Helping to round out its array of programs in the science and practice of healthcare, UC Irvine has announced the creation of a pharmacy school it says will prepare students not only to open a practice, but to be part of a collaborative team caring for patients.
The School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences adds a doctoral pharmacy option and folds it in with existing research-centered degree programs and an undergraduate course of study that Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs Steve Goldstein said is the nation’s No. 1 feeder to PhD pharmacy programs. UCI went public with plans for the school on Tuesday, Aug. 4, following the UC Board of Regents’ approval of its creation the previous week.
UCI’s new pharmacy school is unique in the varied degree programs under its umbrella and its multidisciplinary approach, said Jan Hirsch, the school’s founding dean.
“The profession of pharmacy is changing” from simply dispensing drugs to working directly with patients and collaborating with doctors and nurses, Hirsch said.
“The pharmacist is the medication expert for that healthcare team.”
UCI officials said the pharmacy school will further the goal of the Samueli College of Health Sciences, of which it will be a part. The college’s new multi-building campus is under construction and will serve the university’s medical and nursing schools as well as the pharmacy program and a public health program that’s in the works.
“We’re standing up four schools at once so that we can pursue inter-professional education and team-based care, which is the type of care we want to give everyone in the future,” Goldstein said.
Hirsch said the doctoral pharmacy program will start with about 60 students in fall 2021.
