January 30, 2008
A 3-year federal grant from the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services, Health Resources and
Services Administration (HRSA) has enabled St. John’s College
of Pharmacy and Allied Health Profession to become a partner in the
Long Island
Geriatric Education Consortium (LIGEC), an organization whose
mission is to “train health professionals to incorporate relevant
geriatric/gerontologic topics into their continuing education
programs and academic curriculum.”
According to Judith
Beizer, Pharm.D., a clinical professor in the College of
Pharmacy’s Clinical Pharmacy Practice Department, the Long Island
GEC was originally established through a previous 5-year federal
grant and is one of only 50 such programs across the country. Each
program chooses which professions to educate on the healthcare
needs of an aging population.
“Only a few GECs actually have a college of pharmacy as part of
their consortium,” she notes. "With St. John’s College of Pharmacy
now a LIGEC partner, pharmacists in the metropolitan area for the
first time can receive this specialized education.”
Dr. Beizer, who is also a specialist in geriatric therapeutics
and President-Elect of the American
Society of Consulting Pharmacists, recently represented the
College of Pharmacy at a ceremony establishing the newly re-funded
consortium at the Long
Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook (L.I.). She and
Assistant Clinical Professor Sum Lam, Pharm.D., gathered with other
representatives of the various consortium partners to hear Greg
Olsen, Deputy Director of the New York State Office for the Aging,
deliver the keynote address and hear a short presentation on the
partners as well as the professions that will be included in the
education programs.
Teaching the LIGEC’s pharmacist-specific programs will be a
cadre of College of Pharmacy faculty members, including Drs.
Beizer, Lam, Olga Hilas, Danielle Ezzo and Maria Sulli.
“We’ll be developing and providing the pharmacist-specific
educational programs in the Queens and Long Island areas,” Beizer
states. The first, “Clinical Updates in Therapeutics in the
Elderly,” will focus on different disease states at each session.
The first program, “Medication Management in the Elderly,” is
scheduled as a half-day program on Monday, February 25.
College of Pharmacy Dean Robert Mangione,
R.Ph., Ed.D., points out that “the LIGEC partnership is very
special and will provide additional opportunities for our faculty
to interact with other leading health care institutions and
universities throughout Long Island and the New York metropolitan
area. We are very proud of Dr. Beizer’s outstanding contributions
to this important program.”
Although the consortium is made up of institutions, Beizer
explains that pharmacists can participate individually. “They can
sign up to be associates of the LIGEC and must take 40 hours of
continuing professional education credits in three curriculum
areas—interdisciplinary (16 hours), new educational techniques (6
hours) and pharmacist-specific (18 hours)—to earn their
certificates and continuing professional education credit.
Faculty and educational leaders from healthcare schools,
institutions, and agencies on Long Island are also eligible to
become LIGEC Associates. In addition, LIGEC Director Suzanne
D. Fields, M.D., says that Associates “may attend courses offered
by the other New York GECs to attain their 40 hours of credit.”
However, she notes, they must earn at least 21 hours from LIGEC to
obtain a LIGEC certificate. She reports that to date more than
2,000 Long Island health care professionals have attended workshops
and symposia produced by the LIGEC and that “feedback has been
uniformly positive.”
For more information on LIGEC, including an online application
for associates, click here.