Best Practices for the Teaching and Assessing Population Health and Wellness.

Objective: To describe the concept of population health and wellness in the context of pharmacy education, curricular integration and assessment methods.

Findings: The definition of population health and wellness, different from public health, emphasizes the importance of environmental, biological, and social factors in determining population health outcomes. Various population health measures, including objective (mortality rates, life expectancy) and subjective (self-rated health, quality of life) indicators, can be used when teaching and assessing population-based care.

Vaccine hesitancy among health paraprofessionals: A mixed methods study.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) defines vaccine hesitancy as "a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services". Vaccine hesitancy has also been declared a top threat to global health. Some employers imposed vaccine mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic resulting in health care employees resigning or being fired rather than receive a vaccine.

Evidence of Commonly Used Integrative Approaches with Pharmacotherapy for Chronic Pain Management.

This review examines the integration of traditional pharmacological methods with alternative and complementary therapies in chronic pain management. It delves into neurostimulation techniques, highlighting their clinical outcomes and biological bases. Acupuncture's role in modulating pain pathways is explored, illustrating its balance of tradition and clinical application.

Preceptor perspectives on disability-related accommodations in pharmacy experiential education.

Introduction: Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education Standards require reasonable accommodation for students with disabilities in an educational setting. There is limited information regarding preceptor experiences and perspectives associated with accommodations in the pharmacy experiential learning environment. This study examined preceptor experiences and viewpoints and explored opportunities for schools/colleges of pharmacy (S/COP) to provide support and education for preceptors when meeting access needs.

Follicle-intrinsic and spatially distinct molecular programs drive follicle rupture and luteinization during ex vivo mammalian ovulation.

During ovulation, the apical wall of the preovulatory follicle breaks down to facilitate gamete release. In parallel, the residual follicle wall differentiates into a progesterone-producing corpus luteum. Disruption of ovulation, whether through contraceptive intervention or infertility, has implications for women's health.

Assessment of clinician agreement with and knowledge of evidence-based obesity treatment in the primary care setting.

Introduction: Effective, evidence-based obesity treatment is needed, which often involves use of anti-obesity medications (AOMs). Data on the breadth and quality of guideline-directed obesity treatment implementation in primary care remain limited. This study aimed to assess primary care clinicians' agreement with and knowledge of guideline-directed obesity treatment, as well as to assess the health status of persons with obesity and their use of AOMs.

Prioritizing Faculty Well-Being: Why it Matters, What Schools Can Do, and a Call for Action.

Previous studies have identified high rates of burnout among health care workers and health professions faculty. Despite interventions being showcased at national meetings in both posters and platform presentations, there is minimal peer-reviewed published research focusing on professional well-being interventions and their assessments specific to pharmacy faculty. This commentary serves as a call to action to design and publish research related to work-system interventions to decrease burnout and promote professional well-being among all academic pharmacy faculty, and particularly subgroups who may be most at risk, such as women and assistant-level faculty.

Exploring Pharmacy Students' Leadership Styles Using the 5 Voices Assessment.

Objective: Leadership development assessments are a critical component of student pharmacists' understanding and development of effective team strategies.

Methods: The 5 Voices tool, developed by GiANT Worldwide, was incorporated into the leadership curriculum across 2 colleges of pharmacies for second-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students. One public land-grant institution administers the assessment in the fall semester during a 2-h class session as part of a leadership elective leadership course and a private liberal arts institution distributes the 5 Voices assessment to all students during a 1-h spring semester required course.

Envisioning the Near Future of Community Pharmacy Patient Care Practice: Report of the 2023-2024 AACP Professional Affairs Standing Committee.

The 2023-2024 Professional Affairs Committee was charged to (1) Create an action plan in response to the clear urgent need for transformation of community pharmacy practice; and (2) Develop "readiness for change" instrument that addresses multiple pharmacy stakeholder groups that are based on the ACT "community pharmacy enhanced services" definition. Due to the continuous and rapid-paced changes occurring in community pharmacy practice, the committee developed a document that provides the baseline elements that should be considered for community pharmacy practice currently and into the future. This document, Envisioning the Near Future of Community Pharmacy Patient Care Practice: Key Elements of Practice Redesign in Community Pharmacies, contains 8 sections and is recommended to be socialized within the pharmacy profession to ensure that it resonates with current and future community pharmacy practice.

Aplp1 interacts with Lag3 to facilitate transmission of pathologic α-synuclein.

Pathologic α-synuclein (α-syn) spreads from cell-to-cell, in part, through binding to the lymphocyte-activation gene 3 (Lag3). Here we report that amyloid β precursor-like protein 1 (Aplp1) interacts with Lag3 that facilitates the binding, internalization, transmission, and toxicity of pathologic α-syn. Deletion of both Aplp1 and Lag3 eliminates the loss of dopaminergic neurons and the accompanying behavioral deficits induced by α-syn preformed fibrils (PFF).

PEERS® Curriculum for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Scoping Review.

Aims: The Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS®), designed to enhance social skills and relationships for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their caregivers, has primarily been implemented with older children and adolescents ages 11-19, leaving a gap in research on its effectiveness in young children. This scoping review assesses evidence of the effectiveness of the PEERS® program for children with ASD.

