Hello, everyone.
I wish I could be with you all today, but as you know by now I'm out presiding over
a graduation of the School of Pharmacy.
I just want to say how deeply touched I am by this recognition, because truly the UCSF
Medical Center is at the heart of my entire career as a pharmacist.
And I thank you all - Mark, Sheila, Ken, Josh, and all of my many, many friends in the medical
center.
So in particular the reason why this award is so special to me is that I, as I said,
am a product of this place.
I began my career here in the basement of the pharmacy, in the Unit Dose Area, and I
ended up in the Ninth Floor Pharmacy, the first satellite ever in the nation.
And I am the product of visionary leaders.
The first was Bill Derzon, who was head of the medical center.
The second was Dr. Englebert Dunphy, who was then chancellor and also chair of the Department
of Surgery.
And the third was Jere Goyan, then dean of the School of Pharmacy.
First I have to say that these three men carried out a very bold vision.
Graduates of the School of Pharmacy who were highly trained in chemistry and pharmaceutics
were very dissatisfied with their practice: they didn't feel that they were applying it
in the right way; they complained to the then dean, Jere Goyan.
And he came up with the idea that a pharmacist could be more clinically involved in the care
of patients.
He, together with Dr. Dunphy, decided to take the pharmacist out of the basement and put
them into a pharmacy on the surgical ward.
And so Dr. Dunphy gave us that space, and we put together the first ever satellite in
the nation on a hospital ward.
Finally, Mr. Durzon funded nine pharmacists in the School of Pharmacy to experiment with
this idea.
They were all passionate about the notion that a pharmacists could do more to enhance
patient care.
So when this experiment began, I was a student, and I heard about it, and I was completely
taken by the idea that I actually might be able to influence patient care.
My whole goal then was to become an employee of UCSF.
And as I mentioned to you before, I started out in the basement pharmacy where we were
one of the first pharmacies, by the way, to implement unit dose products.
I begged to go up to that ninth floor pharmacy, and as a person at the bottom of the totem
pole, at the ripe old age of 23, I was given the graveyard shift.
And at that time the pharmacists on the graveyard shift, on the ninth floor pharmacy, was the
only pharmacist in the house.
That's a pretty scary thought; it was scary then and it's scary to me now.
And I can tell you that that experience was both frightening and exhilarating, but it
shaped me because it taught me responsibility, I had to be on my toes, and it taught me teamwork
because I was there with nurses and physicians on-call.
So some of my memories from those days is to be grateful to surgeons; I have a soft
spot in my heart for them, because they welcomed us pharmacists onto the wards.
They thought we were curious creatures up there, but they nevertheless welcomed us.
And they really allowed us - while they were in surgery - to work with the nurses to look
over medication therapy, just as long as we didn't mess with their prophylactic antibiotic
therapy.
And I recall at the time we were trying to convince them to switch from streptomycin
to a newfangled drug called "gentamicin," because it would be less renal toxic.
Then I owe a huge debt to my nurse friends who were really in charge of the service.
They were huge advocates for pharmacists, and they welcomed us and taught us along the
way many of our clinical skills.
There's no question that that ninth floor project took root.
Today every single School of Pharmacy in the nation trains pharmacists to practice clinically.
Furthermore, every single hospital in the nation has clinical pharmacy services.
So I'm particularly grateful to the medical center for allowing me the privilege of growing
up as a professional here, it's really a special place.
And I thank you for including me in the latest transformation of pharmaceutical practice
here.
Finally, I think my colleagues in Pharmaceutical Services, especially Bret Brodowy and Joe
Guglielmo, for delivering on the promise that we made 40 years ago.
It would be uncharacteristic of me not to leave you with a challenge, we're not finished.
Although clinical pharmacy practice is well-established in hospitals, there's much to do in the community.
So I urge you all, the medical center, nurses, pharmacists, physician leaders, to think about
how we might transform the practice of pharmacists in the community so that our patients can
have better use of drugs, that there can be better transitions of care, and fewer hospitalizations,
and fewer medication errors.
So, again, thank you all.
I'm really touched.
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