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The University of Tennessee Health Science Center

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Anne W. Manning – (901) 448-4072

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Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine

Amy Drittler – (423) 869-7108

 

 

UT Health Science Center College of Pharmacy Establishes Four-Year

Partnership with Lincoln Memorial University to Teach Pharmacotherapeutics through Distance Education

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Memphis, Tenn. (November 20, 2007) – The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) College of Pharmacy announced today that it has established a new educational partnership with Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine (LMU-DCOM).

Over the next four years, UTHSC College of Pharmacy faculty members across the state of Tennessee will employ the most advanced distance education technology to teach pharmacotherapeutics courses to 150 LMU-DCOM students each year.  Established in 1897 as a living memorial to the 16^th President, Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Memorial University is nestled in the Cumberland Gap of the Appalachian Mountain range, about 55 miles north of Knoxville.  The LMU campus is located at the convergence of Tennessee, Kentucky and Virginia.   

“This new initiative between LMU and UT is the first program of its type in the country,” observed Dick R. Gourley, PharmD, dean of the UT Health Science Center College of Pharmacy.  “The program addresses medication therapy management and embraces the principles of interprofessional education.

”Our faculty will be delivering knowledge and insight in pharmacotherapy for all four years of the LMU-DCOM students’ education, with the last two years of grand rounds focusing on case studies and current trends in pharmacotherapy management of patients,” he stated.  “In addition, our partnership with LMU-DCOM extends the Health Science Center’s reach even further across the state and enables us to make significant progress toward our goal of educating pharmacy professionals who will live and work in their East Tennessee communities.”

“LMU-DCOM is committed to training students from the tri-state region to become primary care physicians who can serve in this region,” said Ray E. Stowers, DO, FACOFP, vice president and dean of LMU-DCOM.  “This innovative partnership with UTHSC allows us to capitalize on the state-of-the-art technology in the new LMU-DCOM building to expose our students to pharmacotherapeutics instruction from across the state.”   

Through the pharmacotherapy series, the Health Science Center’s Pharmacy faculty will deliver 46 lectures to first-year students, 54 lectures to second-year students, and weekly pharmacotherapy grand rounds to third and fourth-year students.  The grand rounds may be broadcast from various UTHSC College of Pharmacy sites including from its Clinical Education Centers in Kingsport, Chattanooga, Nashville and Jackson, as well as from hospitals in major cities where UTHSC or LMU have affiliations.

Through grand rounds provided by UTHSC in collaboration with the LMU-DCOM faculty, students will be exposed to a diverse number of patient cases and a wide variety of educators and practitioners.  Grand rounds, which will be held two hours per week for 45 weeks each year, will be inter-professional in nature and will include both medicine and pharmacy with the potential to include such other disciplines as allied health, social work or nursing.   

 The DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine is located on the campus of Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn.  LMU-DCOM is an integral part of LMU’s values-based learning community, and is dedicated to preparing the next generation of osteopathic physicians to provide healthcare in the often underserved region of Appalachia and beyond.  For more information about LMU-DCOM, call 1-800-325-0900, ext. 7082, e-mail dcom@lmunet.edu, or visit us online at www.lmunet.edu/dcom.

As the flagship statewide academic health system, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center is focused on a four-tier mission of education, research, clinical care and public service, all in support of a single goal: to improve the health of Tennesseans.  Offering a broad range of postgraduate training opportunities, the main campus, which includes six colleges, is located in Memphis.  UTHSC has additional College of Medicine and College of Pharmacy campuses in Knoxville and a College of Medicine campus in Chattanooga.  For more information, visit www.uthsc.edu.

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