The USC School of Pharmacy received the 2008-09 AACP Inaugural Award for Transformative Community Service on Feb. 23 at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Interim Meeting Awards Ceremony in Arlington, Va.

The award specifically noted the school’s institutional commitment to addressing unmet community needs through education, practice and research. Highlighting community service as an important element of the academic mission, this award singles out institutions that serve as examples of social responsiveness on the part of the academic medical community.

“The key word in selecting the recipient of this new award is ‘transformative’,” said Lucinda L. Maine, executive vice president and CEO of the association. “The lives of a broad and diverse population of people have been changed positively because of USC’s mission-driven commitment to invest faculty and student resources on such projects.”

The School of Pharmacy works with community partners to integrate clinical pharmacy services into their medical services, including hiring pharmacists on staff at safety-net clinics, where pharmacist intervention improves health outcomes and quality of life.

An example of a successful collaboration is with QueensCare Family Clinics, where a critical aspect of the program is the medication therapy management component, a disease management approach that provides one-on-one pharmacist counseling to patients, resulting in more successful medication compliance and overall improved disease management. In a health center where more than 60 percent of the patient population suffers from chronic diseases, the disease management component of the pharmacist’s role can become a matter of life and death.

Supporters of the school’s safety-net work include the QueensCare Family Clinics, UniHealth Foundation, the Merck Company Foundation, JWCH Institute and the South Central Family Health Center. The initial grant that started the project in 2002 was from the Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration.

“At USC, we’re committed to giving back to our community. The School of Pharmacy’s work in these clinics, as well as our health literacy projects, make it possible for us to directly impact the health of some of L.A.’s most at-risk residents,” said School of Pharmacy Dean R. Pete Vanderveen. “We’ve seen firsthand how our pharmacists have improved patient outcomes while saving precious health care dollars. To be honored for this commitment makes it even more rewarding.”

Leading the effort and on hand to receive the award were Kathleen Johnson, holder of the William A. and Josephine A. Heeres Chair in Community Pharmacy and the chair of the school’s Titus Family Department, as well as associate professors Mel Baron and Steven Chen. At the ceremony, Vanderveen spoke about the tremendous dedication of the community pharmacy group.

Unable to attend but mentioned as award recipients were Elizabeth Cervantes, Stephanie Iniguez and Cecilia Wu, clinical staff pharmacists at QueensCare Family Clinics. Also part of the award team are faculty members Jeff Goad, Edith Mirzaian and Mike Rudolph.

Previously, the school’s work in safety-net clinics garnered the 2007 Pinnacle Award of the American Pharmacists Association Foundation and the 2008 Best Practices Award of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. On Feb. 12 and 13, the School of Pharmacy hosted “Developing Partnerships Between Schools of Pharmacy and Safety-Net Clinics,” a national conference attended by more than 30 schools of pharmacy and various clinical, government and association groups.