Pharmacy Practice and Administration

Pharmacy practice and administration is a group of interdisciplinary areas of study involved with the effective use of drugs and biologicals in providing pharmaceutical care.

The field draws on the basic sciences and applies the principles of drug therapy management, clinical problem-solving, counseling, communications, and optimal health care delivery to patient care.

Specialties

Department faculty are specialists in the following clinical disciplines:

  • Pathophysiology of Disease: the study of abnormal physiological processes that contribute to disease
  • Pharmacy Practice: involves developing the professional roles of pharmacists and blends a patient-centered approach with specialized therapeutic knowledge, experience, and clinical judgment to ensure optimal patient outcomes
  • Pharmacotherapy: the study of the effective and economic use of drugs and biologicals to treat and diagnose diseases
  • Medication Therapy Management: the application of pharmacotherapy and decision support to the treatment of acute and chronic diseases throughout the patient's life
  • Pharmacoepidemiology: the study of population statistics that affect health care outcomes
  • Clinical Pharmacokinetics: the study of how drug therapy is affected by patient-specific factors such as lifestyle, physical or genetic characteristics, drug interactions, and other disease
  • Pharmacy Law and Ethics: the study of pharmacy practice law, practice and licensing regulations, case law affecting therapy decisions, and ethical and moral standards
  • Health Care Economics: the development of optimal therapeutic and economic policies and guidelines to ensure the health and welfare of the current and future patient population

As a team, the Department of Pharmacy Practice & Administration promotes a passion for learning and scholarship demonstrated through a commitment to the principles of pharmaceutical care, student mentoring, and community engagement. The team is composed of pharmacy practice and pharmacy administration faculty.

Pharmacy Practice Faculty

Pharmacy practice faculty are licensed, practicing pharmacists who teach in the didactic and simulation and skills classrooms. Students collaborate with faculty at their practice sites in hospitals, ambulatory care, or community settings. This teaching focuses on practicing the skills and abilities needed to provide safe, effective, and comprehensive medication management to patients. Additionally, practice faculty prepare students with the skills needed to communicate with both providers and patients. 

Pharmacy Administration Faculty

Pharmacy administration is a broad discipline that includes social science aspects of health care, management principles, population-based health care, the art of statistics and epidemiology, evidence-based medicine, pharmacy law, and ethics. Pharmacy administration faculty may be pharmacists who have also pursued additional doctoral-level training and obtained a Ph.D. or J.D. Understanding the elements needed to deliver health care is vital to the success of clinical practice. 

Teaching: Medication Management & Patient Care

Faculty of the department are responsible for all of the practice-based courses and experiential rotations taught throughout the 4-year Pharm.D. curriculum.

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Research: Contributions to the Clinical Sciences

Faculty actively participate in a variety of multicenter clinical drug studies, innovative pharmacotherapy protocol development and assessment, the design of new community practice and health care delivery models, the application of medication therapy management principles to special patient populations, and community planning and preparedness during disease outbreaks.

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Service: Health Care and Community Engagement

As part of their clinical education role, faculty are actively engaged in providing clinical pharmacy services in various teaching and practice environments including major health centers in Rochester and Syracuse, hospitals and clinics, community pharmacies, managed care organizations, and collaborative health care institutions.

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