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1st appeared
18
August 2000
Pharmacy School Dedicates Informatics Center Continuing its long history of breaking new ground in the application of technologies to pharmaceutical science and pharmaceutical care, the UCSF School of Pharmacy recently celebrated the inauguration of the Thomas A. Oliver Informatics Resource Center (IRC). Located on the ninth floor of the Medical Sciences Building (S 918), the new facility provides state-of-the-art training for students in the use of video conferencing and advanced computing tools to quickly identify, evaluate and electronically transmit drug information, construct appropriate treatment plans for patients, and analyze health care data. The center includes 37 networked workstations -- most of them with computers discreetly recessed into the tables to allow users to easily interact without obstruction from bulky computer monitors. Each workstation is equipped with programs to allow users to share information instantly and globally via teleconferencing and Internet accessed instruction. The facility's video cameras can zoom in on whoever is speaking into their personal headset microphone from their workstation. Video cameras also allow the group to interact with collaborators around the campus or around the world. "Groupware" enables instructors to interact with the class through the computer, and for members of the class seated at distant workstations to work together -- whether composing a paper, preparing graphics or making slide presentations and scientific posters, explained Robert Day, associate dean of the School of Pharmacy and host of the recent open house. At that event last month, a group of invited guests, most of whom had donated to the School of Pharmacy to help develop the facility, donned headsets and watched as graduate student Sean Mooney demonstrated an interactive program that allows the class to study macromolecular structures of drugs and drug targets. The course could not be taught effectively in a classroom environment and would have been impossible before IRC was completed, said Patricia Babbitt, assistant professor. Just before the hands-on event, Dean Mary Anne Koda-Kimble dedicated the IRC, unveiling a plaque outside the center containing the names of all the donors. "The Thomas A. Oliver IRC has already had a substantial impact on the way many of our faculty teach and our students learn. It is our expectation that ultimately, every course will benefit from its existence," said Koda-Kimble. Links: |
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