A longitudinal exploration of perceptions of pharmacy practice preparedness among graduating pharmacy students and preceptors.

Graduating student pharmacists who are practice-ready is an essential responsibility of pharmacy programs and heavily emphasized by Accreditation Council of Pharmacy Education (ACPE), pharmacy education's accrediting body. Although several studies have examined students' readiness to engage in advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPE), few studies examine graduating students' readiness to practice. The objective of this study was to examine national trends in graduating pharmacy students' and preceptors' perceptions of students' pharmacy practice preparedness across a six-year time frame (2016-2021) and trends in graduating students' overall impressions of their program and the pharmacy profession across the same time period.

Racial, Ethnic, and Sex Diversity Trends in Health Professions Programs From Applicants to Graduates.

Importance: Diversity is an essential element of an effective health care system. A key to developing a diverse workforce is establishing a diverse student population in health professions programs.

Objective: To examine the diversity of students in Doctor of Medicine (MD), Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO), Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS), Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD), and Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programs with emphasis on the trends of underrepresented minoritized groups (American Indian or Alaska Native, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander) and sex relative to the overall age-adjusted US population.

Systemic maternal inflammation promotes ASD via IL-6 and IFN-γ.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological disorder that manifests during early development, impacting individuals through their ways of communicating, social behaviors, and their ability to perform day-to-day activities. There have been different proposed mechanisms on how ASD precipitates within a patient, one of which being the impact cytokines have on fetal development once a mother's immune system has been activated (referred to as maternal immune activation, MIA). The occurrence of ASD has long been associated with elevated levels of several cytokines, including interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interferon gamma (IFN-γ).

An Online, Multi-institutional Debate on Diabetes Medications by Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience Students.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate changes in advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) students' knowledge and to measure student perceptions of an online, multi-institutional debate curriculum as an alternative to a journal club to improve critical thinking skills related to diabetes medications. All APPE students assigned to four faculty (n=37) at three different colleges during the 2020-2021 academic year received instruction on diabetes medication classes and their cardiovascular outcome trials. Students debated via the Lincoln-Douglas format whether the preferred second-line therapies for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus are either glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists or sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors.

Possible Role of Metformin as an Immune Modulator in the Tumor Microenvironment of Ovarian Cancer.

Growing evidence suggests that the immune component of the tumor microenvironment (TME) may be highly involved in the progression of high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), as an immunosuppressive TME is associated with worse patient outcomes. Due to the poor prognosis of HGSOC, new therapeutic strategies targeting the TME may provide a potential path forward for preventing disease progression to improve patient survival. One such postulated approach is the repurposing of the type 2 diabetes medication, metformin, which has shown promise in reducing HGSOC tumor progression in retrospective epidemiological analyses and through numerous preclinical studies.