest mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic is run by the Centre for Family Medicine and housed on the first floor of the School of Pharmacy. Many staff, faculty and students from the School of Pharmacy support its operations outside of their normal schooling and job hours.
Robin Andrade and Rosemary Killeen are two of these staff members. Andrade (below) is a Professional Practice Instructor and Registered Pharmacy Technician.
By Randilynne Urslak
Randilynne (third row down, furthest left) on a Zoom call with pharmacists across Canada, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister
Tarun Fernandez (Rx2020), Elaine Tai (Rx2018), and Brittani Brown (Rx2022) supported the pilot sites
MEDS Pharmacy is a group of three pharmacies located in busy downtown Toronto neighborhoods like High Park and the Junction. They’re owned by Dan Yurchuk and employ many Waterloo alumni. One location is also managed by Dave Hughes, Rx2013 and instructor at Waterloo Pharmacy.
PhD alumnus Gokul Raj Pullagura shares his experiences working as a vaccine educator on the first COVID-19 vaccine to be approved in Canada
There are many steps before the COVID-19 vaccine gets to your arm.
Long-term care homes are among the hardest hit institutions in terms of COVID-19 infections in Canada. When vaccines began to arrive in Canada, long-term care (LTC) homes were consequently identified as a high priority for vaccination.
In Ottawa, the public health unit asked local hospitals to help with vaccine distribution to high-risk areas like LTC homes and retirement communities.