Kathleen Giacomini, Ph.D.; Stuart Haines, Pharm.D., FCCP, BCPS; Julie Johnson, Pharm.D., FCCP, BCPS; and Michael Kane, Pharm.D., FCCP, BCPS, have been selected by the College’s Awards Committee to receive the association’s prestigious 2010 Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture, Education, Russell R. Miller, and Clinical Practice Awards, respectively. The awards will be presented in Austin, Texas, on Sunday morning, October 17, during the Opening General Session of the College’s 2010 Annual Meeting.
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 to be at the leading edge of research in the field. Kathleen Giacomini is Professor and Co-Chair of the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Pharmacy. She also holds UCSF appointments as Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the School of Pharmacy and Professor of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology in the School of Medicine. She is well known internationally for her work in pharmacogenomics and drug transporters. Dr. Les Benet, Professor of Biopharmaceutical Sciences at UCSF and the 1995 Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture Award winner, wrote in his letter of support for Dr. Giacomini’s nomination,
She is recognized worldwide as an outstanding scientist in the biology of membrane transporters . . . and for her advances related to the pharmacogenomics of membrane transporters. It is these attributes that so well fulfill the College’s criteria for research that is actively extending pharmacotherapy into new frontiers. . . . She lists more than 150 peer-reviewed publications. Kathy’s most cited publication . . . describes the first cloning and functional expression of the human liver organic cation transporter.
Dr. Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, Dean and Professor at the UCSF School of Pharmacy, noted in her letter nominating Dr. Giacomini for this award,
In 2000, Kathy organized the Pharmacogenomics of Membrane Transporters (PMT) Project at UCSF which was funded under the then-newly initiated NIH Pharmacogenomics Research Network and Pharmacogenomics Knowledge Base (PharmGKB), and her PMT project was renewed for another five years in 2005. . . . In her various roles, she is recognized worldwide as a preeminent scientist in the biology of membrane transporters and is the most recognized scientist worldwide related to the pharmacogenomics of membrane transporters.
Dr. Giacomini’s lecture, titled "Personalizing Anti-diabetic Drug Therapy: Focus on Metformin," will be delivered at 10:30 a.m. during Sunday morning’s Opening General Session.
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. Stuart Haines is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore, Maryland, and a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist–Primary Care at the West Palm Beach VA Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. Dr. Haines is a distinguished and innovative educator and leader. Letters written by colleagues in support of Dr. Haines’s nomination speak to his willingness to take risk in his approaches to teaching and his dedication to the learning of others. Dr. Deborah Sturpe, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Science at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, wrote in her letter of nomination,
The common thread found throughout Stuart’s classroom teaching is his willingness to try new techniques and make change based upon feedback from students and colleagues. He shuns lecture as much as possible and instead relies upon active learning strategies as well as techniques that foster self-directed learning. He consistently “practices what he preaches,” using sound instructional design principles in every aspect of course, lecture, and activity development. He has also been an early adopter of instructional technology in our curriculum, literally testing out wikis, blogs, online classroom environments, discussion boards, etc. within his courses so that others can learn from his own successes and failures with those technologies.
Dr. Daniel Brown, Dean of Palm Beach Atlantic’s Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy, adds in his letter of support for Dr. Haines’s nomination,
His unique talents begin with an intense passion for teaching and a deep desire to help others. Much of his enthusiasm for teaching and mentoring stems from a fundamental drive to be of altruistic service. There is a noticeable spirit of generosity that compels Stuart to share his time and his talent. . . . He possesses keen insight into the intricacies and dynamics of the learning process, as well as the strategies that lead to effective pedagogy. . . . Dr. Haines seems to have a keen ability to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a protégé, and then determine ways to help the individual improve. He is truly a gifted mentor who is not only skillful at explaining critical educational processes, but he is able to personally execute those processes himself. Stuart walks the talk and serves as an example and a role model for what he preaches.
Dr. Haines is a member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Commission on Credentialing (COC) – the body that sets the standards for and accredits the pharmacy residency and technician training programs in the United States. He is also a past president of ACCP, having served on the ACCP Board of Regents from 2002 until 2008. In addition, Dr. Haines has served on numerous editorial boards including Pharmacotherapy, The Annals of Pharmacotherapy, Current Medical Research and Opinion, American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy (AJHP), Journal of the American Pharmacists Association (JAPhA), and Pharmacist’s Letter.
