UCSF Pharmacy Dean Gives Update

UCSF School of Pharmacy Dean Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD, issued an update on the school's accomplishments, faculty awards and other campus news.

Dean Mary Anne Koda-Kimble

Koda-Kimble reports that the school’s resolve to speak up and lead remains strong. She cited three examples of Department of Clinical Pharmacy faculty members whose voices are being heard.

"During her keynote address to the California Pharmacists Association (CPhA) in February 2011, health policy expert Helene Levens Lipton, PhD, advocated for the pharmacist as a key player in successful health care reform. The title of her speech says it all: If You’re Not at the Table, You’re on the Menu. To lead by example, [Lipton] called on CPhA’s legislative body, the House of Delegates, to officially proclaim its support for inclusion of compensated medication therapy management services, provided by pharmacists, in the mandated health benefit package offered under the California Health Benefit Exchange. The motion won overwhelming support from the House of Delegates. The Health Benefit Exchange will provide health insurance coverage for the uninsured and under-insured within the Affordable Care Act. California was the first state in the nation to pass legislation to create this insurance program under the health reform law."

On the international front, the dean reported that Lisa Bero, PhD, led a move to include the Cochrane Collaboration on the World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO). The collaboration was awarded an Assembly seat on Jan. 23, 2011, and Bero was named as the collaboration’s representative. "The Cochrane Collaboration is an international organization that promotes high-quality research and evidenced-based decisions about health care, so we anticipate that this move will significantly influence WHO’s use of research evidence in its policy decisions. [Bero] is a long-time collaboration member and director of the San Francisco branch of the U.S. Cochrane Center. She spent part of last year on sabbatical at the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland. 

To read the entire update from the dean, visit the UCSF School of Pharmacy website. http://pharmacy.ucsf.edu/facultyandstaff/update/201103/