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Message from the Dean

Our province is facing a critical public health situation with respect to the impacts of COVID-19 and it continues to affect everything we do. The dedication and assurance of pharmacists to the people of Manitoba during this pandemic is truly appreciated and does not go unnoticed. The commitment and support our faculty and staff at the College of Pharmacy have dedicated towards our students in this unprecedented times has been remarkable.

With the safety and wellness of our learners remaining our top priority, the College of Pharmacy’s response to the COVID-19 crisis over the last few weeks has proved to be effective.  We successfully moved our classes online and students were able to complete all their exams without significant technical difficulties. Our final year students have successfully completed all requirements for graduation. We continue to support our students, faculty and staff through the ongoing changes related to COVID-19 and look forward to the times ahead.

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Pharmacists play essential role in COVID-19 response

As front-line health-care professionals, many pharmacists are playing an important role in patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic in community pharmacies, hospitals and other health-care settings including long-term care.

Rad the full article in UM Today

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Excellence in education

Dr. Alessi-Severini was awarded the Ed Kroeger Mentorship Award for 2020, an award that recognizes current professors who have exemplified excellence in graduate and professional teaching, have been portrayed as noteworthy mentors, and strive to enhance student abilities and potential. She was nominated by current graduate students Donica Janzen, Kevin Friesen, Olasumbo Ojo and Alekhya Lavu, and alumni Amani Hamad and Wajd Alkabbani. 

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Emotional support dogs planned for Bannatyne campus

Staff members Natalie Scofield-Singh and Niki Riches have been successful in receiving a Success through Wellness grant for “PAWS for a Smile!” a project centred on connecting the Bannatyne community with therapy dogs from St. John Ambulance.

Read the full article

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Bringing a College of Pharmacy perspective to Brazil

Dr. Sherif Eltonsy taught an intensive course in Brazil this past February at UNICAMP University’s faculty of pharmacy. The course was attended by 29 learners comprised of graduate students and researchers. Titled Pharmacoepidemiology and Medical Literature Evaluation, the course was designed to introduce concepts and principles of pharmacoepidemiology in the context of drug evaluation.

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Resilient researchers continue important UM work from home during COVID-19 crisis

Many researchers, like Dr. Hagar Labouta, have had to make adjustments in light of the recent events taking place during the pandemic. Adapting to working from home has required her, and others like her, to shift focus while balancing a family. Dr. Labouta is currently working on COVID-19-related research with scientists at the University of Manitoba, in the United States and in Germany.

Read the full story in UM Today

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Recently funded projects

The College of Pharmacy is please to be a part of a number of recently funded projects.

Read the full article

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Welcome

The College of Pharmacy would like to welcome the following additions to our team:

Tracy Foster has joined the College as the new executive assistant to the dean.

Britt Kural is an experiential education facilitator, bringing many years of experience in community pharmacy to the office of experiential education.

Karin Ens will transition from providing supports to the skills lab courses to her new role as an experiential education facilitator in the office of experiential education, starting July 1, 2020.

Robin Oliver will continue his contributions to teaching in the skills lab courses in his new role as instructor starting July 1, 2020.

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Position available

UM Careers - Assistant/Associate Professor - Applied Therapeutics - Requisition No 10616

Please visit the human resources page for information on this employment opportunity.

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Pharmacy Awareness Month (PAM) – March 2020

For pharmacists, March is a month dedicated to awareness of this trusted profession. Due to the global pandemic, this year it was also about resilience, flexibility and creativity.

Read the full article

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Apothecary: Stories of leadership, wellness and pharmily recipes!

The Canadian Association of Pharmacy Students and Interns (CAPSI) Manitoba branch has released their first volume of Apothecary, a newsletter that focuses on leadership, wellness, recipes and “pharmily.” Highlights include interviews with several national members in pharmacy leadership, including Dr. Lalitha Raman-Wilms, dean of the College of Pharmacy, many sweet and savoury home-grown recipes, wellness resources for Bannatyne students, and Voices of CAPSI.

Download the PDF (122 MB)

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Congratulations!

Tushar Upreti has been awarded the 2020 GSK/CSPS National Undergraduate Student Research Award by the Canadian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences (CSPS) for his research project, “The effect of gold nanoparticle protein corona formation on its imaging capability of tumour tissue”. He has been awarded $1,250 to attend the 7th FIP Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress (PSWC2020) in Montreal, QC. His work has been accepted in the conference as a poster presentation. 

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Pharmacy graduate student to study medications in breast milk

College of pharmacy graduate student Uma Yakandawala wants to dig deeper into patient values and preferences when it comes to medications and breast milk. Last fall, Yakandawala joined the College of Pharmacy master’s program to begin her research studying medications in breast milk and has recently received the 2020 Canada Graduate Scholarships – Masters (CGS M) award which will support her in her studies.

Read the full story in UM Today

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PhD student to present virtually at prestigious conference

Yiheng Huang’s abstract has been accepted by the 80th American Diabetes Association (ADA) Annual Scientific Conference as an oral presentation. This is a significant honour for a PhD student as the ADA is considered the most authoritative diabetic conference in the world. Due to the pandemic Huang cannot present in person at the Chicago event, but her video will be made available for viewing at the conference. Huang’s supervisor is associate professor Dr. Dake Qi. The conference will take place from June 12-16, 2020.

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Graduate student featured in the British Medical Journal

Sai Gudi’s post, “What makes coronavirus disease (COVID-19) challenging compared to other coronavirus pandemics?” was recently featured in the Postgraduate Medical Journals' blog produced by the British Medical Journal. The graduate student’s interesting and informative article speaks to the considerable characteristics that enumerate the divergence of the COVID-19 while comparing with the other CoV pandemics.

Read the article

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Alumni of Distinction call for nominations

We are now accepting nominations for Alumni of Distinction. This prestigious award recognizes graduates of the College of Pharmacy for their outstanding accomplishments, contributions to their community, at home or abroad, or exceptional leadership skills.

If you would like to nominate someone for this award, please fill out a nomination form.

Deadline: Monday, June 15, 2020

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Virtual graduation celebration

With the extraordinary circumstances of COVID-19, we will be unable to go forward with our Welcome to the Profession event as planned this spring. Instead, we will be celebrating our student’s accomplishments on June 29th in a virtual graduation celebration.

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