Categories: Patient Care

How do you convince patients who feel fine to take medicines that can have major side effects?

How can you help them stay on their lifesaving daily medications for years to come despite the obstacle course of everyday life?

Every year U.S. drug regulators approve dozens of new medicines as “safe and effective,” but just how effective are they? How well do they alleviate specific aspects of illness, whether light sensitivity from migraine headaches or itching from eczema?

Partners in D, the innovative program in which UCSF student pharmacists help both underserved seniors and fellow health professionals maximize the complex Medicare Part D drug benefit, has won a national award for community service.

Appearing on a segment of The Dr. Oz Show, Nancy Nkansah, PharmD, gave millions of TV viewers key tips on avoiding drug interactions as well as errors in the filling of their medications.

Nkansah, a faculty member in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy, UCSF School of Pharmacy, noted that:

If you are a pharmaceutical company seeking to switch your prescription medication to one sold directly to consumers—as an over-the-counter or OTC drug—William Soller, PhD, has your road map.

The robotic pharmacy at the UCSF Medical Center is the recipient of a 2011 Best of What’s New (Archived) designation by Popular Science. Each year since 1987, the publication reviews thousands of innovations and chooses the top 100 winners that represent significant steps forward.

A two-year-old, cross-disciplinary effort to invent new medical devices for children, co-founded by bioengineer Shuvo Roy, PhD, has received a two-year $1 million grant from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to expand its work.

The office of Lisa Bero, PhD, on UCSF’s Laurel Heights campus has long been a key portal between the School of Pharmacy and the world at large, including countries where billions of people cannot get even the most vital life-saving drugs.

To reduce the risk of toxic drug interactions, UCSF's Kathy Giacomini, PhD, and colleagues are screening thousands of prescription drugs, testing how much they inhibit key proteins in kidney and liver cells that help clear medications from the body.

William Soller, PhD, and Marilyn Stebbins, PharmD, faculty members in the UCSF School of Pharmacy’s Department of Clinical Pharmacy, were sources for a July 25, 2011 Los Angeles Times feature about the safety and effectiveness of saving money by splitting pills or taking medications after their...