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by Mary Helen Yarborough
Public Relations

Pharmacy program wins national award

While celebrating its 50th anniversary, the South Carolina College of Pharmacy-MUSC Medical Center residency program was recognized as having the nation’s best postgraduate residency program by the American Society of Health System Pharmacists (ASHP).

MUSC’s program earned the Pharmacy Residency Excellence Award (Program Award) from the ASHP’s Research and Education Foundation, the foundation announced recently. The award will be presented at the ASHP Mid-year Clinical Meeting and Exhibition in Orlando, Fla., in December.

Making history, the first resident in MUSC’s Pharmacy Practice Residency Program was Margaret Bobo. She finished her one-year residency in 1959, making the program one of the oldest in the country.

Also as the oldest pharmacy residency program among the 13 at MUSC, the Post-Graduate Year One (PGY1) component was submitted for the ASHP honor because it had the most graduates and the most data, according to Kelly Ragucci, PharmD, associate director of graduate pharmacy education. The PGY1 also is the largest and probably most emblematic of all the programs’ caliber.

Any ASHP-accredited residency program in the country—first year, second year or both—was eligible to apply. Previous winners include programs at the University of Kentucky and University of Wisconsin.

“The purpose of the program award is to recognize a pharmacy residency program that has a track record of excellence in the training of pharmacy residents, and consistently provides an exceptionally positive and rewarding experience to their residents,” ASHP stated. “By recognizing these programs and their accomplishments, they can serve as role models in sustained excellence, achievement, and innovation in residency training.”

The PGY1 committee of PharmDs that nominated the MUSC program included: Paul Bush, director of Pharmacy Services and Graduate Pharmacy Education; Mike DeCoske, resident; Chris Fortier, manager of Pharmacy Support Services; Dominic Ragucci, clinical coordinator of Children’s Hospital and residency program director for the PGY1 program; and Ragucci, associate professor, Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences for SCCP.

Participants in the PGY1 program are first-year residents who will become clinical pharmacy generalists after spending a year in various clinical rotations here. In the second-year, the PGY2 residents will become specialized. They will have completed the PGY1 program and will spend another year in extensive training in their selected specialties.

The program trains an average of between 20 and 23 students a year, making MUSC’s pharmacy residency program one of the nation’s largest. Since 1958, it has trained nearly 500 pharmacy specialists, according to Bush.

The pharmacists who train in the residency program traditionally pursue advanced training in such areas as pediatrics, pharmacotherapy, psychiatry, or hematology while others may seek to become managers, directors and researchers.

Friday, Oct. 17, 2008

The Catalyst Online is published weekly by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. The Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to The 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.