The Wyeth Apothecary Award Winners
Recognizing Professional Achievement Through Advanced Learning
Taking the time to find the right approach
British Columbia pharmacist wins Wyeth Apothecary Award for advanced training in compounding
Among physicians and patients alike, Michael Millman is known as the pharmacist who can come up with solutions no one else can find. With specialty training in compounding, combined with almost 30 years in practice, Millman has become what one physician calls “a fountain of knowledge no matter what the disease state.” These accomplishments have earned Millman the Wyeth Apothecary Award for British Columbia.
A native of Montreal, Millman graduated from McGill University with a Bachelor of Science in Anatomy, a Master of Science in Experimental Surgery and a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of British Columbia. He worked as a clinical pharmacist at Shaughnessy Hospital for four years and a part-time lecturer at the University of British Columbia. In 1985 he opened Delta Prescription Clinic (DPC), which became a Medicine Centre Pharmacy in 1997 and a member of the Professional Compounding Centers of America that same year.
Although Millman doesn’t personally do the physical part of compounding anymore, he is renowned for his knowledge in this area. “As a compounder, you are always stretching the limit of what you know, researching something you haven’t seen, helping people find the right approach to therapy,” he says. He finds hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to be particularly interesting and challenging. “HRT was one of those issues where women were pulling their hair out. It takes time as a pharmacist to come up with solution.”
Time is a DPC staple. “We specialize in a lot of niches that other pharmacies find too time-consuming,” Millman says. These specialities include bio-identical hormone replacement, veterinary compounding, palliative care, and herbal and homeopathic remedies. Delta is also a BC renal pharmacy and nutritional pharmacy. But with up to 12 staff working in a store of just 1,000 square feet, “we have enough staff that we can spend as much time as we need with each patient.”
In accepting the Wyeth Apothecary Award, Millman gratefully acknowledges the contributions of his colleagues. “I would be nothing without my staff,” he says. He adds, “My time and effort have always been committed professionally to my patients, physicians, staff and the community in which I work. I hope I have left my mark there.”
Millman chose to donate his $1,000 award to the Chrohn’s & Colitis Foundation of British Columbia/Yukon.
The more you know
Ontario pharmacist wins Wyeth Apothecary Award for specialty training in diabetes
One of Tino Montopoli’s favourite pieces of advice for patients with diabetes is “The more you learn about your disease, the more liberated you become.” Monotopoli speaks from experience. He has had type 1 diabetes for more than four decades, and he has learned just about all there is to know about the disease.
A graduate of the University of Toronto, Montopoli is currently the owner-manager of Stutt’s Pharmacy and Diabetes Depot in Orono, Ont. He also holds a contract position with the Peterborough Networked Family Health Team where he assists patients in managing their diabetes.
Montopoli became involved in diabetes education early in his career. In the 1980s, he became a member of the Diabetes Educators Section of the Canadian Diabetes Association. He became a Certified Diabetes Educator in 1997, and four years ago he became a Certified Pump Trainer (he wears an insulin pump himself).
“Specializing in diabetes has opened a lot of doors in my practice,” Montopoli says. He is part of the Advisory Committee for the establishment of Diabetes Education Centre at St Joseph’s Hospital in Peterborough and he teaches at the Diabetes Education program at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. In the late 90’s he was also a member of Diabetes Complications Prevention Network that advised Ontario’s Ministry of Health on issues affecting diabetes prevention and treatment.
Just this last year, he was part of a team that developed a pharmacist-led diabetes medication management program, which allows pharmacists “incredible latitude” to initiate insulin treatment and adjust doses on oral diabetes, hypertension and lipid-lowering drugs. Montopoli now spends one or two mornings a month providing individualized hour-long counselling sessions for diabetes patients. “Diabetes is a very complicated disease, impacted by so many factors like lifestyle, emotions and medications. It isn’t just about blood glucose,” he says. “It is very gratifying to know that I am really helping people to learn to help themselves through self-management.”
Whether he is counselling individual patients or developing new provincial programs, Montopoli is constantly working to improve the lives of people with diabetes. His dedication and accomplishments earned Montopoli the Wyeth Apothecary Award for Ontario. He has chosen to donate his $1,000 award to Canadian Diabetes Association’s Charles H. Best Research Fund.
