Two USC School of Pharmacy students – Corey Kelsom (PharmD ’17) and Curtis Lee (PharmD ’19) – presented their research to a national audience at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting Dec. 4-8 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas.
One of Kelsom’s poster presentations focused on evaluation of the treatment of urinary tract infections, one of the most common infections in emergency departments and inpatient settings.
Recently-published guidance by the Centers for Disease Control on antimicrobial stewardship programs in acute care hospitals stresses importance of having interventions in place to optimize antimicrobial therapy of common infections, noted Emi Minejima, assistant professor of clinical pharmacy.
“Corey’s evaluation on current urinary tract infection management at Los Angeles County is crucial to determine next steps for the antimicrobial stewardship programs to implement the most effective interventions in order to improve patient outcome, while limiting unnecessary antimicrobial use,” Minejima said.
Kelsom’s other poster evaluated the impact of newly-implemented patient surveys to track public perception and effectiveness of USC School of Pharmacy student-run community health fair screenings. 84% of respondents rated the professionalism of the health fair volunteers “excellent,” and 75% of respondents agreed that participating in a community health fair screening motivated them to change an unhealthy behavior, noted Tien Ng, associate professor of clinical pharmacy.
“An incredible achievement”
Lee’s poster presentation focused on a pilot program initiative to expand pharmacy technician-driven medication reconciliation and its benefits of improving workflow and saving time in the emergency department. Susie Park, associate professor of clinical pharmacy, called Lee’s presentation an “incredible achievement” for a second-year student.
Park said USC continues to send students to professional conferences to present research abstracts to national audiences.
“We are encouraging our PharmD candidates to conduct research, and we are supporting efforts to showcase their work at the national level,” Park said. “We are proud of the increasing number and quality of our scholarly students.”