Indulge Your Inner Student at 30th Annual Katterman Lecture

By Maria Tran and Melinda Young

This year’s Don B. Katterman Memorial Lecture invites pharmacists “back to the classroom” to hear faculty speak about hot topics in pharmacy. The April 1 event, called “Keeping Up, Staying Ahead: Discussions in Pharmacy Practice,” is an opportunity for alumni and friends to learn from the vast expertise within the UW School of Pharmacy.

Doug Black	John Horn
Peggy Odegard	Micki Kedzierski

Four faculty members from the Department of Pharmacy are on the roster: Doug Black, John Horn, Michaelene “Micki” Kedzierski and Peggy Odegard. Each experts in their fields, they will discuss infectious diseases, drug interactions, therapeutic frame and diabetes respectively.

Director of Continuing Pharmacy Education and event co-organizer Karan Dawson notes that the presentations will cover topics that are not only perennially relevant to pharmacists but that are among fields of knowledge that are constantly changing and evolving. As such, the information at the lecture will be important for keeping practitioners up-to-date.

One topic in the line-up that has been in many headlines lately is infectious diseases. Specifically, the deadly staph-infection strain MRSA has bypassed AIDS in the number of Americans it kills each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What’s more, six out of seven people infected with it contract it from a health care facility.

In Washington, some hospitals have recently come under attack for inadequate handling and reporting of MRSA cases. This has resulted in proposed legislation that could require hospitals to start screening vulnerable patients for MRSA.

Washington pharmacists stand to be significantly affected by this and other developments relating to MRSA. Associate Professor Doug Black’s presentation on the pharmacists’ role in combating MRSA, then, will be especially timely.

Black and other School professors are headlining this year’s lecture as a way to recognize Don Katterman’s impact on pharmacy education. Katterman, ’48—as the owner of Katterman’s Sand Point Pharmacy, a mentor to many UW students, a former president of the UW Pharmacy Alumni Association and a president and active member of the Washington State Pharmacy Association—helped make the practice of pharmacy and the instruction of pharmacy students what they are today.

“He helped the students he mentored become pharmacists who cared about people, not simply about giving out medications,” said Dawson. “He was a ‘possibility thinker’ who helped move the practice of pharmacy from one with a vendor mentality to one that focused on providing patient-centered care.”

So “Keeping Up, Staying Ahead” will showcase how Katterman’s spirit of innovation lives on within the School’s faculty. Further, it will give attendees the opportunity to learn from some of their favorite professors once again.

“It’s rare to have an educational program entirely presented by current pharmacy educators,” said Professor of Pharmacy and event chair Don Downing. “We hope that by providing brief pearls of knowledge by outstanding faculty, everyone in the room will be engaged in an atmosphere of learning and sharing.”

What better way to celebrate the anniversary of an event that has been so integral to the School’s outreach and education missions for three decades?

The 2009 Don B. Katterman Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the Pharmacy Alumni Association, the UW Alumni Association, Medco, QFC and Target, will cost $21 for PAA members, $26 for non-members and $30 at the door, and will take place at Foege Auditorium in the William H. Foege Building. The event is free for students. For more information, visit the Katterman Web site.

Photos courtesy UW School of Pharmacy
Doug Black photo courtesy UW