October 26, 2009
St.
John’s College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions became one
of the first Colleges of Pharmacy in the United States to partner
with medication management company Talyst, Inc., during a special
recognition ceremony to thank the corporation for their generosity
in donating state-of-the-art medical equipment to the
University.
Pharm.D. students will be trained to use the technology in the
college’s pharmacy laboratory under the direction of lab supervisor
Dr. William Maidhof. He gave a brief demonstration on how the
equipment is applied in a laboratory setting before a crowd of
faculty, students and well-wishers in St, Albert Hall on St. John’s
Queens campus on October 23.
Robert A. Mangione, R.Ph, Ed.D, Dean of the College of Pharmacy and
Allied Health Professions, served as host for the reception.
Joining Dean Mangione for the ribbon cutting ceremony was Carla
Corkern, CEO and Chairman of the Board for Talyst Inc. and Dr.
Robert Fuentes P’77, MSc, Pharm.D., Senior Director, Medical
Information, MedImmune and alumnus of St. John’s University.
“This state of the art equipment will strengthen our
curriculum as pharmacy students will learn how to operate the
newest dispensing technology,” said Mangione. “The efficiencies
gained using this advanced equipment will give them the opportunity
to spend more time counseling their patients and managing
therapeutic outcomes.”
To assist with pharmacy students’ storage of oral medications,
Talyst Inc. (based in Seattle, WA) has donated an Automated Oral
Solid Packager and a Mini Vert Kiosk to the College of Pharmacy and
Allied Health Professions.
“This is the first lab like this that we’ve established in
partnering with a major University like St. John’s. We’re
technology vendors and we believe that there is a lot we can learn
by having clinicians work with the equipment and give us better
feedback,” said Ms. Corkern. “We are very excited to partner with
St. John’s and hope that this is ongoing where we can host some
user conferences here and provide some of our East Coast customers’
tours of the lab.”
St.
John’s University also anticipates that pharmacists in the greater
New York City area will have the opportunity to be trained on how
to use the equipment through programs sponsored by both St. John’s
University and Talyst Inc. in the future.
Dr. Fuentes was instrumental in arranging the negotiations between
the college and Talyst Inc. He is a member of the Dean’s Pharmacy
Leadership Committee and a member of the St. John’s University
Board of Governors.
Talyst Inc. states its company objective is to “enable positive
change in the medication management process” and “to improve
patient safety and operational efficiency” in hospitals, long-term
care and in pharmacies.
For media inquiries, please contact Dominic Scianna, Assistant Vice
President for Media Relations at St. John’s University, at (718)
990-6185, or by e-mail to sciannad@stjohns.edu.
About Talyst Inc.
Talyst enables positive change in the medication management
process. We are dedicated to improving patient safety and
operational efficiency in acute care hospitals and in long-term
care, as well as in closed-door, correctional, and retail
pharmacies. Our company was founded in 2002 as Integrated
Healthcare Systems, Inc., a pharmacy solutions provider focused on
developing simple, affordable and reliable products to assist in
the medication management process.
The following year, we acquired Creative Pharmacy Solutions, and
launched AutoPharm®, the software platform that integrates pharmacy
bar-coding, storage, inventory, ordering and clinical systems. The
initial growth of the company was supported by two rounds of
funding. In early 2005, a $9 million round of institutional
financing directed by AIG Global Investment Group (a subsidiary of
American International Group, Inc.) enabled Talyst to expand its
installation/support team and invest in proprietary product
development.
In late 2006, the company received $20 million in growth funding to
aggressively pursue its commitment to innovation and expansion into
new pharmacy markets. That funding was co-led by Ignition Partners
and OVP Venture Partners. By the end of 2007, more than 300
hospitals across the country had installed Talyst systems, and we
expect continued growth in multiple pharmacy markets. The Puget
Sound Business Journal has ranked Talyst as one of the fastest
growing companies in Washington State for the past three years. And
in 2007, Inc. magazine recognized the company as one of the
country’s fastest-growing privately-held companies.
Talyst remains dedicated to ‘Engineering the Intelligent Pharmacy’,
one customer at a time.
About St. John’s
University
St. John's is one of America's leading Catholic universities –
nationally ranked (by The Princeton Review and U.S. News &
World Report) and recognized for its superb academic programs,
diverse student life, New York vitality and BIG EAST athletic
excitement. Founded in 1870 by the Vincentian Community, St. John’s
currently enrolls more than 20,000 undergraduate and graduate
students from 44 states and 122 countries.
The University also offers housing for 4,000 students in five
friendly residential campus locations (Queens, Staten Island,
Manhattan and Oakdale, New York as well as Rome, Italy).
St. John’s values its investment in education and provides the
necessary resources to support student scholarships, faculty and
academic programs, technological advances and the building and
modernization of new facilities (both academic and athletic). St.
John’s University is the perfect choice for an affordable,
high-quality private education that blends academic study, service
learning opportunities, professional training and real-world
experience within a diverse and highly supportive community. For
more information about St John’s University, visit
http://www.stjohns.edu.