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Outlook for COP is multidimensional by Mary Helen Yarborough Public Relations Managing the future of MUSC’s College of Pharmacy (COP) has become the complex mission of overseeing a brand new pharmacy program that combines resources from MUSC and the University of South Carolina (USC) to meet the growing demand for highly trained pharmacists.   Dr. Joseph DiPiro Joseph DiPiro, PharmD, is the executive dean in charge of this unified program that has become the South Carolina College of Pharmacy (SCCP). It is an unprecedented effort in the state and, perhaps the nation, in which university programs that ordinarily competed have become a unified entity to ensure the best in science and learning is achieved.   The first class of SCCP enrollees donned their white coats in August—80 in Charleston, and 110 in Columbia. They are expected to graduate in 2010.   While the new SCCP is a priority for DiPiro, he also must focus on the existing MUSC pharmacy students currently in their second, third and fourth years. The existing students also will benefit from the new SCCP, including having access to expanded curricula, high tech resources, and a greater number of acclaimed faculty members.   While the new SCCP is not yet fully accredited, DiPiro said that the first of the three-phase accreditation process has been completed. “I am confident we will become fully accredited,” he said.   DiPiro also has his sights on new facilities, laboratories, and a revised and improved promotion and tenure structure that relies on the best aspects of USC and MUSC.   Within six months, MUSC with hold a ceremonial groundbreaking for the new building that will house the Centers for Economic Excellence Drug Discovery program. The new building, not yet been officially named, will be located in a proposed facility on the current G Lot off of Bee Street. The facility will provide improved research laboratories, a smaller practice lab and more room for faculty and students.   Its pooled research efforts have resulted in a ranking of 31st out of 90 colleges of pharmacy for National Institutes of Health research grants. Its distinguished residency program was among the first of such programs established and is one of the largest in the country. As well, the school continues to operate the Palmetto Poison Center hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This service is one of only 58 nationally accredited centers across the country.   The College of Pharmacy that houses the dean’s office and faculty offices is located on Calhoun Street in a building dating to 1937. It’s outdated and cramped, and DiPiro noted has a humidity factor of 65 percent. He said the College and MUSC administration needs to plan to replace or refurbish this building. A needs assessment recently completed provided specifications for space to house faculty, offices classrooms and technology. DiPiro said discussions will continue to plan for a new facility.   Meanwhile, the Clinical Translational Science Award (CTSA) that the National Institutes of Health is offering is of particular significance to the pharmacy programs.   “We clearly feel that this is important. It’s the next big program from the NIH, and we have several of our faculty members involved in the planning,” DiPiro said.   The CTSA would mean federal dollars that could fund applied research and trials for drugs that might not interest pharmaceutical companies. “The CTSA grants would enable funding for research that is not drug-company funded, and that is more faculty-driven, faculty-initiated drug trials,” he said. “The traditional funding from pharmacy companies provides less room for intellectual input by faculty. So this would support investigator-initiated research.”   MUSC hopes to have its CTSA approval within the next year or year-and-a-half.   While the salaries remain a sticking point for many faculty members, DiPiro said that he is committed to finding ways to better enhance MUSC faculty positions.   “Most of our faculty members are also pharmacists, but they don’t earn as much as a graduating MUSC pharmacist who works for a chain drug store,” DiPiro said. “We try to keep up with it. We know we can’t offer the same pay as private entities. [But] some people like to be teachers and researchers. They are doing what they like to do. There is more career flexibility with positions we offer.”   The perceived pay inequity is not unique to the pharmacy school, since it often is echoed campus wide and has, in fact, become an issue for CTSA collaboration between clinicians and scientists.   Meanwhile, the SCCP and MUSC’s pharmacy programs will continue to extend services to be accessible to medical practitioners statewide, including a new medication safety network that provides information to doctors and nurses. “This will evolve to a statewide center for education, research and training,” he said. Joseph DiPiro, PharmD, was recently elected as a distinguished scholar by the National Academies of Practice in Pharmacy. The National Academies of Practice is composed of 10 academies representing health care practice in the areas of dentistry, medicine, nursing, optometry, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, podiatric medicine, psychology, social work and veterinary medicine. Only 150 active distinguished practitioners may be elected to each academy.     Friday, Sept. 1, 2006 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.