User:Sccpeditor/South Carolina College of Pharmacy

•	The South Carolina College of Pharmacy was created in 2004 when Trustees at the founding institutions of the University of South Carolina (USC) and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) decided to combine their colleges of pharmacy to form one College with a unified curriculum, unified student body and unified faculty.

•	The South Carolina College of Pharmacy remains a college of each founding institution. The alumni societies of the USC and MUSC colleges of pharmacy continue to exist independently.

•	The College provides the same curriculum on each campus using a combination of distance education and live-local instruction. Unifying the curriculum provides access to the resources of both campuses for all students, and a common standard of excellence.

South Carolina College of Pharmacy Hallmarks


Community Pharmacy. The College is committed to providing the highest caliber education in community pharmacy practice. Recent program enhancements include hiring additional faculty, increasing community pharmacy practice lab requirements and elective courses, and launching a community pharmacy residency. One community pharmacy-based initiative, Medication Therapy Management (MTM), is a service provided to patients through a joint partnership between chain/independent pharmacies, insurance companies and the College. Clinical pharmacist faculty from both campuses assess patients’ drug regimens to determine if they are in danger of adverse drug reactions, taking unnecessary or contraindicated medications, complying properly with medication directions or facing other threats to optimal health, as well as assessing cost issues.

Research Funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In 2007, the South Carolina College of Pharmacy ranked 17th out of more than 100 pharmacy schools as measured by total amount awarded per faculty FTE and 19th in total NIH funding.

Academic Research Centers. The South Carolina College of Pharmacy has two centers designated as South Carolina Centers of Economic Excellence (Drug Discovery Core, and Center for Cellular Death, Injury, & Regeneration ), and three other research centers (Palmetto Poison Center , Center for Medication Safety & Efficacy , and South Carolina Offering Prescribing Excellence -- see below).

Endowments. The College has two endowed chairs (Charles & Carol Cooper Chair in Drug Discovery and Endowed Chair in Cancer Therapeutics). The USC campus has 77 endowed funds totaling $6.3 million and the MUSC campus has 18 endowed funds totaling $7.2 million.

SCORxE (South Carolina Offering Prescribing Excellence). Created through a partnership with South Carolina Medicaid, this program uses faculty from both campuses to provide evidence-based information about medications to medical doctors in their offices. This practice, called academic detailing, gives doctors an objective alternative to the information provided by drug company representatives. The program is one of just three such programs in the U.S.

Fast Facts
•	Through its founding institutions, the South Carolina College of Pharmacy has a long history of affiliations with many Upstate organizations, including independent, chain and institutional pharmacies. Now the College is a true statewide entity, adding a third campus at Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center (GHS).

•	GHS is making a $5 million investment in the College over the next 10 years to support pharmacy education. The newly-constructed Research and Education Innovation Institute (REII) will open in 2009 on the GHS campus and the College will have more than 5,000 square feet of dedicated space (classrooms, practice labs, offices). The College and the Spartanburg Regional Health System also share a full-time faculty position.

•	The South Carolina College of Pharmacy is actively seeking private funding for a number of new initiatives, including a new pharmacy building on the MUSC campus, building renovations on the USC campus, and endowed professorships and scholarships.

•	The South Carolina College of Pharmacy offers eight academic programs including the Pharm.D. and Ph.D degrees as well as the dual Pharm.D./MBA and Pharm.D./Ph.D degrees.

•	The Pharm.D./MBA program, one of only 16 such programs in the United States, is a joint degree program between the College and The Citadel. Students take MBA courses during their second and third summers and no more than one MBA course each semester during their second and third years.

•	The residency program on the MUSC campus, celebrating its 50th year in 2008-09, is one of the oldest and largest residency programs in the country. The College also offers continuing education to more than 10,000 participants every year.

•	The South Carolina College of Pharmacy has more than 1,100 individual preceptors on its active roster. More than 800 are located in the state of South Carolina and most of them are alumni of either the USC College of Pharmacy or the MUSC College of Pharmacy.

Students At a Glance


o	The College has 190 students per class, most of whom are in-state residents, from an average annual pool of about 700 applicants. In Fall 2008, a total of 764 PharmD students were enrolled in the College – 452 on the USC campus and 312 on the MUSC campus.

o	The average GPA on incoming students is more than 3.5 and the average PCAT score is around 70.

o	The passing rates of graduates on the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) and the Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination (MPJE) routinely exceed the national average. The passing rate of May 2008 graduates on the MPJE was 100 percent on both campuses.

o	Approximately 19 percent of graduates pursue residencies or other graduate education

Alumni At a Glance


o	The USC College of Pharmacy has around 3,000 alumni and the MUSC College of Pharmacy has around 2,500 alumni.

o	About 65 percent of alumni from both institutions work in community pharmacy – retail and independent.

o	Around 25 percent of alumni from the USC College of Pharmacy and around 20 percent from the MUSC College of Pharmacy work for hospitals or other health facilities.