John Conry, Associate Clinical Professor of Clinical Pharmacy
Practice at St. John’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, embodies the Vincentian ideal of service to the poor
and disadvantaged by volunteering at least once a week in Manhattan
with Project
Renewal’s Mobile Medical Outreach Clinic.
Aboard the Clinic’s fully outfitted MedVan -- one of the first
mobile medical units to offer preventative, urgent and HIV/AIDS
services in addition to primary care to the homeless when it began
in 1986 – Professor Conry serves as consultant clinical pharmacist
on a team that also includes a physician, a social worker, a
physician assistant and a driver/aide. Together they provide
primary medical care to homeless people ‘where they are’ – on the
streets, in shelters, at soup kitchens and at drop-in centers.
On the MedVan, Professor Conry dispenses medicines and dietary
supplements to patients, counseling them on how and when to take
their medication, how to appropriately store them and educating
them on pertinent urban health care issues. He also provides
detailed medication education and information -- such as screening
for drug interactions, effective dosages, important side effects
and the role of medications for various disease states based on
evidenced-based treatment guidelines -- to the other health
professionals aboard.
A recently awarded grant of $204,000 from Duane Reade Pharmacy
will greatly enhance Professor Conry’s work by allowing the
university to establish an ambulatory care specialty residency in
pharmaceutical care for the urban indigent, allowing a pharmacy
resident to spend the majority of his or her time with him at
Project Renewal and at a Duane Reade Pharmacy focusing on improving
the pharmaceutical care and medication utilization of the poor in
New York City. The resident will also be involved in using his/her
experiences to teach pharmacy students within the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.
According to Robert A. Mangione, dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Professor Conry’s efforts “may be
the only such work being done in the United States by a school of
pharmacy. I am very, very excited about the work that we will be
doing [as a result of the grant]!”
Dr. Conry has served as a consultant clinical pharmacist for a
$1 million grant provided to Professor Elizabeth Brondolo of the
Department of Psychology at St. John’s The grant, subcontracted to
St. John’s by the National Institutes of Health, is supporting a
study of the Behavioral Interventions for Women with HIV/AIDS in
the New York Area. Professor Conry’s role included leading group
educational sessions on HIV medication knowledge and adherence for
women enrolled in the study.
He also serves as a consultant clinical pharmacist for two
grants focused on improving HIV-positive patients’ ability to take
their HIV medications correctly at Beth Israel Medical Center on
the lower east side of New York City.
Along with colleagues (Professors Maria Sulli, Regina Ginzburg
and Emily Ambizas and Deans Joseph Brocavich and Robert Mangione)
in the clinical pharmacy practice department at the College, he has
also designed a continuing education program for Duane Reade
pharmacists to improve implementation of patient assessment and
pharmaceutical care in their respective community pharmacy
settings. They have submitted an abstract regarding this project
for presentation at the American Association of Colleges of
Pharmacy Annual Meeting in July 2005.
Professor Conry, who received both his B.S.Phm. and Pharm.D.
from St. John’s, teaches courses – including Introduction to
Pharmaceutical Care, Drugs and Diseases of Infectious and
Respiratory Diseases, Case Studies in Drugs and Diseases, Advanced
Therapeutics and Physical Assessment -- at both the undergraduate
and graduate levels. His area of focus is in ambulatory
pharmaceutical care, HIV, and smoking cessation. He is the clinical
coordinator of the Ambulatory Care AIDS Program at the Peter
Krueger Clinic for Immunological Dysfunction and is a consultant
clinical pharmacist at the Robert Mapplethorpe Treatment Facility
both at Beth Israel Medical Center.
When asked what motivates him to spend so much time
volunteering, Professor Conry explained, “there is so much that
needs to be done…so many people that need help. I have been blessed
with an incredible family and a Catholic education…which have
instilled in me the importance of loving our neighbors and helping
others. Whether the help needed is a pharmacy student struggling to
understand appropriate use of medications or a homeless
patient…struggling with the complications of HIV infection, I feel
it is my responsibility to be there for them and do what I can.
“Whether you identify yourself as a student, teacher, a homeless
or a wealthy person, we are all one community and it is important
for me to give back to our community. I am very proud of St. John’s
University and its unwavering commitment to its Vincentian mission;
it truly makes a difference in the world and makes us unique.”