Health
School of Pharmacy Chapter Honored
By Kukla Vera on June 25, 2009 7:45 AM
The USC School of Pharmacy Student Chapter of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) was named Outstanding Chapter of the Year, and three USC student presenters took home top honors at the society’s 14th Annual International Meeting in Orlando.
The chapter honor is based on the group’s work throughout the year, which was capped by hosting the third biennial Western Student Pharmacoeconomics Conference held last March in Pasadena.
The three-day conference attracted a global audience of more than 100 students and professionals tackling some of the most pressing pharmacoeconomic issues of the day. The program also provided an opportunity for students to network with leaders in the field.
“I’m very pleased to see USC win the Outstanding Student Chapter of the Year award,” said Joel Hay, professor of pharmaceutical economics and policy at USC. “As the founder of the USC graduate program in pharmaceutical economics and policy and also a founding member of ISPOR, I am very gratified to see how well both of these programs have succeeded in contributing to scientific knowledge and to health care policy. I’m particularly grateful to Adam Turpcu and all the USC students who worked so hard to make the USC Western Student Pharmacoeconomics Conference such a resounding success this year."
Turpcu, a Ph.D. student in pharmaceutical economics and policy at the School of Pharmacy, is the president of the student chapter. Hay is the group’s faculty adviser.
In addition to the student chapter award, Ph.D. student Hae Sun Suh was named one of the three best podium presentation winners at the conference. Suh presented her research findings on cardiovascular event rates among patients with type 2 diabetes. Her study compared patients on statin drug monotherapy to those on statin plus fibrate combination therapy. Suh is a student of Jason Doctor, associate professor in the School of Pharmacy.
Top honors for best student poster presentations were also taken by USC. Ning Yan Gu, who was awarded a Ph.D. from the School of Pharmacy at this year’s commencement, won for her poster that examined the validity of the most widely used quality-of-life measure by evaluating the health of people in the study over time.
Aniket Kawatkar’s poster focused on the effects of physical activity on obesity and the role the activity plays in the likely development of obesity. Kawatkar, who also received his Ph.D. from the School of Pharmacy at this year’s commencement, concluded that physical activity does provide a significant protective effect against the likelihood of obesity. The study was done with professor Michael Nichol at the School of Pharmacy.
The pharmaceutical economics and policy program is part of the School of Pharmacy’s Titus Family Department.
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