A systematic approach to team creation and peer evaluation in a large classroom setting.

Introduction: There is limited data to support a particular method for optimal team creation in pharmacy education. We aimed to implement and evaluate a systematic approach to team creation and compare the impact on team dynamics to teams created via random selection.

Methods: Two concurrent courses were used to assess team creation methods.

An Elective Course in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Health and Practice Issues.

To design, implement and assess a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health and practice elective course for second- and third-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students. The course focused on health promotion, health care barriers, disease prevention, and treatment throughout an LGBT person's lifespan. The course included topic discussions, reading assignments, various active-learning activities, an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) with a transgender person, and guest speakers from the LGBT community.

Patients as Teachers of Cultural Sensitivity in Pharmacy Education.

Introduction: Cultural sensitivity training among pharmacy students is required by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, but little data exists on effective practices for teaching these concepts. The goal of this case study was to describe the process and determine if integration of a patient-led Cultural Sensitivity Panel into the required didactic curriculum impacts pharmacy student perceptions of their own cultural competence.

Description Of Case: A special population was defined based on the CAPE competencies requiring students demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness to culture, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, spirituality, disability, and other aspects of diversity and identity.

Utility of Physiologically Based Pharmacokinetic Modeling in Point-of-Care Decisions: An Example Using Digoxin Dosing in Continuous Venovenous Hemodiafiltration.

We describe the case of a patient on continuous venovenous hemodiafiltration with atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular response and hypotension requiring vasopressor use, which warranted digoxin therapy. In the absence of guidelines specifying appropriate digoxin dosing in patients undergoing continuous venovenous hemodiafiltration, anecdotal evidence-guided digoxin dosing was performed for this patient using plasma digoxin concentration-based therapeutic drug monitoring. We use this case to demonstrate the potential role of physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling in assisting therapeutic decision making.

Probing Protein Allostery as a Residue-Specific Concept via Residue Response Maps.

Allosteric regulation is a well-established phenomenon defined as a distal conformational or dynamical change of the protein upon allosteric effector binding. Here, we developed a novel approach to delineate allosteric effects in proteins. In this approach, we applied robust machine learning methods, including deep neural network and random forest, on extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to distinguish otherwise similar allosteric states of proteins.

Enhancing Statin Adherence Using a Motivational Interviewing Intervention and Past Adherence Trajectories in Patients with Suboptimal Adherence.

Background: Statins have been shown to be effective in reducing the occurrence of cardiovascular (CV) events and are widely prescribed for the risk reduction of CV diseases and recurrent CV events. However, poor adherence prevents some patients from receiving the maximum benefit of the therapy. Motivational interviewing (MoI) is a patient-centered collaborative approach that can be used to improve medication adherence.

Group-Based Trajectory Models to Identify Sociodemographic and Clinical Predictors of Adherence Patterns to Statin Therapy Among Older Adults.

Background: The benefits of statins in the prevention of primary and secondary atherosclerotic cardiovascular (CV) disease events have been well documented. Suboptimal adherence is a persistent problem associated with increased CV events and increased healthcare utilization. Proportion of days covered (PDC) is widely used to measure medication adherence, and provides a single value that does not adequately depict different adherence behavior patterns.

Primary care clinics can be a source of exposure to virulent Clostridium (now Clostridioides) difficile: An environmental screening study of hospitals and clinics in Dallas-Fort Worth region.

C. difficile is an endospore-forming pathogen, which is becoming a common cause of microbial health-care associated gastrointestinal disease in the United States. Both healthy and symptomatic patients can shed C.

Design, synthesis, and evaluation of N-(4-(4-phenyl piperazin-1-yl)butyl)-4-(thiophen-3-yl)benzamides as selective dopamine D receptor ligands.

As part of our on-going effort to explore the role of dopamine receptors in drug addiction and identify potential novel therapies for this condition, we have a identified a series of N-(4-(4-phenyl piperazin-1-yl)butyl)-4-(thiophen-3-yl)benzamide D ligands. Members of this class are highly selective for D versus D, and we have identified two compounds (13g and 13r) whose rat in vivo IV pharmacokinetic properties that indicate that they are suitable for assessment in in vivo efficacy models of substance use disorders.

Impact of an electronic medium delivery of warfarin education in a low income, minority outpatient population: a pilot intervention study.

Background: Warfarin is classified as a high-alert medication for ambulatory healthcare and safe guards for high-alert medications are necessary, including the practice of mandatory patient education. The high cost of hospitalizations related to adverse events combined with the average bleeding event rate of 7-8% in spite of routine patient education, suggests the importance of new approaches to standardized health education on warfarin. We sought to evaluate the impact of a warfarin educational video using an electronic tablet on patient knowledge and to determine patients' satisfaction with the use of an electronic tablet for educational purposes in outpatient clinics serving a low income, minority population.

The Evolving Role of Pharmacists in Transgender Health Care.

Pharmacists are increasingly part of a multifaceted team providing health care to members of the often marginalized transgender (TG) community. Some pharmacists, however, may feel unprepared to care for and interact with TG individuals. By providing comprehensive, respectful, and gender-affirming support, improving physical pharmacy environments with policies and procedures, pharmacists can be trustworthy providers for TG patients.

