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On November 10, Professor Marianna Foldvari received an award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievements in Nanoscience from Nano Ontario, an organization that represents Ontario’s nanotechnology community. She then travelled to San Diego to be appointed a Fellow of the prestigious American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences (AAPS). These honours recognize Foldvari’s accomplishments in pharmaceutical sciences and nanomedicine research. 

At the end of October, student representatives for the Canadian Association of Pharmacy Students and Interns (CAPSI) ran competitions for Waterloo Pharmacy students. These competitions are an annual tradition held every fall term. All ten pharmacy schools across Canada host similar events, run by local CAPSI chapters.

Doctor of Pharmacy student Munaza Saleem (photo credit James MacDonald) was selected from an applicant pool of young women across Canada to step into the role of Minister of National Defense for a day.

As part of the University of Waterloo’s Reunion Weekend Sept 29-30, the School of Pharmacy hosted Friday night trivia and Saturday Continuing Professional Development (CPD).

For the third year in a row, Waterloo Pharmacy joined a Solidarity Experiences Abroad (SEA) excursion and sent pharmacy students on a healthcare mission in Peru. Sonya Dhanjal, Loran Ellero-Dionne, and Saptha Navaratnam travelled to South America this summer to support four healthcare clinics in different parts of Lima. 

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.

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 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.

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.

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.