Photo by Majed
B. Joseph Guglielmo, Jr., PharmD, a nationally recognized expert on the use of drugs to control infection, has been named chair of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy in the UCSF School of Pharmacy.
Guglielmo has served since 1995 as the department's vice chair of scholarship. He established and directs the antimicrobial drug management program at the UCSF Medical Center, designed to improve antimicrobial use and decrease microbial resistance to prescribed drugs. He has been a leading clinical pharmacist, researcher, teacher, and administrator at UCSF for 27 years.
He will assume the new post on March 20. With his new appointment, Guglielmo will also hold the Thomas A. Oliver Endowed Chair in Clinical Pharmacy. The appointment follows a highly competitive national search.
"Joe's clinical and research prominence on the best use of antimicrobials, together with his strong leadership within the School and on campus, will provide the department with a terrific balance of strengths," said Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD, dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy. "We are quite fortunate Joe accepted the position. I look forward to working with him as the new chair."
Guglielmo becomes chair at a time of increasing national attention on medication access, cost, use, and misuse. "With turmoil in our health care system, the confusion over the Medicare Part D drug benefit, drug costs, and drug choice, pharmacists are suddenly in the spotlight on the nightly TV news, in legislative hearing rooms, and in front of community groups across the country," says Guglielmo. "Now more than ever it's important for the profession to demonstrate its value to the public's health."
In his new role and together with his faculty, Guglielmo will spearhead the department's goals to increase direct patient access to pharmacists, solve health care problems based on evidence from a broadened research agenda, and develop its young faculty members into tomorrow's national leaders on medication policies and procedures.
Guglielmo's research interests include the pharmacoepidemiology of infectious diseases, outcomes associated with antimicrobial control programs, and the pharmacokinetics of antiinfectives. His research is widely published in professional journals, including the
Journal of the American Medical Association, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Pharmacotherapy, and Annals of Pharmacotherapy.
Guglielmo has received several teaching awards and has been closely involved in the continuing development of the School's doctor of pharmacy curriculum, which offers students a choice among three areas of curricular emphasis. As an editor of Applied Therapeutics and Handbook of
Applied Therapeutics, and as author or editor of chapters in other textbooks, including
Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment, his teaching extends worldwide.
His leadership record includes service on many high-profile national, university-wide and campus committees, and he has presented at many national and international professional meetings.
"Joe is an exceptional and natural leader as evidenced by his national impact on the use and management of medications to treat infectious diseases," says Merle Sande, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and former chief of medical services at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center. "What great news Joe will now lead a broader and extremely important pharmacy agenda."
Guglielmo will lead a department of 50 paid and more than 600 volunteer faculty members. The department promotes rational drug use and policies that support safe, effective use of medicines.
"The Department of Clinical Pharmacy faculty practices at sites throughout California, administers the California State Poison Control System, and works with colleagues internationally from Vietnam to Malawi," says Guglielmo. "I look forward to exciting new collaborations through the department's talented faculty members."
Guglielmo earned a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Southern California. He joined the UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty in 1979 after a UCSF residency in pharmacy practice.
UCSF is a leading university that consistently defines health care worldwide by conducting advanced biomedical research, educating graduate students in the life sciences, and providing complex patient care.
