ChipCHat Nov-Dec 1995

The fall semester flew by and our students are on a well deserved Christmas break. I hope you have holiday plans that will place you with family and friends, and that you will find some time to relax and get renewed for 1996. I wish you the happiest of holidays and the very best for the new year.

Perhaps you have already seen the announcement, but it is worth repeating. Purdue President Steven C. Beering was elected chairman of the Association of American Universities, an organization of the leading research universities in the country. As chairman, Beering will preside over the association and its 10-member executive committee. The Association of American Universities represents 60 leading North American research universities - 58 in the U.S. and two in Canada.

Robert W. Holden, M.D., (BS'58) was selected as the Dean of the Indiana University Medical School in Indianapolis. He had been Chairman of the Radiology Department. I have met with Bob about common goals and ways our schools can work together to strengthen both of our programs. We all wish him well in this challenging position and I appreciate his interest in and cooperation with pharmacy.

Raymond E. Galinsky, Pharm.D., joined the Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy on November 1, 1995. Dr. Galinsky is from the University of Utah and is associate professor of biopharmaceutics/pharmacokinetics. One of his priorities will be to establish pertinent cooperative research efforts with the IU Medical Center.

Chuck Flemming (BS'57, HDR'94), Vice President Technical Operations, of Hoffmann-La Roche along with Jennifer Asay (BS'94), Roche University Relations Associate, visited with me during a recruiting trip to Purdue last month. I was delighted to receive a check for $10,000 to support the school's minority recruitment and retention program. In addition they established a student award, the Roche Leader of Tomorrow Award, with a gift of $500. Roche has become a major partner with the school in many aspects. Roche has identified Purdue as a key school in their quest to recruit top talent for the 21st century. Jennifer is one of our graduates selected to participate in the Roche Leadership Development Program which will provide a variety of experiences and a fast-track advancement opportunity within the company. I appreciate the extra mile Hoffmann-La Roche goes to support our programs and the personal involvement and support of Chuck Flemming.

The IPPH department sponsored an alumni reception on Monday, November 6 at the AAPS meeting in Miami. I enjoyed seeing several of you at that meeting.

We also appreciated all those who stopped by our ASHP reception on December 4, 1995 at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. The clinical mid-year meeting continues to be exciting. We see many graduates who are on clinical career paths and also recruit students for our Pharm.D. program and residency programs.

Congratulations to Assistant Dean Thomas H. Wiser, Pharm.D., on his selection as Dean of the College of Pharmacy & Allied Health Professionals at St. John's University in New York. The faculty held a farewell reception for Dean Wiser and we all wish him the very best in his new position which begins January 1, 1996.

After a discussion with my friend and our very distinguished alumna, Gloria Niemeyer Francke, I plan to use Chip-Chat as a means of announcing upcoming receptions and activities. Please consider all such announcements as my personal invitation to you to attend the event. Our next reception will be at the APhA meeting in Nashville at the Opryland Hotel in the Natchez Trace Room on Monday, March 11, 1996 from 5:30PM to 7:30PM.

It is long overdue (no pun intended), but the pharmacy library will be remodeled this summer. A temporary location is being selected, and then the physical moving of the volumes will take place. This will mean a lot of extra work for our library staff and inconvenience for faculty and graduate students, but it's a welcome renovation.

Finally, I would like to take a few minutes to share with you some of the recommendations of a recent report from the Pew Health Professions Commission regarding emerging health care in the United States. The report was generally favorable toward the direction pharmacy education is headed, and predicts a need for fewer, but better educated pharmacists in the future. The report predicts that over the next decade as many as half of the nation's hospitals will close. They suggest that there will be a surplus of 100,000-150,000 physicians, 200,000-300,000 nurses, and 40,000 pharmacists. The Commission goes on to boldly recommend that medical schools reduce entering class sizes by 20-25%, nursing by 10-20%, and pharmacy by 20-25%. These reductions should come through closing schools, not by reducing class sizes. The report emphasizes health education and prevention along with inter-disciplinary team approaches to the management of patient care. I will talk more about the implications of this report in future issues of Chip-Chat as well as The Purdue Pharmacist. AACP President Mary-Anne Koda-Kimble has reactivated the AACP Commission to Implement Change in Pharmacy Education to carefully study this report and other ramifications of change in health care and make recommendations on implications for pharmacy education. I am again serving on the AACP Commission. If you would like a copy of the seven-page executive summary of this report of the Pew Health Professions Commission, please contact Bruce Hufford, Director of Development, at (317) 494-1370.