Faculty, alumni and friends of the Waterloo Pharmacy community came together for a fun-filled day of golf in support of our Student Success Fund. This year’s event, held August 28,is part of an annual tradition which has raised close to $180,000 towards this cause.
In August, Waterloo Pharmacy’s Colleen Maxwell was appointed a University of Waterloo Research Chair. The position recognizes exceptional achievement in a particular field of knowledge. Professor Maxwell’s primary field is pharmcoepidemiology – the study of medication use and effects in human populations – and she is nationally and internationally recognized as a leader in aging-related research.
The Wettig lab group, led by Professor Shawn Wettig, focuses on design, synthesis, and characterization of compounds called surfactants. Surfactants (short for surface active agents) lower the interfacial tension between two liquids or between a liquid and a solid or air, and are added to products like medications, detergents, skin creams and more.
Health Sciences North (HSN) is one of the largest hospitals in northern Ontario. For Blake Houle, a second year pharmacy student who’d never worked in a hospital before, a work term at HSN was an exciting prospect.
The School of Pharmacy is pleased to announce that long-time adjunct clinical assistant professor Nardine Nakhla has been appointed to the role of clinical lecturer. The full-time faculty role will allow Professor Nakhla to expand both her teaching and her pharmacy practice research.
The Waterloo School of Pharmacy was recently awarded the Best Community Outreach Initiative by the Canadian Council for the Advancement of Education (CCAE). The award recognizes the Opioid Crisis Awareness Campaign led by Professors Michael Beazely and Kelly Grindrod and supported by staff members Mary Stanley and Alana Rigby, and by Adrian Poon, a member of the Grindrod lab.
The School of Pharmacy was pleased to partner with the City of Kitchener to support the Made in Kitchener walking tour. Made in Kitchener is a digital storytelling tour with stops around downtown Kitchener.
Antibiotics are among the most common medications prescribed in long-term care facilities, and often those prescriptions can be inappropriate and in fact dangerous to residents and to others in this setting. Prescribing antibiotics unnecessarily or for too long exposes people, especially more vulnerable seniors, to potentially avoidable harms like allergies, infections, and antibiotic resistance.
Third-year pharmacy student Ai-Leng Foong has received recognitions for outstanding research presentations. At the Canadian Pharmacists Association (CPhA) she won the Best Pharmacy Practice Research Oral Presentation award, and at the Ontario Pharmacist Association (OPA) conference she received awards for Best Poster Presentation and Best Audio-Slide Presentation. These honours recognized two research projects, one examining perceptions of recent changes in Ontario pharmacists’ ability to provide immunizations, and the other exploring the manner in which pharmacists are disciplined by pharmacy colleges.
In Canada, Alberta is looked on as the leading province for pharmacy practice. All Albertan pharmacists can order lab tests and initiate therapy for minor ailments, and those with additional authorization can prescribe independently for most prescription-requiring drugs. These are all services Ontario pharmacists can’t provide.