Jan 24, 2012
Following the UCSF website's announcement of School of Pharmacy Dean Mary Anne Koda-Kimble's June 30, 2012 retirement came comments from leaders at UCSF and beyond. Koda-Kimble, whose 46 years at UCSF began as a PharmD student, became (in 1998) the first female dean of the top-ranked pharmacy school in the nation and the first leader from a clinical background. Her deanship carries an impressive legacy—from strengthening and expanding laboratory-based research programs to breaking new ground for programs that move research discoveries closer to clinical application.
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Colleagues React to Koda-Kimble’s Legacy at UCSF
Jan 20, 2012
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Research
Every year U.S. drug regulators approve dozens of new medicines as “safe and effective,” but just how effective are they? How well do they alleviate specific aspects of illness, whether light sensitivity from migraine headaches or itching from eczema?
For answers, many physicians and other health care providers turn to systematic reviews, which combine research about a drug’s efficacy at achieving health outcomes to come up with cumulative estimates. A key tool of these reviews are meta-analyses, which statistically combine the data (e.g., blood pressure measurements, psychiatric test scores, rash cure rates) from multiple studies to seek more accurate answers.
But there is a catch to this effort at making more evidence-based medication decisions. Typically, such combinatorial reviews rely solely on data published in scientific journals. UCSF health policy expert Lisa Bero, PhD, and colleagues find that if nine drugs that were the subjects of such reviews over the past decade had unpublished data added to their meta-analyses, it would change estimates of the extent of their efficacy more than 90% of the time.
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Jan 10, 2012
UCSF School of Pharmacy Dean Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD, announced today that she is stepping down as dean and retiring from UCSF on June 30, 2012, after 14 years as dean and 41 years as a member of the faculty. "I am prouder than ever with the accomplishments of our staff, faculty, and students and more energized than ever by the possibilities for the School and UCSF in the coming years...now is an auspicious time for a new and visionary leader."
Read Koda-Kimble's announcement to UCSF colleagues and friends
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Jan 9, 2012
Partners in D student pharmacists counsel seniors.
Partners in D, the innovative program in which UCSF student pharmacists help both underserved seniors and fellow health professionals maximize the complex Medicare Part D drug benefit, has won a national award for community service.
Student teams from UCSF and three other schools of pharmacy will receive the 2011-12 Student Community Engaged Service Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP). A student representative and faculty advisor will be formally honored and describe the program’s community impact during a special session at the AACP’s annual meeting in July.
The award, sponsored by Teva Pharmaceuticals, will also provide $16,000 to help maintain the Partners in D program momentum.
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