A unique niche
Alberta pharmacist wins Wyeth Apothecary Award for specialized training in ambulatory cardiology care
Dr. Sheri Koshman is a rarity among pharmacists. Not only is she one of the first pharmacists in Alberta to receive additional prescribing authority, she is also one of a very small group of pharmacists in Canada to have been appointed to a professorial position within a faculty of medicine (Division of Cardiology at the University of Alberta).
Dr. Koshman says she didn’t plan to specialize in cardiology or become a professor. But after graduating from the University of British Columbia with her Doctor of Pharmacy in 2005, she found that she “knew a little about a lot, but not a lot about any one thing.” She was drawn to ambulatory care for its “nice mix of community and hospital pharmacy,” she says. “It’s the best of both worlds because you interact with patients and work with a multidisciplinary team.”
Moving to Edmonton, Dr. Koshman undertook a one-of-a-kind speciality training program at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, which focussed on ambulatory cardiology care. During the first part of the program, she concentrated on developing her physical assessment skills, a rare focus for a pharmacist. One of her supervisors, Dr. Ross Tsuyuki, reports that her physical assessment skills “exceeded that of the cardiology residents (who have been physicians for five to six years already).”
Dr. Koshman’s training also included ambulatory rotations in a variety of areas related to cardiology, including a very unique cardiology referral triage service called Cardiac EASE (Easing Access and Speeding Evaluation). This clinic utilizes advanced nurse practitioners and advanced clinical pharmacists to assess and triage cardiac patients who are referred from the community. As an EASE pharmacist, Dr. Koshman interviews and examines patients, presents the relevant clinical history and exam findings to the collaborating physician, and offers therapeutic recommendations.
It would be an understatement to say that Dr. Koshman has expanded her professional practice. She now has an extremely unique set of skills that has allowed her to advance her practice, and indeed pharmacy practice in general, to an unparalleled degree. She is a leader in the area of pharmacist prescribing, continuing education for pharmacists, and with the Alberta Branch of the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists.
Her academic accomplishments and advanced professional practice have earned Dr. Koshman the Wyeth Apothecary Award for Alberta. She chose to donate her $1,000 award to the University of British Columbia's Doctor of Pharmacy Program.
Becoming the go-to source in compounding
Prince Edward Island pharmacist wins Wyeth Apothecary Award for specialized training in compounding
As the pharmacy manager and compounding pharmacist at Murphy’s Parkdale Pharmacy, Lisa Kelly is well known among healthcare professionals and patients in Charlottetown as the go-to person for compounding solutions. From the pediatrician looking for a child-appropriate dose of a cardiac medication, to women searching for alternatives to traditional hormone replacement therapies, to a veterinarian requiring a hard-to-find compound—the community turns to Kelly for her specialized knowledge and skills. For this expertise, Kelly has earned the Wyeth Apothecary Award for Prince Edward Island.
For more than a decade, Kelly has been learning and perfecting compounding skills. She graduated from the University of Prince Edward Island with a Bachelor of Science in Biology, then obtained her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Dalhousie University in 1992. She joined Murphy’s Pharmacy in Charlottetown in 1994, shortly after which Murphy’s joined Professional Compounding Centers of America.
Through this unique network of pharmacists, Kelly has received extensive ACPE-accredited training and education. At least twice a year, she travels around North America to learn the latest innovations in compounding techniques and train in areas such as functional endocrinology, pain management and hormone replacement therapy, well as participate in clinical practice sessions and professional networking.
Expanding her practice through this specialty education has been “very rewarding and interesting professionally. People come to me for my knowledge. Even other pharmacists call for advice,” she say, adding that physicians often call ahead to consult before sending their patients to Murphy’s. With a nurse, dietitian and diabetes educator on staff at the pharmacy, Kelly’s compounding skills are just one component of the total healthcare services on offer.
She particularly likes helping women find an alternative to hormone replacement therapy, and this year she has offered several well-attended public information sessions on menopause and HRT. “Women say we have helped relieve their menopause symptoms when nothing else was working.”
Pediatrics is another favourite specialty for Kelly. She relates the story of one autistic child who refused to take any medication until Kelly prepared a flavourless, colourless, preservative-free version. “It is very rewarding when you can get a child to take a medication that they wouldn’t otherwise tolerate,” she says.
Kelly has chosen to donate her award to the Dalhousie University College of Pharmacy Student Emergency Fund.
