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pharmD global health certificate

***This program is currently in the proposal stage. It has not yet been approved. Contact Professor H. Seaba for more information.***

Individuals with a PharmD and a GH certificate will be able to:

1. serve as a pharmacist specializing in health care issues for underserved population of various social and ethnic backgrounds domestically or abroad.
2. serve locally or abroad in management positions in a health care pharmacy,
3. be a drug use review specialist in a managed care program
4. serve as a community pharmacist with involvement in community-based prevention programs

• Public and private hospitals and clinics and health care providers
• Insurance and managed care organizations
• Local, county, state, or federal government
• Public health governmental agencies such as CDC, HRSA, NIH, FDA Pharmacist - Government (military, public health service)
• Non-profit global health organizations
• Colleges and universities
• Community Pharmacist – Independent
• Hospital Pharmacist
• Long-term Care Pharmacist
• Managed Care Pharmacist
• Professional Association
• Other pharmacy related field

Other Benefits Related to this Dual Degree
There are many areas where global health and pharmacy have interests and commitments that are related. Among these are: spread and treatment of disease; community health; environmental hazards; the use of illicit and proprietary drugs; genetics; insurance; managed care; the relation between human rights and health; alternative therapies and health; and protection of special populations. Cross-college collaboration for other activities such as training and research could be facilitated by programs collaboration on this dual degree.

Summary of The Dual Degree PharmD & GHSP
Only students admitted to the College of Pharmacy with a Baccalaureate degree or at least 120 semester hours of undergraduate credit will enroll in this dual degree program. Students will complete all requirements for the PharmD. Degree.

• 12 s.h. of the PharmD program will count towards the 25 credit hour GHSP.
•  8 of those hours can be fulfilled by global health focused pharmacy clinical clerkships and the remaining four by global health focused PharmD electives.
• 8 hours of GHSP core courses are required and will not count in any way toward completion of the PharmD program.
• 5 more credit hours of GHSP courses are required. Those can be taken during P1 to P3 years of the PharmD program, during summers or even during pre-pharm or undergraduate years. (The GHSP retroactively applies credit to previously done work up to 2 years prior to enrollment in the GHSP.)

PharmD Professional Curriculum
Students must be enrolled in the College of Pharmacy before they may take College of Pharmacy courses. In addition to the specific courses listed here, students must complete 20 s.h. of general education courses chosen from the behavioral, social, humanistic, and business disciplines.

First Year
Students must complete one semester of community service (046:001) during the first professional year.

Second Year
Students must complete a three-week community externship (046:002) some time after the end of the first professional year and before the start of the third professional year.

Third Year
Students must complete one semester of 046:003 Introductory Practice Experience III during the third professional year.

Fourth Year--Advanced Practice Experiences
During the fourth year, students are required to take nine 5-week rotations. These experiences give students opportunities to work in a variety of settings with pharmacists providing pharmaceutical care to their patients. The emphasis in these experiences is the provision of primary care, which is especially important in rural areas of Iowa.

Students earn a total of 36 s.h., as follows.

The rotations are chosen from a large number of professional offerings; up to three of them may consist of research experience. Students may take additional courses during this year to prepare for graduate school.

Professional electives related to GH
046:126 International Perspectives: Xicotepec                                                                               2 s.h.
An international medication management rotation with focus on medication access disparities in Xicotepec, Mexico. Students will receive training in public health topics including medication access management issues of countries with disparities. Students, through problem based learning assignments, will develop an information package about the area, create an Activity Plan for their week in Xicotepec, (set goals, establish activities, determine assessment criteria). One week will be spent in Xicotepec executing the Activity Plan. The on-site experience is offered within the Rotary International Xicotepec Project, http://www.clubrunner.ca/dprg/dxprogramhome/_programhome.aspx?did=6000&pageid=1849&sid=2655
Upon return, students will assess their experience, their contribution to the Rotary project and their contribution to improved health care in Xicotepec.

