Remedy for National Shortage of Pharmacists: MSU Pharm.D. Program
Dr. Jeffrey Toney (center) conducts research with biology major Brent Westcott (left) and chemistry major Mujtaba Shahsamand.
One rainy morning last April, Peter Leighton '04 hurried into a Rite Aid drugstore in New Brunswick. He was eager to get started on what promised to be an exciting homework assignment. During the next five hours, the doctoral candidate would shadow a pharmacist to learn about operating a drugstore-based pharmacy.
For Leighton, one of the first two students from Montclair State to enter the University's seven-year Pharm.D. professional pharmacy program, this homework assignment provided a valuable opportunity to watch and learn how a trained pharmacist interacts with customers on a daily basis.
He discovered that modern pharmacology practitioners often go to extraordinary lengths to meet the needs of their customers. At one point, for example, the pharmacist asked an elderly customer about the various medications he consumed in his daily clinical regime. Leighton was a bit startled by what happened next.
"The pharmacist asked the customer to step into a room located off to one side of the pharmacy," he recalled. "Only after the door was closed did the two of them get down to the business of discussing the gentleman's medications. I knew that the federal government recently had passed new laws aimed at better protecting the privacy of medical patients. But what I hadn't yet realized was that these new privacy regulations actually require the pharmacist and the patient to discuss medication issues in a secluded area where the discussion can't be overheard by other customers. That's the kind of thing you can only learn in a training program that requires you to go out into the field."
"At Montclair State, we're convinced that programs like ours will help bring more pharmacists into the field at a time when they're badly needed."
–Dr. Jeffrey Toney |
Established in 2003 by Montclair State and coordinated by Dr. Jeffrey Toney, Sokol Professor and chair of the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department--a former biochemist and pharmacology researcher at Merck & Co., Inc.--the combined B.S./Pharm.D. program allows MSU students to earn most of the credits for an undergraduate science degree in only three years, then join the four-year doctor of pharmacy program at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. After a single year of study for the Rutgers pharmacy doctorate, students are automatically awarded a B.S. degree from Montclair State.
"I'm already a big fan of the new Pharm.D. program, even though I've only been at Rutgers for about a year," said Aysha Aman '04, who graduated with a degree in biology. "The graduate program in New Brunswick is demanding in terms of the chemistry and the molecular biology that are required. But I'm very glad I joined the Pharm.D. program as an undergrad at Montclair State. If everything goes according to plan, I'll earn a pharmacist's certificate in 2008."
In addition to providing Montclair State students with what Aman, who was born in Pakistan, calls a marvelous opportunity to earn a professional pharmacist's certificate in seven years rather than eight, the innovative Pharm.D. program promises to help ease the current national shortage in trained pharmacists, while also making it easier for Montclair State to build highly innovative research partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies in the metropolitan area.
While enthusiastically propelling the new program, Toney also is determined to contribute to PharmFest, a day-long event in which students and faculty mingle with pharmaceutical company representatives and discuss research opportunities and careers in pharmacology.
"We're already looking forward to PharmFest 2006 in April," he said. "PharmFest gives us an important opportunity to tell our students--along with the outside world--about all the exciting things that are happening in the science of pharmacology."
For Toney, who spent 13 years helping to design new medications at Merck Research Laboratories before joining the faculty in 2002, establishing the new Pharm. D. program was part of a creative strategy for meeting two important challenges: How could MSU's highly regarded Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry better attract students interested in careers in pharmacology? And, how could the department begin developing creative partnerships with pharmaceutical corporations en route to entering collaborative research projects between the corporations and the University? The Pharm.D. program was aimed at achieving both challenges.
Biology major Kristina Vovra at work
in an incubator lab at Montclair State. |
"The good news for our students is that even if they don't complete the seven-year doctorate, they'll still have earned a bachelor's degree in four years," said Toney. "There's no way they can lose anything by entering our program."
Students agree. During its first two and a half years of operation, the Pharm.D. program has demonstrated a powerful appeal to undergraduates. "We've already got 12 undergrads signed up," said Toney, who holds the Margaret and Herman Sokol Chair in Chemistry and Biochemistry. "Students in this program can major in biology, chemistry, biochemistry or molecular biology, whichever they prefer. So once again, there's a great deal of flexibility involved."
Toney also is excited about the program because it promises to help ease the continuing national shortage of trained pharmacists in the United States. "There are several factors at work here," he said, "but the bottom line is that we're facing a yearly shortfall of at least 2,800 trained pharmacists in the nation's hospitals, alone. At Montclair State, we're convinced that programs like ours will help bring more pharmacists into the field at a time when they're badly needed."
According to Toney, the Pharm.D. program also seems certain to increase the number of MSU research partnerships with major New York/New Jersey pharmaceutical players such as Merck, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.
"When I came to Montclair State in 2002," Toney recalled, "I was determined to get these kinds of partnerships jump-started, and the Pharm.D. program will help us do that. It's exciting to imagine a series of incubator labs here on campus, in which our students and faculty could conduct research with corporate partners like Merck or Pfizer."
