The mission of the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP) is to be the collective voice of student pharmacists, to provide opportunities for professional growth, to improve patient care, and to envision and advance the future of pharmacy. Our main purpose as a student chapter is to provide means for student pharmacists to…

By: Elizabeth Kopec, PharmD Candidate c/o 2014, South University School of Pharmacy at Columbia, SC – Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a global pandemic, with approximately 35.3 million people infected in 2012. The United States currently has 1.3 million people living with HIV, with 20,000 deaths occurring every year due to acquired immune deficiency syndrome…

By: Rebecca Gilene, PharmD Candidate c/o 2014, St. Louis College of Pharmacy – The FDA approved macitentan (Opsumit®) on October 18, 2013 for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension.1 Pulmonary arterial hypertension, often referred to as PAH, is a disease characterized by high blood pressure in the arteries between the heart and lungs. An increase…

By: Sang Hyo Kim, Staff Editor – Near the end of December, the pharmaceutical company, MannKind Corp, will submit their clinical data to the U.S Food and Drug Administration for the approval of an inhaled dosage form of insulin, Afrezza®.1 Administered with the Dreamboat inhaler, this inhaled dosage form delivers insulin packaged into single dose…

By: Sherine Jaison, PharmD Candidate c/o 2015 –  The leukemia chemotherapy drug ponatinib (Iclusig) has just been taken off the market. The drug was under investigation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) following several reports of serious and life threatening blood clots and narrowing of the blood vessels.1 Ponatinib is a BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase…

By: Hamid Razaki, PharmD – Drug shortages seen across pharmacies in the United States continue to be an issue in patient care. A drug product shortage is defined as a supply issue that affects how the pharmacy prepares or dispenses a drug product, or that influences patient care when prescribers must use an alternative agent.1…

By: Ramya Mathew, PharmD Candidate c/o 2015 – Vertex Pharmaceuticals, an American biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been researching a new “nuke” for the treatment of Hepatitis C called VX-135. This nucleotide polymerase inhibitor is currently undergoing clinical trials, but the FDA has put the research on a partial hold due to findings…

By: Sang Hyo Kim, Staff Editor – Pharmacy, like much of medicine, is constantly changing, and the new changes in pharmacy practice are even happening to technicians. While there were originally no national standards for pharmacy-technician education and training, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) have…

By: Samantha Schmidt, PharmD Candidate c/o 2014, Palm Beach Atlantic University – The role of pharmacists in healthcare has grown exponentially over the years. Pharmacists now provide advanced patient-centered care services including coordination of medications during transitions of care, comprehensive medication reviews with medication monitoring, chronic disease management, disease education, prevention and wellness services, and…

By: Hayeon Na, Co-Copy Editor and Sang Hyo Kim, Staff Editor – In Volume 1 Issue1 of the Rho Chi Post, we were honored to have an interview with Sandra Leal, PharmD, MPH, FAPhA, CDE, and Director of Clinical Pharmacy at El Rio Health Center in Tucson, Arizona. She had started a petition to support…

By: Joshua Bliss, PharmD Candidate c/o 2016 – Doctor – a word often utilized by both professionals and the general public alike to describe a physician. “Doctor” finds its origins in the Latin word for “teacher.” The word “physician,” however, carries a more complicated origin. It is derived from Latin’s “physicum,” meaning remedy.1 In Luke…

By: Nathan Trustman, PharmD Candidate c/o 2014, AMSCOP at LIU – The antibiotic class known as the fluoroquinolones is widely used in both outpatient and inpatient settings. They provide bactericidal effects by inhibiting DNA gyrase and topoisomerase IV enzymes in bacteria. The systemic agents that are most commonly used in clinical practice include ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin,…

By: Aleena Cherian, Co-Copy Editor, Graphics Focused – Selecting APPE Rotations You’ve made it past the progression interviews at the end of 2nd year, the White Coat Ceremony, and the mind-boggling compounding and kinetics equations. You’re almost done with those labs and late night D&D study sessions. Now, halfway through the first semester of your…

By: Davidta Brown, Staff Editor – For the estimated 7.5 million individuals in the United States living with iron deficiency anemia (IDA), there is now a new alternative to iron supplements or time-consuming, repetitive infusions. On July 25, 2013, the FDA approved ferric carboxymaltose injection (Injectafer®) for the treatment of IDA, especially in patients who…

By: Ada Seldin, Staff Editor – On August 12,2013, a new weapon against HIV-1 infection was added to the existing armada. Dolutegravir, the third integrase strand transfer inhibitor to attain FDA approval, targets a protein essential to HIV replication. HIV-1 is the predominant type of HIV virus, the other being HIV-2, which is endogenous to…

By: Hayeon Na, Co-Copy Editor [Content-Focused] – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on July 26th that oral dosage forms of ketoconazole (Nizoral®) should no longer be prescribed as first-line therapy for any fungal infections.1 The label and indication for oral ketoconazole were updated, and a new medication guide was added. Other dosage forms…