The letter of the law
Quebec pharmacist wins Wyeth Apothecary Award for broadening his pharmacy skills with a law degree
It is not uncommon for pharmacists have two or even three university degrees, adding a Masters in Science or PharmD to their Bachelor of Pharmacy. More unusual is for a pharmacist to complete a second degree in a completely unrelated field. But for Bernard Deshaies, the decision to obtain both a pharmacy and law degree was a logical one.
“In life, law is everywhere,” says Deshaies, who has a Bachelor of Pharmacy (1993) and a Bachelor of Law (1997) from Laval University. “Although I have never practised as a lawyer, my law degree has expanded my professional practice as a pharmacist in many ways.”
At the age of just 33, for example, Deshaies was appointed as a judge to the Conseil de discipline de l’Ordre des pharmaciens du Québec, the tribunal that hears and determines pharmacy malpractice cases in the province. “I was very honoured to receive this appointment at such a young age,” he says. “Most of the other judges are much older.”
His legal background was also influential in his appointment to the l’Association des pharmaciens en établissement de santé (APES). As a member of the committee, Deshaies was involved in negotiations to establish a work agreement between the union of hospital pharmacists and the government of Quebec.
For almost a decade, Deshaies has been working as a hospital pharmacist at Centre hospitalier régional de Trois-Rivières (CHRTR) and at Centre de santé et de services sociaux (CSSS) de Maskinongé in Louiseville. Even working as a hospital pharmacist, law continues to play a role, as he is a member of the hospital’s research ethics committee.
Despite the influence of law in his career, Deshaies says his “real passion is diabetes.” He has completed numerous continuing education courses in diabetes and now works closely on a multidisciplinary diabetes care team. “At the hospital, they gave me the chance to use my diabetes skills and improve them, to get more and more involved in diabetes care,” he says. “What I find fascinating about diabetes is that pharmacists can provide patients with very concrete solutions.” He frequently writes articles, develops patient education materials and gives presentations about the disease.
In recognition of his diverse education and significant accomplishments, Deshaies was presented with Wyeth Apothecary Award for the province of Quebec. He chose to donate his award to Laval University.Expertise in compounding helps expand practice
Manitoba pharmacist wins Wyeth Apothecary Award for advanced training in compounding
If you live in Manitoba and need specialty compounding, chances are you will be referred to Dennis Wong. As owner and consulting pharmacist of CD Whyte Ridge Pharmacy Specialty Compounding & Wellness Centre in Winnipeg, Wong is regarded as one of the province’s leading specialists in compounding, whose expertise is sought by patients and physicians alike.
Wong’s pharmacy, which he opened in 1997 with his wife and fellow pharmacist Cindy Yap-Wong, started out as a traditional community pharmacy. The shift to specialty compounding came about in response to their clients’ needs. “When we started, we had a fairly high pediatric population,” Wong remembers. “But there were not a lot of options for these patients. I decided to explore what I could do to help them.”
Wong joined Professional Compounding Centers of America in 2001, and since then has completed numerous PCCA educational programs, from basic compounding to pain managements, bio-identical hormone replacement, nutrition and functional endocrinology. He has also completed the palliative care course offered by the Learning Centre for Palliative Care of the Victoria Hospice Society, along with a Fellowship in Anti-Aging, Regenerative and Functional Medicine (FAARFM) and has passed the Anti-Aging board exam. He is certified as Clinical Nutritionist (CCN) and holds Diplomat certification with the American Board of Anti-Aging Health Practitioners (ABAAHP).
Believing that a pharmacist’s education is never finished, Wong is now enrolled in a three-year functional medicine certification program provided by the Institute for Functional Medicine, as well as a Masters program in Metabolic & Nutritional Science through the University of South Florida, School of Medicine.
“Information is always changing and new modalities are always being developed. Pharmacists have to constantly maintain their education if they are to care for their patients properly,” he says.
“My specialty training and continuing education have expanded my practice far more than I expected,” he continues. Wong’s focus now is on chronic disease management, specializing in cancer care, palliative care, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, adrenal fatigue and pain management. “Patients with Chronic Fatigue seem to have the most need. Often, their doctors tell them there is nothing that can be done for them, but we try to find options that will help and support them.”
Wong’s dedication and professionalism have been recognized by his profession. He was awarded the 2004 Bonnie Schultz Memorial Award for Practice Excellence in Patient Care by the Manitoba Pharmaceutical Association, and this year he was honoured with the Wyeth Apothecary Award for Manitoba. He chose to donate his award to the University of Manitoba Faculty of Pharmacy.
