UNMC pharmacy student shines at new competition

A national competition for pharmacy students to test expertise in point-of-care patient counseling and collaborative practice, designed by UNMC College of Pharmacy faculty, was conducted for the first time at this year’s Next Generation Dx Summit.

Jacob Duncan, a second-year Pharm.D. candidate at UNMC, made the final five.

The Pharmacy Student Point-of-Care Disease Management Competition was designed by Donald Klepser, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacy practice, Ally Dering-Anderson, Pharm.D., clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice, and their collaborators, Michael Klepser, Pharm.D., of Ferris (Mich.) State University and Suzanne Higginbotham, Pharm.D., of Duquesne University.

Dr. Klepser and Dr. Dering-Anderson are conducting a series of projects to research ways in which community pharmacists can fill an evolving role in patient-centered health care.

At the competition, pharmacy students met with standardized patients for an interview, review of test results and counseling. The students operated under the Pharmacists Patient Care Process developed by the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners and the collaborative protocol for their particular pharmacy.

The Next Generation Dx Summit, now in its eighth year, convenes more than 1,000 international diagnostic professionals for networking and comprehensive programming spanning from clinical diagnostics to business strategy. This year’s summit was held in Washington, D.C.