By: Ada Seldin, Staff Editor – Emily Whitehead, a 7-year-old girl who fought off relapsing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), has captured the hearts and prayers of the masses. Her story is an inspiration to those battling any disease with a poor prognosis and particularly holds promise for the 15% of children with ALL resistant to…

Samad Tirmizi, Pharm. D. Candidate c/o 2014 – Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a clot formation that occurs within deep veins, generally in the legs. This can cause swelling and pain due to the engorged vessels, and can eventually result in further complications such as a pulmonary embolism. Patients at high risk for DVT are…

By: Davidta Brown, Staff Editor – When the seasons transition from winter into spring every year, healthcare providers brace for a shift into a time of increased sneezes, requests for cough medication, and vaccinations, otherwise known as flu season. The rounds of illness that pass each year are usually more of an annoyance than a…

By Davidta Brown, Staff Editor – For post-operative pain treatment, few drugs are as trustworthy, as tried-and-true, as codeine. Prescriptive confidence in the analgesic has promoted its use in children recovering from uncomplicated surgeries, but the spate of injuries and deaths of young children who had been given codeine after undergoing adenotonsillectomies has provoked a…

By: Praneeta Nagraj, PharmD Candidate c/o 2015 – Summer is a great time to recover from the school year through reflection and relaxation, but it’s also the perfect opportunity to develop your career and discover where you belong within the pharmacy profession, which can be realized through work or an internship. What if I told…

By: Aleena Cherian, Co-Copy Editor [Graphics-Focused] – Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic neurological behavior characterized by persistent patterns of inattention and/or hyperactive behavior, resulting in a wide range of emotional, functional, and neurocognitive impairments.1,2 First line therapy for ADHD consists of stimulant medications together with non-pharmacologic interventions, and has been shown to improve…

By Omar Khalid Pharm.D. Candidate c/o 2014 – The outpour of a multitude of new oral anticoagulants in recent years has health care professionals questioning whether they should switch the patients over, and what new agents should be used. With the recent addition of dabigatran (Pradaxa®) in October 2010, rivaroxaban (Xarelto®) in November 2011, and…

By: Efime Popovitz, BS/MD Candidate, Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education – When Sarah Murnaghan received the long awaited adult lung after years of battling cystic fibrosis, she not only narrowly escaped her death sentence, but also brought to light a plight that thousands of individuals face each day- a struggle for the opportunity to…

By: Nathan Trustman, PharmD Candidate c/o 2013, AMSCOP at LIU – Obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kg/m2 or greater. It is thought to be the result of an imbalance between energy intake and energy expenditure, possibly due to a number of genetic and environmental factors.1 It is estimated…

By: Beatrisa Popovitz, Staff Editor –  For the past decade, antibiotic resistant bacteria have been a growing concern in healthcare. Over the last few months, there has been a great deal of media attention surrounding strains of drug resistant bacteria in hospitals across the United States.  Most recently, there has been an increased effort to…

Davidta Brown, PharmD Candidate c/o 2017 –      The debate on the nature of compounding practice and the extent to which it ought to be regulated has come to the forefront of public attention.  Those who regularly follow American news and politics are familiar with the series of events that have led to the present…

By: Tina Chang & Helen Dong PharmD Candidates c/o 2014   Ever been to a conference where all you do is tweet all day? That’s exactly what we did at the New York State Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference, where this year’s focus was on the role of health information technology in…

By: Jacqueline Chirico; Pharm D Candidate c/o 2016 – The reasons behind the choice to study pharmacy here at St. John’s University vary from student to student. Some are interested in helping patients, while others are interested in the science behind how drugs affect the body. For me, it was the experience that I had…

By Sang Hyo Kim, Staff Editor – Angelina Jolie, the actress recognized for her charismatic beauty, revealed to the New York Times that she had undergone double mastectomy, the surgical removal of the breasts. Because her mother died of ovarian cancer at 56, when Jolie learned that she had a mutation in her BRCA1 gene,…

By: Ada Seldin and Moisey Rafailov, PharmD Candidates Class of 2015 – The “Coffeehouse Chats” is an annual Rho Chi Society Event that serves as a steppingstone to fostering professional relationships between students and faculty. The event provides a platform for students and professors to exchange experiences and ideas. This year, the event took place…

By: Andy Zhang, PharmD Candidate c/o 2015 – On March 28, 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the approval of Tecfidera™ (dimethyl fumarate) for the treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS) in adults.1 Tecfidera™ (dimethyl fumarate) will be the third oral drug used for the treatment of MS. The manufacturer Biogen…

By: Frances Sousonis, Candidate c/o 2017 – Unfortunately, cancer is a disease about which many are able to share stories. All too often, beloved persons are diagnosed with cancer, or, more regrettably, loses their battle with the beast. Colon cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States and around 150,000 people each…

By: Hayeon Na, Co-Copy Editor [Content-Focused] – On March 22, 2013, Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired an episode of “Need to Know” on the safety of low to moderate risk medical devices. The episode closely followed the lawsuit of patient Linda Gross who has pelvic organ prolapse and was advised by her doctor to undergo…