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 the development of innovative clinical pharmacy services and sustained excellence in providing them. Michael Kane is a Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist for The Endocrine Group in Albany, New York. In recommending Dr. Kane, Dr. Brian Irons, Immediate Past Chair of the ACCP Endocrine and Metabolism PRN, wrote in his letter of nomination,
Dr. Kane has a greater than twenty year track record of developing clinical pharmacy services in Albany, NY. His early practices, developed as an Assistant Professor with the Albany College of Pharmacy, were as a clinical pharmacist in adult medicine at the Albany Veterans Affairs Medical Center and later at the Albany Medical Center Hospital. Now as a tenured full professor at the same College he has been a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist with The Endocrinology Group in Albany since 1997. This unique practice, comprised of private practice endocrinologists, various mid-level practitioners, and CDEs, serves a large volume of patients from the greater-Albany area primarily in the areas of diabetes, osteoporosis and thyroid disorders. The practitioners of this group highly respect Dr. Kane and continuously depend on his clinical knowledge and skills. Dr. Kane has developed distinctive collaborative practices in this clinic including an insulin dosing clinic, a teriparatide clinic, and a zoledronic acid clinic. His clinical practice successes have served as a model service for other pharmacists. He has documented these endeavors in the medical literature and has been invited to national pharmacy meetings to present his unique practice accomplishments.
Dr. Jeffrey Stroup, Associate Professor of Medicine at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa, Oklahoma, wrote in his letter of support,
The main types of patients entering his clinic are patients with diabetes, thyroid disease, and osteoporosis. This clinical practice site educates approximately 15–20 pharmacy students per year in active patient care scenarios that include comprehensive medication and laboratory reviews. . . . To date, Dr. Kane has graduated nine successful residents. . . . What is most interesting about this residency is that Dr. Kane funds this residency through research dollars developed from the residency program activities.
While maintaining an active practice, Dr. Kane has contributed regularly to the medical and pharmacy literature and has delivered numerous presentations at scientific and professional meetings focusing on pharmacy education and diabetes management. In 1991, Dr. Kane was among the first pharmacists to become board certified in pharmacotherapy, and he was honored as a Fellow of the College in 2003.
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. Julie A. Johnson, Pharm.D., FCCP, BCPS, is the V. Ravi Chandran Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Translational Research, Professor of Pharmaceutics and Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine) at the University of Florida (UF) Colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine, and Director, UF Center for Pharmacogenomics. She joined the faculty at the UF in May 1998. Before her appointment on the UF faculty, she spent 9 years on the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy faculty. Dr. Johnson’s research focus is cardiovascular drug pharmacogenomics, and the influence of race/ethnicity on drug response and pharmacogenomics. She leads a research group that is part of the NIH-supported Pharmacogenomics Research Network, with a project focused on the pharmacogenomics of antihypertensive drugs. She is a leader in the field of cardiovascular pharmacogenomics, with more than 150 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Robert Talbert from the University of Texas College Pharmacy called attention in his letter of nomination to Dr. Johnson’s extensive contribution to our understanding of cardiovascular pharmacotherapy,
Without any doubt, she is one of the leaders in this area as evidenced by her scholarly productivity, level of training, and numbers of scientists trained. As an example of her scholarly productivity, she has published > 140 manuscripts [now more than 150] and 95 abstracts [now more than 100] in addition to numerous book chapters. . . . Dr. Johnson’s work in the area of beta-receptor pharmacogenomics is innovative and has contributed a great deal to our understanding of how this category of drug therapy can best be utilized in heart failure and hypertension. She is an outstanding scientist and has created a program of true excellence. . .
Another colleague, Dean Jerry Bauman from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy, commented on Dr. Johnson’s qualifications for this award:
It has long been known that African Americans respond to beta-blockers quite differently than Caucasians but that this is not always the case in a specific individual. Julie’s research is on the verge of uncovering the genetic explanation for this observation. These findings have far-reaching implications for therapy. . . [and are] making the buzzwords “personalized medicine” a reality.
Dr. Johnson served on the Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2000–2004), currently serves on the XNDA Study Section at NIH, and is a member of the Pediatric Heart Disease Clinical Research Network Protocol Review Committee and the Data Safety Monitoring Board for the Heart Failure Network, both with NHLBI at NIH. She is also a member of the American Heart Association Committee on Scientific Sessions Programming and was cochair for the 2009 AHA International Congress on Genetics and Genomics of Cardiovascular Disease. She served as a Regent of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (2000–2003) and has had numerous other leadership roles in a variety of national organizations. She is on the editorial boards of several journals, including Pharmacogenetics and Genomics, Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Psychosomatic Medicine, and Personalized Medicine; is a scientific editor for Pharmacotherapy; and serves as a manuscript reviewer for numerous other scientific journals.