Pair team up to help patients kick the habit
Saskatchewan pharmacists win Wyeth Apothecary Award for advanced training in smoking cessation
Smoking cessation therapy is arguably one of the most effective health-promotion initiatives that pharmacists can provide to their patients. Beginning in 2008, Saskatchewan pharmacists were offered the opportunity to receive specialty training to provide tobacco cessation counselling to help clients successfully kick the habit.
Heather Dean and Shona Elder, both pharmacists with Safeway Pharmacy in Regina, jumped at the chance to expand their practice through the Partnership to Assist with Cessation of Tobacco (PACT) program. “I became interested in this area of continuing education because I see so many patients suffering from smoking-related illnesses,” says Dean. Elder, who is also a Certified Respiratory Educator, is particularly concerned by the prevalence of smoking she sees among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). “PACT is the perfect complement to my education in asthma and COPD,” she says.
The program, which is coordinated through the Pharmacists Association of Saskatchewan and received funding for pharmacist training from Health Canada, provides pharmacists with in-depth training on nicotine addiction and teaches them how to help individuals to assess their readiness to quit, guide them through the steps to quitting, offer advice on medications that may help, and provide ongoing support and encouragement. “Thanks to Janice Burgess, the PACT program trainer, we learned how to integrate PACT skills into our daily practice,” says Dean.
“We learned how to treat nicotine addiction with both pharmacological therapies and behaviour modification techniques,” says Elder. “That kind of combined approach has been shown to significantly improve a patient’s chance of successfully quitting smoking.”
Patients who enroll in the program receive 100 minutes of counselling over the course of a year, beginning with an initial half-hour consultation. “Then we follow up with them, check on their motivation and help them get back on track if they’ve fallen off the wagon,” Dean explains.
In addition to counselling patients through their pharmacies, Dean and Elder are using their training to provide group tobacco cessation sessions to patients of the Family Medicine Unit at the Regina General Hospital. They also offer group sessions to the employees of the Regina QuAppelle Health Region, which recently introduced new policies to restrict smoking in or around its facilities.
These initiatives earned Dean and Elder the Wyeth Apothecary Award for Saskatchewan. Dean chose to donate $500 of award to the Canadian Cancer Society, while Elder donated $500 to the Lung Association of Saskatchewan.
Leading through learning
New Brunswick pharmacist wins Wyeth Apothecary Award for advanced training in diabetes
Personal experience plus continuing education equals professional excellence. This is the equation that garnered Mary Feero the Wyeth Apothecary Award for New Brunswick.
Feero is a champion for patients with diabetes. She became a certified diabetes educator (CDE) in 2003 after experiencing gestational diabetes herself and noticing the skyrocketing incidence of diabetes in her practice.
“The number of people with diabetes is skyrocketing. It is a huge area where we have more patients than the ability to look after them. We need more people to take on the challenge,” she says of her decision to specialize in diabetes care.
The CDE course not only taught her about diabetes management but also how to convey this information to her adult patients. “At its core, the program teaches you how to approach patients and move them through the journey of learning. It’s very valuable.”
Feero is a graduate of Dalhousie University who has worked as a community pharmacist for various Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacies in the Maritimes and Ontario. Last year, she became an owner-pharmacist for The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy in Fredericton, where she now offers numerous specialized programs and services targeting the diabetes population.
“There are endless possibilities for serving people with diabetes,” she says. She offers individual counselling to patients with diabetes, helping them understand the complexities of the disease, their medications, meal planning and blood glucose monitoring. “There is a great need for counselling. When people are first diagnosed with diabetes, they feel overwhelmed. I sit down with them for 30 or 40 minutes, answer their questions and send them home with a feeling that they can manage this disease. It’s very empowering.”
Feero has also expanded her professional practice by offering free in-store glucose screening, foot care screening clinics, Glucagon emergency kit training for local elementary schools and long-term care facilities, patient medication reviews and public educational seminars. Most importantly, she provides an avenue for diabetes care in a city with long waiting lists and an ongoing physician shortage.
As a member of the Canadian Diabetes Association’s community pharmacy outreach program, Feero is a key point of contact for all people with diabetes in her community, and provides valuable support and assistance for the Association in its goal to prevent and manage diabetes.
Feero has chosen to donate her $1,000 award to the Canadian Diabetes Association and the Brunswick Street Community Health Centre.
