Roland Dickerson, W. Douglas Figg, Howard McLeod, and Kelly Ragucci have been selected by the College’s Awards Committee to receive the association’s prestigious 2015 Clinical Practice, Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture, Russell R. Miller, and Education awards, respectively. The awards will be presented in San Francisco, California, on Sunday morning, October 18, during the opening session of the College’s 2015 Global Conference on Clinical Pharmacy.
The ACCP Clinical Practice Award is given to a College member who has made substantial and outstanding contributions to clinical pharmacy practice. The criteria considered in identifying potential candidates include exceptional leadership in developing innovative clinical pharmacy services and sustained excellence in providing them. Roland N. Dickerson, Pharm.D., FCCP, FACN, FASHP, FCCM, BCNSP, is a professor of clinical pharmacy practice at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center College of Pharmacy. Dr. Dickerson, an established expert in nutrition and metabolic support of the critically ill population, has provided leadership and coordination to the nutrition support service at Regional One Health (formerly, the Regional Medical Center of Memphis) for more than 20 years. The nutrition support service predominantly provides care for critically ill patients, including those on the trauma, transplant, and other medical/surgical intensive care services. In his letter of nomination, Robert MacLaren, a critical care clinician and professor at the University of Colorado Denver School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, highlighted Dr. Dickerson’s clinical practice in his letter of nomination:
Dr. Dickerson guides a team of dieticians, nurses, pharmacists, and physicians in the management of enteral and parenteral nutrition, fluids and electrolytes/minerals, and various nutrition-related complications. The primary teams have come to rely on the Nutrition Support Service to direct these therapies and Dr. Dickerson is the leader of the Nutrition Support Service. I cannot think of another example in pharmacy practice where the pharmacist is the director of a service so revered for its impact on patient care…. His commitment to the institution has also resulted in the development of many practice protocols or guidelines that benefit all healthcare professionals and the patients he serves…. What is so impressive about this practice model is that it has trained numerous pharmacists to become nutrition specialists … he has precepted countless residents and students from a variety of disciplines, including those in many medicine subspecialties, pharmacy, nursing, and dietetics. Dr. Dickerson has been invited to present internationally on the role of pharmacists in nutrition support therapy … he is often the only pharmacist on many committees of multiprofessional organizations like the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition…. Dr. Dickerson was and continues to be instrumental in developing and leading the Nutrition Support Service at Regional One Health.
At the time of his nomination, Dr. Dickerson had published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and several book chapters and had presented his research at leading national and international professional and scientific meetings. In 2012, he was the first pharmacist to receive the prestigious Rhoads Lecture Award from the Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, which recognizes an individual “who is recognized internationally for major contributions to the field of nutrition and metabolic support, and who has demonstrated a career-long commitment to the improvement of the nutritional status of patients.” Dr. Dickerson serves as an editor for five journals, including the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, and has provided manuscript reviews for more than 30 journals. He has served as a member of ACCP committees and on many of the College’s research award selection panels. Dr. Dickerson was recognized as an ACCP Fellow in 2003 and as a fellow of the Society of Critical Care Medicine in 2013.
The ACCP Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture Award recognizes an individual, including ACCP member and nonmember nominees, who has made outstanding contributions to pharmacotherapeutics in his or her field. Among the criteria for this award is the broad acknowledgment that the recipient is currently considered at the leading edge of research in the field. William Douglas Figg, Pharm.D., MBA, is senior investigator, section head, and deputy branch chief of the Molecular Pharmacology section within the Genitourinary Malignancies Branch and head of the Clinical Pharmacology Program at the Center for Cancer Research in the National Institute of Health’s National Cancer Institute (NCI). He has distinguished himself as a nationally and internationally recognized clinical pharmacologist in the field of anticancer drug development. Dr. Cindy Chau, a research scientist at the NCI, noted the significance of Dr. Figg’s work in her letter of support:
Dr. Figg is recognized for his work in anticancer drug development with emphasis on anti-angiogenic compounds. Angiogenesis is essential for the growth, invasion, and metastasis of solid tumors. Inhibition of this process represents a promising new therapeutic strategy and is currently recognized as the fourth modality of cancer treatment. Dr. Figg has and continues to play an influential role in further validating the concept of angiogenesis inhibition with his research focused on understanding the nature of angiogenesis in solid tumors (specifically prostate cancer) and in translating basic science discoveries into clinical applications by consistently moving new agents into the clinic…. Using in vitro and in vivo models developed and optimized in his laboratory, he has been involved in the screening of novel angiogenesis inhibitors, selecting lead compounds for further development and continues to design new agents to hit key targets in the angiogenic pathway…. Dr. Figg has also devoted enormous efforts to understanding the biology of prostate cancer and developing treatments for metastatic CRPC. Much of these efforts are focused on understanding the genetics of prostate cancer and identifying those at risk for developing this disease.
At the time of his nomination, Dr. Figg had published more than 500 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He also is coeditor of Angiogenesis—An Integrative Approach from Science to Medicine, widely recognized as the authoritative text in the angiogenesis field. He has served as an editorial board member for numerous journals, including Pharmacotherapy, and as a manuscript reviewer for many publications, including the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Figg has been elected as a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology and as an ACCP Fellow. He has received numerous national and international awards for his work, including the 2008 ACCP Russell R. Miller Award. Dr. Figg’s Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture, titled “The National Cancer Institute’s Revolving Door of Science: Bench to Bedside and Back to the Bench,” will be delivered at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 18, in San Francisco.
