SIUE Pharmacy School Building Solid Reputation: School This Year Will Graduate 80
By Elizabeth Donald, Belleville News-Democrat, Ill.
Mar. 2–EDWARDSVILLE — A steady rise in funding, students and reputation is quickly building at the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy at a time when pharmacists are in high demand.
Since its founding in 2005, the pharmacy school has grown from its original class of 82 to 247 students today, learning in a new 15,000-square-foot building in University Park. SIUE has the only pharmacy program in Southern Illinois. There are two in Chicago, with a third opening this August, and one in St. Louis.
Its state grant rose nearly 40 percent this year, a $600,000 increase to $2.1 million. That grant from the Illinois Board of Pharmacy is about 40 percent of the school’s budget.
There are two departments: pharmacy practice, which prepares students for actually practicing in a pharmacy; and pharmacy science, which deals with research and application of pharmaceuticals.
In its third year, the school will graduate 80 students. Its acceptance rate is about one in six applicants — more than 550 students applied this year. Their GPAs range from 3.51 to 3.87.
“Two-thirds of our graduates will go to a chain pharmacy,” Medon said. “It’s a good job and an important job. But there’s also independent pharmacies, the pharmaceutical industry, government work, research. … About 13 percent nationally go on to residency in a specialization or become hospital pharmacists.”
SIUE’s advancing students are entering a field with a serious, though diminishing, shortage of pharmacists. There were 7,700 openings for pharmacists in 2001, down to 3,600 in 2007.
But the shortage is still projected through 2020, Medon said.
“If the chains keep growing, the number will never be met,” Medon said. According to the National Community Pharmacists Association, the nation’s prescriptions grew from 2 billion to 3.2 billion in the last decade.
That makes the need for responsible pharmacists even greater, Medon said.
“There may be patients taking 15 medications when they only need eight,” he said. “(The pharmacist) is in the best position to evaluate drug therapy and consult with the physician and counsel the patient to make sure he’s taking his medications properly.”
Dr. Michael Crider, chairman of the pharmacy science department, relocated to SIUE to lead the department after 20 years in Louisiana. His staff has gained a number of prestigious grants, including some rare American Foundation of Pharmacy Education grants. The organization only gives 15 grants per year, but last year, SIUE received two, then another this year.
Other projects include:
In 2006, the National Science Foundation gave SIUE a $600,000 grant to study antibiotic drug resistance in agricultural use, collaborating with the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center.
Assistant Professor Ken Witt received a $100,000 grant from the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation to study potential treatments, focusing on compounds to degrade the neurological plaques common to Alzheimer’s patients.
Pharmacologist Guim Kwon received a competitive $10,000 grant to study the relationship between obesity and diabetes.
Student Phuong Nguyen holds the current fellowship from the American Foundation of Pharmacy Education.
And the students work side-by-side with the faculty on those research projects, gaining them valuable experience.
Accreditation as a recognized pharmacy school is a three-stage process that cannot be completed until the first class graduates. SIUE has advanced to the second stage. “They approve of our plan, they like what we’re doing,” Medon said. “We’re not all the way there, but (the second stage) allows them to take the national exam to become pharmacists.”
Meanwhile, the students intern at more than 60 pharmacies throughout Illinois. Some students worked with the Illinois Poison Control Center to visit schools in Madison and St. Clair counties, educating elementary students about poisons. Others visited patients in their homes and assisted Medicare patients with their prescription drug benefits.
And the new building has a medicinal garden, decorated with plants chosen for their medicinal value. “Even synthetic pharmaceuticals have their origin based on centuries of traditional plants and natural products chosen for therapeutic uses,” Medon said.
Maintained by the students, the garden includes such medicinal plants as foxglove, a source of the heart drug digitalis; periwinkle, a source of cancer drugs; and autumn crocus, a source of the gout medicine colchicine.
“Overall the students have done a terrific job,” Medon said. “There’s a lot of excitement going on here.”
Contact reporter Elizabeth Donald at edonald@bnd.com or 345-7822, ext. 21.
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