This Week@WesternU, Oct. 23-27, 2023

Oct. 23-27, 2023

WesternU sponsors Pomona 5K and 10K

Western University of Health Sciences was a presenting sponsor of the 7th annual Pomona 5K and 10K, which attracted more than 700 walkers and runners to downtown Pomona on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023.

The festive event included music and performances from local high school bands and cheerleading squads. The race course included a portion of the WesternU Esplanade. The WesternU logo was prominently featured on race banners and runners’ bibs. WesternU students, faculty and staff volunteered at the event and ran and walked in the races.

COMP news

Congratulations to Vikrant Rai, MBBS, MS, PhD, Assistant Professor in the COMP Department of Translational Research, who was recently awarded a $212,942 research grant for the project "Testing the efficacy and dosing of a biologic (hPL) in promoting wound healing using a diabetic rat model." The one-year grant was awarded by the GMS Capital Partners LLC, Manhattan, New York, NY.

COMP students Kaitlyn Ghassemi, Keiko Inouye, Tatevik Takhmazyan and Victor Bonavida, COMP Department of Translational Research Assistant Professor Finosh G. Thankam, PhD, and collaborators from the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation recently published: Ghassemi K, Inouye K, Takhmazyan T, Bonavida V, Yang J-W, de Barros NR, Thankam FG. Engineered Vesicles and Hydrogel Technologies for Myocardial Regeneration. Gels. 2023; 9(10):824. https://doi.org/10.3390/gels9100824

College of Pharmacy news

Dr. Jenny Kang worked with two WesternU COP students (now in P3), James Hariyanto and Ashley Ma, as the senior author to publish the following critical appraisal of the SURMOUNT-1 trial in a recent issue of the Journal of Contemporary Pharmacy Practice: https://meridian.allenpress.com/jcphp/article/70/2a/22/493820/Critical-Appraisal-of-the-SURMOUNT-1-Trial

Dr. Erik Skoglund presented the following poster at ID week last week, that also involved COP students:

Skoglund E, Banuelos L, Farihi D. Evaluation of a Weighted-Incidence Syndromic Combination Antibiogram (WISCA) to guide empiric therapy in pneumonia. Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) ID Week. Oct 2023. Boston, MA.

Dr. Jignesh Patel was part of the planning committee for the inaugural Southern California Society of Critical Care Medicine regional, multidisciplinary symposium held on Sept. 15, with planning taking place over the last year. The theme of the symposium was cardiac arrest and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). They had a great turnout of over 80 people join in person and over 20 people via Zoom, with plans for the symposium to become an annual event. At this symposium, Dr. Patel had an abstract accepted for platform presentation which was on preliminary results of his on-going study of various medication regimens for the management of advanced liver failure. Co-authors on this abstract included three alumni (Kenneth Mata, PharmD '22, Michelle Tran, PharmD '23, and Nalea Trujillo, PharmD '23, as well as COP faculty Dr. Patrick Chan. They won the top scoring abstract award from a very competitive pool of candidates, an award that was created and presented by the founding father of this Southern California SCCM Chapter. Dr. Patel also served as an abstract reviewer for this symposium. Dr. Patel’s involvement with this symposium and award provide excellent exposure for WesternU and his research group.

Dr. Janice Hoffman was part of the CALTCM grant writing team that secured a $750,000 education grant from CDPH’s Healthcare-Associated Infection Program for CALTCM to work with underperforming skilled nursing facilities to improve leadership and infection control. She is also participating in teaching three cohorts, totaling 30 Medicare score 1-2 star skilled nursing facilities to improve their ratings with improved leadership and infection control. Their project, the Leadership and Management in Geriatrics Infection Prevention and Control Leadership Program combines the methodology from two established CALTCM programs, CALTCM SNF 2.0® and CALTCM’s Leadership and Management in Geriatrics (LMG)®. It combines leadership training, Quality Assurance/Process Improvement (QAPI) exercises, and interactive team-based training to build cohesive leadership teams that will work collaboratively and effectively to improve processes critical to the delivery of safe, high-quality, person-centered care.

WesternU faculty and students were well-represented at the CSHP Seminar, which took place Oct. 12-15 in Long Beach.

The WesternU CAPSLEAD poster was presented by the following students and supported by the following faculty advisers:

Assessing Student Pharmacists’ Confidence in Counseling Drug Classes Within the Top 200 Drugs

Class of 2025: Annie Lam, Daniel Huynh, Nancy Huynh, Quyen Nguyen, Sharon Kim, Thu Phu, and Victoria Le.

Class of 2026: Marilyn Carrasco

John Andraos, PharmD, APh; Patrick Chan, PharmD, PhD; Shawn Smith, PharmD, APh; Simon A. Bulley, PhD.

Several faculty also gave oral presentations at the seminar:

"Transforming our Understanding of Continuous Glucose Monitoring and its Impact both Outpatient and Inpatient" by Joelle Ayoub, PharmD, BCACP, APh; Huan Mark Nguyen, PharmD, BCPS, FCSHP

"Pearls to Transforming Your Curriculum Vitae" by Dr. Ayoub.

"Updates on Beta-Lactam Dose Optimization Across Various Modes of Renal Replacement Therapies" by Jignesh Patel, PharmD, BSc; Erik Skoglund, PharmD

“Update on Beers' Criteria 2023 and Age-friendly Safe Medication Use” by Janice Hoffman-Simen, PharmD, EdD, APh, BCGP, FASCP; Aida Oganesyan, PharmD, BSAPh, BCGP

Dr. Janice Hoffman also had a poster presentation: Christine Kim, PharmD Candidate 2023 , Minelie Asadorian, PharmD, Noah Marco, MD2 Aida Oganesyan, PharmD, APh, BCGP , Janice Hoffman, PharmD, EdD, APh, BCGP, FASCP "Utilizing and prescribing practice of opioid therapy in older adults within a skilled nursing facility."