Review of Objective Structured Clinical Examination Practices Within Pharmacy Programs Throughout the United States.

Objective: To update the description of current objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) practices within pharmacy schools in the United States and identify barriers to OSCE implementation and expansion.

Methods: A survey was deployed to all accredited Doctor of Pharmacy programs within the United States. The survey was designed to collect information regarding the curricular mapping of OSCEs, OSCE design, OSCE delivery, assessment of OSCE performance, and barriers to OSCE implementation and expansion.

Implementation and evaluation of activities to foster a sense of community among pharmacy students.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of a series of team-based instructional activities on students' sense of community for pharmacy students assigned to the main and distance program sites.

Materials And Methods: In conjunction with a teaching objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) conducted at the program's distance site, several team-based sense of community activities were completed. The classroom and school community inventory (CSCI) was adapted and administered to students prior to and following all learning activities to measure course and program sense of community.

Admission variables predictive of academic struggle in a PharmD program.

Objective. To characterize and describe admission variables predictive of poor grade attainment by students in 2 pathways to a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program.Methods.

Adherence to antihyperlipidemic medication and lipid control in diabetic Veterans Affairs patients with psychotic disorders.

Background: Medication adherence for chronic medical illnesses has been studied extensively, but there is limited data evaluating medication adherence for comorbid medical illnesses in a psychiatric population. Furthermore, only one study has evaluated both medication adherence and clinical outcomes between the two populations. Examining medication adherence rates and clinical outcomes are important as chronic medical illnesses occur commonly in psychiatric patients, can be drug-induced, and have negative long-term consequences.

Medication adherence and glycemic control in patients with psychotic disorders in the Veterans Affairs healthcare system.

Objective: To compare antihyperglycemic medication adherence and glycemic control between individuals with schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders and a nonpsychiatric comparison group.

Methods: This was a retrospective medical record review. A total of 124 subjects with diabetes (62 patients with schizophrenia or a related psychotic disorder and 62 randomly selected, age-matched patients without a psychiatric illness) receiving their medical and psychiatric care exclusively through the Kansas City Veterans Affairs healthcare system during 2008 were included in the study.

Clinical efficacy, tolerability, and cost savings associated with the use of open-label metronidazole plus ceftriaxone once daily compared with ticarcillin/clavulanate every 6 hours as empiric treatment for diabetic lower-extremity infections in older males.

Background: Patients with diabetes mellitus, particularly those with poor glucose control, commonly experience various medical complications related to the disease (eg, renal impairment, decreased peripheral vascular circulation, suppressed immune function). Infections of the lower extremities can range from superficial cellulitis to ulcerative, deep soft-tissue infections to osteomyelitis that necessitates some degree of amputation.

Objective: This study compared the efficacy, tolerability, and cost differences associated with the use of metronidazole plus ceftriaxone (MTZ/CTX) given once daily with those of ticarcillin/clavulanate potassium (T/C) given every 6 hours in hospitalized older males with diabetic lower-extremity infections.

A clinical comparison of calculated versus direct measurement of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level.

Study Objectives: To determine if, and to what extent, the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) level is underestimated when it is calculated by the Friedewald formula compared with the LDL level measured by a direct method. A secondary objective was to determine and compare the percentages of patients meeting LDL goal using each of these two methods.

Design: Retrospective chart review.

Irbesartan substitution for valsartan or losartan in treating hypertension.

Objective: To determine whether subjects whose therapy was converted from losartan or valsartan to irbesartan maintained equivalent blood pressure measurements, determine the safety and tolerability of irbesartan in the veteran population, and assess the number of subjects attaining their goal blood pressure before and after conversion.

Methods: A retrospective review of medical records for subjects whose antihypertensive was converted to irbesartan was conducted. Demographic data were collected, and subjects' past medical histories were used to determine their goal blood pressure.

Maintenance of low-density lipoprotein goal with step-down pravastatin therapy.

Study Objective: To determine whether patients who had achieved their National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP)-derived goals for low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol with pravastatin would benefit from step-down therapy.

Design: Prospective, randomized, open-label study

Setting: Kansas City Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Patients: One hundred four men who were taking pravastatin once/day and had maintained their NCEP-defined LDL goal for at least 3 months.