Methods: A literature search was conducted, resulting in 97 articles.

Early Play Behaviors of Infants at Elevated Likelihood for Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Importance: Although research has examined early identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), few studies have found behavioral markers during midinfancy associated with later ASD diagnosis.

Objective: To examine infants' play behaviors and atypical positions at age 6 mo and later outcome classification among infants at elevated likelihood (EL) and typical likelihood (TL) for ASD. Atypical positions refer to movement patterns indicative of motor delays or deviations, including atypical extension and flexion, poor weight shift and rotation, hypertonicity or hypotonicity, and the presence of primitive reflex patterns.

Barriers and motivational factors for engaging in novel opioid and medication disposal-related services in community pharmacies.

Objective: This study aimed to explore and identify motivational factors and barriers for pharmacy personnel participation in specific opioid mitigation programs, using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as an investigational framework.

Methods: A naturalistic inquiry method was employed involving semi-structured interviews with pharmacy personnel to assess their intentions, attitudes, normative beliefs, and behaviors towards participating in naloxone dispensing and provision of at-home drug disposal solutions. Purposive sampling was utilized to recruit participants, with saturation achieved after 12 interviews.

The pharmacist's role in optimizing medication management before, during, and after minimally invasive and bariatric surgery.

Purpose: Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) with integrated enhanced recovery pathways (ERPs) helps reduce length of stay and improve surgical outcomes. As these procedures have become more prevalent over time, pharmacists are in key positions to manage medications in the perioperative space to help optimize transitions of care and reduce safety events. Here we identify several clinical areas across phases of care for these procedures in which the knowledge and guidance of pharmacists, as members of the interprofessional team, are paramount.

Gentrification drives patterns of alpha and beta diversity in cities.

While there is increasing recognition that social processes in cities like gentrification have ecological consequences, we lack nuanced understanding of the ways gentrification affects urban biodiversity. We analyzed a large camera trap dataset of mammals (>500 g) to evaluate how gentrification impacts species richness and community composition across 23 US cities. After controlling for the negative effect of impervious cover, gentrified parts of cities had the highest mammal species richness.

Adjunct Preceptor Perceptions of Motivation, Understanding, and Support for the Precepting Role.

Objective: To determine adjunct pharmacist preceptor perceptions of their precepting role related to three domains: motivation to precept, understanding the precepting role, and support for precepting.

Methods: An online cross-sectional survey of 2429 adjunct preceptors for four schools of pharmacy was conducted. Participants ranked their agreement with 81 statements regarding the three domains, including eleven subdomains.

Impact of Simulation Manikins to Train Pharmacy Students in Nasal, Throat, and Oral Fluid Swab Collection.

A point-of-care testing (POCT) certificate was implemented in a required pharmacy skills-based course. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of manikins on student confidence in performing POCT swabs for infectious diseases. Manikins were used to train second-year pharmacy students on nasal swabs, throat swabs, and oral fluid swabs.

Neuropil Variation in the Prefrontal, Motor, and Visual Cortex of Six Felids.

Introduction: Felids have evolved a specialized suite of morphological adaptations for obligate carnivory. Although the musculoskeletal anatomy of the Felidae has been studied extensively, the comparative neuroanatomy of felids is relatively unexplored. Little is known about how variation in the cerebral anatomy of felids relates to species-specific differences in sociality, hunting strategy, or activity patterns.

Engaging Student Pharmacists in Social Determinants of Health and Health Equity Through Photovoice.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of an interactive photovoice activity on the perceptions of social determinants of health (SDOH) and health equity among first professional year student pharmacists.

Methods: This study used a mixed-methods exploratory approach at 4 institutions. All students completed a standardized intervention using a prerecorded lecture, active learning using photovoice, and an in-depth debriefing session.

What Types of Data are Pharmacy Education Scholars Using in their Abstracts for Poster Presentations?

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the data being used to support poster presentations in pharmacy education scholarship.

Methods: Research and education posters presented at the 2020 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Annual Meeting were unitized to isolate text to be coded, and two coders categorized the quantitative and qualitative data by type and source. Questionnaires, instruments, and exams were categorized as new (ie developed and used for this particular inquiry) vs.

Renoprotective Effects of Mineralocorticoid Receptor Antagonists Against Diabetic Kidney Disease.

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is a growing epidemic worldwide and a leading cause of end-stage kidney disease. Mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) blockade using Finerenone is a recently approved therapeutic approach to slow down the progression of DKD in patients with type 2 diabetes in addition to other therapies such as angiotensin-II converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) analogs. This review elaborates on the pathophysiologic pathways activated by aldosterone (the human mineralocorticoid) in DKD, the pharmacology of three different generations of mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs), specifically, spironolactone, eplerenone, and finerenone, and the mechanisms by which these MRAs elicit their protective effects on the kidney under diabetic settings.

AntibiogramDSM: a combined local antibiogram and educational intervention.

Objective: To describe the development of a combined local antibiogram and assess its utility in an educational intervention.

Design: Retrospective analysis of a combined, multi-healthcare system antibiogram with an educational intervention and pre-post analysis.

Setting: Creation of the combined antibiogram included all health systems in Des Moines, Iowa.