Combining academics and clinical knowledge for a winning combination
Newfoundland & Labrador pharmacist wins Wyeth Apothecary Award for specialty training in anticoagulation therapy management
If ever there was an award custom made for Stephanie Young it would be the Wyeth Apothecary Award. This award recognizes pharmacists who have completed specialty education or training and who, as a result, have successfully expanded their professional practice. Young’s career has been all about education.
Young received her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1990, then practiced for a year before entering the hospital pharmacy residency program in Halifax. In 2003, she received her Doctor of Pharmacy from Idaho State University, an accomplishment even more remarkable because she completed most of her didactic work while practicing abroad in a Saudi Arabian hospital. Just this past spring, Stephanie graduated from Memorial University with her Master of Science in Medicine in Community Health. Her current position is Assistant Professor at Memorial’s School of Pharmacy, where she teaches in several courses, including therapeutics, skills and toxicology.
In 2005 she began a pilot project as a primary healthcare pharmacist in a family medicine clinic in St. John’s. Part of her work at the clinic was to develop a collaborative anticoagulation management program at the request of the family physicians. Her interests in anticoagulation management began in 2003, with the completion of a 4-day Anticoagulation Workshop. To update her skills and knowledge, in 2006 she completed an online Anticoagulation Therapy Management Certificate Program through the University of Southern Indiana.
Today she continues her work at the family medicine clinic. As part of this work, she manages all the clinic’s warfarin patients and is perhaps one of the only pharmacists in the province to take on this role. She helped develop the policies and procedures for this service, which includes managing all the day-to-day activities, such as retrieving the INR, patient assessments, making dose adjustments if needed, liaising with physicians and developing educational material, etc.
Young says that the academic and clinical sides of her career benefit each other. “When I’m teaching, I can offer my students real case studies to illustrate the relevancy of a lesson. And because of the topics I teach, I have to stay up to date on all the latest guidelines and issues.”
Young has chosen to donate her $1,000 award to the Kristine Cadigan Fund at Memorial’s School of Pharmacy. “Kristine was a first-year pharmacy student who died suddenly,” she explains. “It was fitting to donate the funds to a scholarship program in her name, as the fund helps recognize a student each year who displays the same characteristics as Kristine—helpful, dedicated, well rounded and committed to the profession of pharmacy”
Getting personal about diabetes treatment
Nova Scotia pharmacist wins Wyeth Apothecary Award for specialty training in diabetes
When Michele Forsythe Lycett was diagnosed gestational diabetes then type 2 diabetes in 2000, she was in good company. Her hometown of Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, has a remarkably high incidence of diabetes among its 1,000 or so inhabitants. “I estimate that about 20 per cent of our population has diabetes, although we are a retirement community so the numbers are skewed because we have so many older residents,” she explains.
A graduate of Dalhousie University’s College of Pharmacy, Lycett became a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) the same year as her diagnosis in order to educate herself and her patients about the disease. She has maintained her certification by taking more than 50 continuing education credits in this speciality each year and immersing herself in virtually all things diabetes. She became deeply involved with the Canadian Diabetes Association on both the local and national levels. Bridgetown Pharmasave, which she co-owns, became the first pharmacy in Nova Scotia to earn recognition as a Community Pharmacy Partner with the CDA. For the past seven years, she has facilitated a support group for people with diabetes. She even took up marathon running and has completed four fundraising marathons for Team Diabetes (Honolulu, Rio, Barcelona and most recently Greece).
Lycett says she finds diabetes care to be “an incredibly rewarding” part of her practice. She spends much of her time away from the dispensary, consulting with patients either at the pharmacy or as part of an in-office diabetes management program with a local primary care physician. “This is how pharmacy is supposed to be practiced: making a difference in patients’ lives by helping them learn how to manage their disease,” she says.
When Lycett isn’t educating patients about diabetes, she is developing and presenting programs to various healthcare professionals. The Canadian Pharmacists Association recently appointed her as the “Diabetes Pharmacist Champion” for Nova Scotia. As such, she will provide several training workshops in diabetes management to CPhA members next year.
Lycett’s dedication to continuing education and her professional accomplishments garnered her the Wyeth Apothecary Award for Nova Scotia. Because she is taking part next year in a fundraising trek to Mount Everest in support of The Arthritis Foundation, she has chosen to donate her award to Joints in Motion.