By: Helen Dong, PharmD Candidate c/o 2014  – Pharmacy Day, or Legislative Day, is a whole day affair for pharmacy students to meet and speak to members of the federal and state legislature in order to discuss issues that affect pharmacists and to lobby for our profession. This year’s talking points were expanding immunization rights…

By: Sharon Janak, PharmD Candidate c/o 2013 – How can we distinguish between vascular injury and Purple Glove Syndrome (an adverse effect of phenytoin)?  What are the warning signs and symptoms? Phenytoin is an anticonvulsant used to treat generalized tonic-clonic and partial seizures. It stabilizes neuronal cell membranes of the motor cortex by facilitating the…

By: Mitesh Patel, PharmD Candidate 2014 – $1.2 trillion- This is what the United States spends on healthcare. At 17% of GDP, this sector accounts for more spending in the U.S. than education, defense, welfare, and pension.1 By 2016, our expenditure on healthcare will rise to $1.6 trillion.1 As our health care spending increases, Americans…

By: Ada Seldin – An impending storm is threatening to stagger the health care system and the nation at large. Alzheimer’s disease, which now affects as many as 5.1 million Americans, is projected to triple its toll by 2050, to 13.8 million Americans.1 These sky-rocketing rates can be attributed to aging of the ‘baby boomers.’2…

By: Diana Gritsenko, Pharm D. Candidate c/o 2015 – Most of us who work in a community pharmacy setting will usually get a few scripts a month for an Epi-pen™.  An Epi-pen™ is a device that autoinjects epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) into a patient who is experiencing anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis is a severe, whole-body allergic…

By: Erica Dimitropoulos, Senior Staff Editor – Rheumatoid arthritis is a painful and often debilitating autoimmune disease characterized by symmetric polyarthritis, most commonly of the proximal interphalangeal and metacarpophalangeal joints, elbows, knees, ankles, and spine.1 Its clinical manifestations vary, from a slowly progressing onset of fatigue and musculoskeletal discomfort to a sudden and worsening destruction…

By Taryn Mondiello and Frances Trosa, Pharm. D. Candidates c/o 2015 – On Saturday, April 13th, there was a Red Storm on campus. This Red Storm, however, was probably not the one you are thinking about. While the people were in fact wearing red, they were actually participants of the APhA-ASP’s event “Run for the…

By Beatrisa Popovitz, Staff Editor, Why does that pharmacist have to be two and a half feet higher than everybody else? Who the hell is this guy? “Clear out everybody I’m workin’ with pills up here. I’m taking pills from this big bottle and then I’m gonna put them in a little bottle! That’s my…

By: Diana Gritsenko, Pharm D. Candidate c/o 2015 – Every flu season, it is the same story: long lines at doctors’ offices and pharmacy counters as patients scramble to get the year’s vaccine before supplies run out. Year after year, doctors and pharmacists groan while explaining over and over again to patients why they need…

By: Tasnima Nabi, Staff Editor – Merck & Co. will pay $688 million to settle two lawsuits filed in December 2008 over their patent-protected statin, Vytorin®.  The suits state that Merck and Schering-Plough delayed releasing the results of their ENHANCE study to avoid a decrease in revenue.1 Vytorin® is a combination drug of simvastatin and…

By: James W. Schurr and David Gao, PharmD Candidates 2014 – A recent Op-ed in Newsday by Allen Frances, MD (of Duke University School of Medicine and chairman of the task force that produced the DSM-IV, the current guidelines for psychiatric disease diagnosis) criticizes the American Psychiatric Association for being “extravagantly indifferent to all matters…

By: Nandini Puranprashad, PharmD Candidate; Sibyl Cherian, PharmD Candidate; Tracey Cannova, PharmD Candidate; and Olga HilasPharmD, MPH, BCPS, CGP  – Adverse drug reactions are estimated to occur in 10-20% of hospitalized patients and in 7% of the general population.1 One-third of these reactions are of an allergic or pseudo-allergic nature. The consequences of these hypersensitivity…

By: Bethsy Jacob, PharmD Candidate 2014 – On January 18, 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a new approval for Botox, generically known as OnabotulinumtoxinA. Patients diagnosed with urinary incontinence due to an overactive bladder can be prescribed Botox, if they are unable to take or are unresponsive to anticholinergic medications.  This…

By:  Christina Tarantola, PharmD, PGY-1 Resident at Kings Pharmacy – The New York State Department of Health issued a health advisory on November 8, 2012 in response to Hurricane Sandy. The document outlined guidelines on recommended immunizations and disaster relief efforts for volunteers and the general public. Due to an increased risk of exposure to…

By:  Erica Dimitropoulos, Assistant Student Editor – Although clinical trials can affirm the efficacy and advantages of all marketed medications, it is obvious that patients cannot benefit from a drug that they choose not to take. Therefore, promoting medication adherence is one of the easiest and most affordable ways to improve treatment outcomes. In order…

By:  Miriam Maltz, PharmD Candidate c/o 2013, AMSCOP, Long Island University – Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia that is pursuant to insulin resistance, defects in insulin secretion, or both1. Chronic hyperglycemia is associated with detrimental effects on various organ systems that can increase mortality and impact the patient’s…