Russell R. Miller was the founding editor of the College’s journal, Pharmacotherapy. The Russell R. Miller Award is presented in recognition of substantial contributions to the literature of clinical pharmacy, thereby advancing both clinical pharmacy practice and rational pharmacotherapy. Howard L. McLeod, Pharm.D., FCCP, is medical director, DeBartolo Family Personalized Medicine Institute, at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida. At the time of his nomination, Dr. McLeod had published almost 500 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 26 book chapters, and more than 300 abstracts. Dr. Vicki Ellingrod, the John Gideon Searle Professor of Clinical and Translational Pharmacy at the University of Michigan, commented on Dr. McLeod’s important contributions to the literature in her letter of nomination:
Not only has Dr. McLeod been a leader in oncology pharmacy but he has also been at the forefront of the field of pharmacogenomics. He has been described as the “father” of oncology pharmacogenomics. Five of his manuscripts have been cited over 400 times each with his most highly cited manuscript receiving more than 139 citations/year with a total of 1531. This type of influence on the field is incredible and very few clinical pharmacists achieve research accomplishments that are so pervasive within the field. The foundational work he led on racial differences seen with the multi-drug resistance gene (MDR1) has also been highly cited … these data were instrumental in the field as we have grown to understand the impact of these variants on different medication treatments.
In his letter of support, Dr. Samuel Johnson, clinical pharmacy specialist in applied pharmacogenomics at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, wrote:
Dr. McLeod has authored or co-authored … papers in widely read, peer-reviewed medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Annals of Neurology, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Lancet, Pharmacogenomics Journal, Journal of the American Medical Association, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and Blood. The majority of these publications review the clinical and economic impact of pharmacogenomics applications in oncology, cardiology, and other specialties or subspecialties…. As the Medical Director for the DeBartolo Family Personalized Medicine Institute at Moffitt Cancer Center, he has developed a Personalized Medicine Consult Service and Clinical Genomic Action Committee. The latter functions as Moffitt Cancer Center’s Molecular Tumor Board but contains the word “Action” to emphasize the need to translate these genetic findings into treatment recommendations for patients…. He is one of a small group of ACCP members to receive substantial NIH funding as both a principal and co-investigator, garnering more than $100 million in research funding since 2001. Largely through his tutelage, several of his former mentees and trainees have gone on to demonstrate unprecedented success in clinical research, pharmacogenomics implementation, and publication of impactful results in peer-reviewed medical journals.
Dr. McLeod serves as an editorial board member for Biomarkers in Medicine, Personalized Medicine, Pharmacogenetics and Genomics, and Pharmacogenomics; and as a reviewer for several prestigious journals, including Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Journal of the American Medical Association, Lancet, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, and Science. He has previously received several other ACCP honors: the New Investigator Award in 2000, ACCP Fellow recognition in 2004, and the ACCP Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture Award in 2008.
The Education Award recognizes an ACCP member who has made substantial and outstanding contributions to clinical pharmacy education at either the undergraduate or the postgraduate level. Kelly R. Ragucci, Pharm.D., FCCP, BCPS, CDE, is professor and chair, Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Science, at the South Carolina College of Pharmacy’s Medical University of South Carolina campus. Dr. Nicole Culhane, associate professor and director of experiential programs at the Notre Dame of Maryland University School of Pharmacy, wrote in her letter of support:
I had the pleasure of getting to know Kelly when she started her academic position at Wilkes University…. Kelly was a faculty member that was always excited about her work. It was evident that she was passionate about her position and dedicated to promoting the pharmacy profession. Her outgoing, friendly personality and love for pharmacy was contagious and she easily connected with students…. Students emulated her and looked up to her as a role model. Throughout her career, Kelly has dedicated her professional life to teaching and mentoring over 100 student pharmacists and residents and advocating for their best interests. She has been nominated for and has been the recipient of many teaching awards, most notably Professor of the Year eight times since 2003 and Preceptor of the Year in 2006. Knowing some of Kelly’s colleagues and the high caliber of scholarship and teaching on the MUSC campus, this is quite an accomplishment…. Not only has Kelly educated students in the classroom but she has published articles and book chapters on Hormone Therapy, Contraception, Osteoporosis, Diabetes, and Female Sexual Dysfunction. She is also making significant contributions to the College in the area of Interprofessional Education (IPE)…. Kelly has received and is the co-investigator for a large IPE grant from the Josiah Macy Foundation to study virtual interprofessional learning. She and her MUSC colleagues have been invited to present their IPE model at national conferences and are quickly earning national recognition for their contributions to IPE.
At the time of her nomination, Dr. Ragucci had served as an investigator on 27 research grants, published more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals, presented extensively at professional and scientific meetings (including ACCP meetings), and served as secretary and chair of ACCP’s Ambulatory Care PRN and as a member or chair of numerous ACCP committees. She was elected as an ACCP Fellow in 2005.