Management Sciences for Health (MSH) Center for Pharmaceutical Management (CPM) www.msh.org
The MSH Center for Pharmaceutical Management’s practice experience program provides students with the opportunity to learn about best practices for pharmaceutical management and approaches to enhancing access to and appropriate use of medicines in underserved and resource-limited environments (both developing country and domestic). The student also learns about international health development programs and organizations (e.g., WHO, USAID, PAHO), the role of non-governmental organizations in improving health care services and outcomes, and the potential for contributions by pharmacy training institutions, pharmacy organizations, and individual pharmacists. Working with CPM staff, students delve into issues affecting access and use of medicines for a specific country or underserved area and for a specific issue and/or disease (e.g., HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria) or target population (e.g., children, mothers). The result of this work will be a draft document that provides a situational/options analysis, set of policy recommendations, or intervention strategy/work plan relating to the issues and country studied. Examples of topics that may be addressed include child/maternal health, pharmaceutical services, medicines quality/safety, medicines use (e.g., rational prescribing, patient adherence), behavioral change strategies, cultural biases/barriers to access, financing/health insurance, drug regulation, information access and use, pharmacovigilance, etc. – all within the context of a particular country or underserved population. A specific scope of work will be negotiated with each student at the beginning of their rotation based on individual interests and on the availability of specific projects, country linkages, and technical staff to serve as resources.

Elective - Migrant Health Outreach
Proteus Migrant Health Project
Proteus Migrant Health Project is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation funded by grants from the Federal Health Resources and Services Administration and the Iowa Department of Public Health to provide medical outreach, health care services to migrant farm workers and their families. Proteus utilizes a unique, PA/Voucher model which assists eligible patients in accessing primary health care through outreach clinics, worksite and home visits, or referrals to contracted local community health providers (including area pharmacies, medical clinics, dentists, optometrists, etc.). Patients seen are typically Latino, of lower socioeconomic and educational status, non-fluent in English and may range in age from newborn to elderly although young adult and middle-age males are more the norm. Health screenings consisting of detailed health histories, height-weight-vision screens, vital signs and comprehensive physical examinations are completed on each patient seen. Among the more common medical problems encountered each year are: hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, various dermatoses, musculoskeletal disorders and repetitive injuries, diarrhea and acute illnesses. Clinic
outreach scheduling is oftentimes done only a few days in advance and the vast majority of clinics are held during the late afternoon and evening hours throughout the state. It is not uncommon to travel 1-2 hours to a clinic site or to occasionally work outside. Portable exam tables, privacy screens, patient charts, supplies, medications and CLIA waived lab tests (including dipstick UAs and pregnancy tests, glucometer and HbgA1C screens, lipid panels, hemoglobins and rapid strep screens) are all transported in company vans to each of the clinic sites. Proteus contracts with 1-2 licensed PAs each summer who function as the primary healthcare providers. Numerous medical students and PA students are present during regular rotations throughout the summer months along with many “volunteer” physicians, nurses and public health students. Pharmacy students would be an integral part of this health care team and would be provided the opportunity to: help optimize patient drug therapy, provide needed drug education to individual patients and counsel identified patients
on smoking cessation, hypertension and diabetes in their native language, help identify commonly-used medications purchased by patients in Mexico, sign patients up for Patient Prescription Assistance Programs, assist in the dispensing, recording and monitoring of selected prescription and non-prescription sample medications given out to patients, assist in the administration of adult tetanus immunizations and the performance of laboratory tests, provide brief pharmacotherapy presentations to other team members and students while traveling to clinic sites as well as researching drug information questions and making recommendations on patient drug-regimens, and limited interpretation for health care providers who may not be bilingual.

The GHSP Professional Program
The General Track GHSP is 25 semester-hours. This is comprised of 8 semester-hours of core courses, 12 semester hours transferred from the PharmD, and 5 semester hours of global health coursework:

Core, 8 semester hours

Credits from the PharmD Toward the GHSP, 12 semester hours
To be selected from the following list to be used toward 12 hours of credit toward the GHSP from the PharmD curriculum:

Elective Global Health Courses, 5 semester hours
To be selected from one area of global health that would include 5 hours from one of the following colleges, departments or programs: Global Health Studies, Aging Studies, American Indian and Native Studies, Anthropology, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Public Health, Community and Behavioral Health, Economics, Educational Policy and Leadership Studies, Epidemiology, Geography, History, Health and Sport Studies, Health Management and Policy, “Literature, Science, and the Arts,” Nursing, Occupational and Environmental Health, Russian and Sociology.
Selection of elective coursework will be done between the student and the Pharmacy and Public Health advisors.

Example of Schedule for Dual Degree(.PDF)