Evaluation of pharmacy-based telephone interventions on medication pick-up rates: a retrospective, quality improvement study at charity outpatient clinics.

Objectives: To evaluate a live telephonic outreach intervention made by clinical pharmacists and clinical pharmacy technicians on medication pick-up rates.

Methods: A retrospective, quality improvement study conducted at six outpatient charity clinics in Dallas-Fort Worth area between 1 January 2017 and 31 July 2017. A live telephonic call was made by a pharmacy team member if the patient did not pick-up at least one prescription item.

Statin Effects on Incidence, Treatment Success, and Mortality of Clostridium difficile Infections.

Purpose: To review the effects of statin use in patients at risk for or diagnosed with infection (CDI) on CDI incidence, treatment success, and mortality.

Methods: A literature search was performed through January 2019 using the following terms: statins, HMG-CoA inhibitors, , associated diarrhea, and infection. Additional references were identified from a review of literature citations.

A Didactic Community Pharmacy Course to Improve Pharmacy Students' Clinical Skills and Business Management Knowledge.

To create, implement and evaluate a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) course on clinical services in community pharmacy settings. A 2-credit hour elective course was offered to second- and third-year pharmacy (P2 and P3) students. The course was developed using integrated course design principles.

Direct Oral Anticoagulants in Chronic Liver Disease.

To review the use of direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) in patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). A MEDLINE literature search was performed from 1964 through February 2019 using the following search terms: , and the individual DOACs. All English-language human trials and reports that examined DOACs for treatment or prevention of venous thromboembolic (VTE) events in patients with CLD were included.

Pharmacy educator evaluation of web-based learning.

Background: Web-based learning (WBL), instruction facilitated through the Internet, has demonstrated utility in classroom and clinical education settings; however, there is a void of literature about the use of WBL by clinical educators within pharmacy. The purpose of this research is to evaluate a WBL initiative within clinical pharmacy education.

Methods: Based on the results of a pilot survey, 10 asynchronous WBL clinical modules (videos and interactive patient cases) were developed for pharmacy educators and students in clinical education affiliated with two schools of pharmacy in the midwest USA.

Successful Remediation of an Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience for an At-risk Student.

To describe a successful remediation for an Acute Care Medicine advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) in a student with multiple learning deficits. A literature review of pharmacy and medical experiential remediation was conducted to identify best practices to implement prior to designing the remediation for our student case. Based on this search and experience as preceptors, a three-phase remediation was designed: one week for assessment, two weeks for development of learning skills and strategies and six weeks for an on-campus APPE.

Assessing the Performance of the Nonbonded Mg Models in a Two-Metal-Dependent Ribonuclease.

Magnesium ions (Mg), abundant in living cells, are essential for biomolecular structure, dynamics, and function. The biological importance of Mg has motivated continuous development and improvement of various Mg models for molecular dynamics (MD) simulations during the last decades. There are four types of nonbonded Mg models: the point charge models based on a 12-6 or 12-6-4 type Lennard-Jones (LJ) potential, and the multisite models based on a 12-6 or 12-6-4 LJ potential.

Use of the Muddiest Point Technique as an exam review in an integrated pharmacotherapy course.

Background And Purpose: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact in student pharmacists' exam performance learning outcomes and satisfaction after integrating the Muddiest Point assessment technique into exam reviews.

Educational Activity And Setting: In 2016, the Muddiest Point, a formative assessment tool, was used to develop exam review sessions for second-year student pharmacists in an integrated pharmacotherapy course focused on the cardiovascular system. Performance scores on all four exams were compared between students in the 2015 and 2016 courses.

A meta-analysis comparing 48-week treatment outcomes of single and multi-tablet antiretroviral regimens for the treatment of people living with HIV.

Objectives: To compare outcomes with single tablet regimens (STR) versus multi-tablet regimens (MTR) for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment using published data.

Design: Systematic review and random-effects meta-analysis of literature on approved and investigational HIV regimens.

Methods: The research followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

A Systematic Evaluation of Effect of Adherence Patterns on the Sample Size and Power of a Clinical Study.

The objective of our study was to evaluate the effect of adherence patterns on the sample size and power of a clinical trial. Simulations from a population pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) model linked to an adherence model were used. Four types of drug characteristics, such as long (~35 hours) and short (~12 hours) half-life in combination with earlier or delayed time to reach steady-state PD end points were studied.

Efficacy and Safety of Appetite-Stimulating Medications in the Inpatient Setting.

Background: Hospitalized patients are subject to acute illness and stress which may impact appetite or weight. Loss of appetite may lead to increased morbidity or mortality. Medications such as dronabinol, megestrol, and mirtazapine are used for weight gain in the outpatient setting; however, there is limited information about safety or effectiveness when initiated inpatient.

Vitamin B3 in Health and Disease: Toward the Second Century of Discovery.

This introductory chapter briefly reviews the history, chemistry, and biochemistry of NAD (the term NAD as it is used here refers to both oxidized and reduced forms of the molecule) consuming ADP-ribose transfer enzymes as components of the involvement of vitamin B3 in health and disease.