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Heidi Wicks

On March 19, the School of Pharmacy will host Pharmacy Research Innovation Day as part of Pharmacist Awareness Month (PAM). The event will showcase the school’s vision for research over the next three to five years and profile each of their three focus areas – health outcomes, drug discovery and delivery, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Dr. John Weber was recently appointed as associate dean of graduate studies and research, and will be working towards fulfilling the goals outlined in the recently released 2014-17 Strategic Plan.

“Since I joined the school in 2006, I’ve always envisioned the graduate program growing and becoming diverse with a combination of local, national and international students. One of my priorities as associate dean will be to accomplish this goal by increasing both masters and PhD enrolment,” he said. “I also want to recruit students from across Canada and internationally, which I think will lead to a dynamic, energetic research and training atmosphere.”

Three focus areas

Dr. Weber explains health outcomes research as a means “to understand the end results of particular health care practices and interventions.”

“End results include effects that people experience, such as a change in the ability to function. For individuals with chronic conditions where cure is not always possible, end results include improved quality of life and mortality. By linking the care people get to the outcomes they experience, this research has become the key to developing better ways to monitor and improve care.”

Research in drug discovery and delivery can be described as the laboratory (or bench science) side of pharmacy.

Although scientists often don’t conduct research in both discovery and delivery, the two go hand-in-hand. Collaborative research is essential in order to develop truly effective, sustainable medications.

“Even if you discover a new drug, you must also determine if it can be delivered to the right part of the body,” said Dr. Weber. “For example, if a new drug was developed for rheumatoid arthritis and it is taken orally, but is degraded in the stomach before it can be absorbed, it isn’t going to be transported to the joints, which would essentially make the drug ineffective.”

The scholarship of teaching and learning evaluates which teaching methods and approaches work well and measures how successfully students are learning.

“I’d like to see more collaborations in teaching and learning research between faculty members in the school, as well as with other faculty members at ������Ƶ. More and more research is being funded with this type of a team approach.”

Increasing interest in research amongst undergraduate students is another focus area.

“Our grants facilitator (Kristine Day) and myself have been exploring potential funding opportunities to help us meet this goal. I would like to see more undergraduates consider research at some point. By giving them opportunities to conduct research early on, they may find that they would like to consider it as a career pathway.”

Although the lack of infrastructure is a major challenge in expanding the school’s research capabilities, Dr. Weber is confident that these challenges can be resolved.

“I look forward to working with our stakeholders both within the university and within the health care community to develop interdisciplinary, collaborative research partnerships that will ultimately lead to the improvement of our population’s health and a more sustainable health care system.”

Pharmacy Research Innovation Day includes poster presentations from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. in the Health Sciences Centre Auditorium, followed by presentations on each research focus area from 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. in the Main Auditorium. For more information, please visit: