The J & J Pharmacy Podcast

Episode 76: The Return, Exciting New Format, and So Much More!

And we’re back! 
 
In this episode of the J & J Pharmacy Podcast, we welcome ourselves back after a prolonged hiatus from recording. Listen in as we talk about why we were on a break and what we are up to now. As well, find out more about some exciting new formats that the podcast will be introducing. Finally, we both wanted to give our sincerest congratulation to the Class of 2022!

Episode 75: Melanie Danilak

In today’s episode, we had the pleasure of interviewing Melanie Danilak. 
 
Melanie began her pharmacy training at the University of Alberta, where she graduated in 2004. She then went on to receive her ACPR designation in 2009 with a focus in oncology. With her education, she practiced to full scope in a breast cancer clinic for several years alongside a nurse practitioner, utilizing her prescribing authority to manage endocrine therapy for patients. In addition to practicing clinically, Melanie became the residency coordinator for the cancer program in Alberta, and more recently, the Edmonton Zone. She is also the current chair of the Canadian Pharmacy Residency Board, is a Clinical Practice Leader, and shifted her clinical focus towards osteoporosis and rheumatology/immuno-oncology.
 
When Melanie is not busy being an amazing individual, she is a self-proclaimed workout class junkie, having always loved doing group fitness classes, and even shifted to online programs due to the pandemic, talk about dedication! In her own words, she said that “movement really is what keeps me healthy and happy”.
 
Interestingly, at the time of the conversation, she was actually in a transition between roles, switching from Residency Coordinator in Edmonton Zone to Assessment Developer at the Alberta College of Pharmacy. Nevertheless, it was an awesome conversation about her experience as Residency Coordinator, and we hope you guys are able to take something away from it.

Episode 74: Pharmacy Appreciation Month - Joshua Torrance

In today’s episode, Jared and I had the chance to chat with one of pharmacy’s best in Joshua Torrance. Joshua is the current CSHP Alberta Branch President, so the focus of the podcast was to find out a little more about who Joshua is and what are some of his roles and responsibilities.
 
Joshua graduated from the University of Alberta in 2009 with a BSc Honours in Immunology and Infections before going into pharmacy and getting his BSc Pharm in 2014. He then went on to complete his residency in 2015, officially getting his ACPR designation. He started his professional career at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, where he re-developed how the outpatient stroke prevention clinic functioned, making pharmacists responsible for the management of stroke risk factors, such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes. Not stopping there, Joshua then became a Clinical Practice Leader, during which he collaborated with General Internal Medicine (GIM) to create the first Infectious Diseases consult service in Central Zone AHS. Presently, he works with the AHS Pharmacy Services Connect Care team to develop innovative solutions to implement a seamless clinical information system that will connect all patients and providers with their health information across Alberta.
 
On the side, he created his own company with a former Pharmacy Manager, QlinicalRx, which provides tools to support community pharmacists in delivering and documenting clinical patient care services.
 
For “fun”, Joshua is a hobbyist programmer and is always looking for ways to leverage technology to solve health care problems. One notable achievement was the creation of the Alberta Blue Cross Drug Price Calculator (https://studybuffalo.com/tools/drug-price-calculator/), which was designed to help hospital pharmacists determine how much medications will cost a patient to allow better discharge planning decisions.
 
It was mind blowing to talk with Joshua about his journey through pharmacy, and we hope you guys, the listeners, share our enthusiasm!

Episode 73: Placement Spotlight Series - Nicole Casavant

In our last and final installment of the placement spotlight series, Jared and I had the absolute pleasure of talking with Nicole Casavant about her practice as a Clinical Thoracic Pharmacist at the Southern Alberta Transplant Clinic at Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, Alberta. Since completing her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, Nicole has been practicing in nephrology and solid organ transplant for the past 25 years! In her free time, Nicole is also a piano teacher and yoga instructor, as well as part-time staff to Sam the teenager and Lily the dog.
This episode was a perfect way to end this special series, and we hope you all enjoy listening to  it!

Episode 72: Placement Spotlight Series - Lindsay Meyer-Smith

Up next in the placement spotlight series, we interviewed Lindsay Meyer-Smith, who’s area of practice is an interesting one, where she works as part of the Medication Quality and Safety Team at Alberta Health Services. Lindsay completed her Bachelor of Science in Cell Biology and Genetics from the University of British Columbia in 2005, and followed it up with her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Saskatchewan in 2009. Not satisfied, she then went on to complete her Pharmacy residency with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority in 2010, and most recently actually, received her Master of Health Studies from Athabasca University in 2021. With such a vast amount of education, Lindsay was able to utilize it as a clinical pharmacist working in Pediatric General Medicine and Pediatric Intensive Care. After doing this for five years, she then moved on to her current role as a medication safety pharmacist with the AHS Provincial Pharmacy Services Medication Quality and Safety Team. A notable achievement in this position, which is pertinent to this podcast, is that she is responsible for developing the fourth year PharmD rotation in this area. A fun fact about Lindsay is that she's a marathon runner, having completed two previous marathons and will be traveling to Chicago in October for the Chicago Marathon.
This is an area of practice that not everyone is aware of, but Jared and I hope that our conversation with Lindsay provides a little insight to what other areas of pharmacy exist!

Episode 71: Placement Spotlight Series - Dr. Rene Breault

Next up in the series, we had one of the faculties very best, Dr. Rene Breault, come onto the podcast to discuss the exciting opportunities provided by an academic rotation. Dr. Breault received his Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from the University of Alberta in 1998. Following graduation, he worked with AHS at the University of Alberta Hospital for just over a decade. It was not until 2010 that he decided to pursue further education by getting his Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Toronto. As a pharmacist, Dr. Breault achieved a variety of honors, one of which was being one of the first 15 pharmacists in Alberta to be granted Additional Prescribing Authorization in 2007. He’s also been the President of the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists Alberta Branch, serving from 2019 to 2020. Apart from his teaching duties, he currently works in a hypertension and dyslipidemia clinic operating out of the University of Alberta Hospital. When he’s not busy influencing the next generation of great pharmacists, Dr. Breault enjoys making a great gin martini!
It’s always a pleasure to talk with Dr. Breault and this episode was no exception. We hope you guys enjoy listening to our conversation!

Episode 70: Placement Spotlight Series - Pam Nickel

 In this episode, we had a fascinating conversation with Pam Nickel and her practice at the Northern Alberta HIV Clinic. Pam graduated with a Bachelor of Pharmacy from the University of Alberta in 1992. Her additional certifications include Additional Prescribing Authorization, as well as interestingly completed the pilot course for certification in asthma management. In terms of her professional achievements, she worked as a pharmacist and pharmacy manager at Safeway Pharmacy from 1992 to 2002. It was at this point that she made the transition to hospital pharmacy, where she began working at the outpatient pharmacy in the UofA Hospital. It wasn’t until 2007 that she jumped at the opportunity to work with the Northern Alberta HIV program, where she continues to work today. On the fun side of things, Pam enjoys spending downtime at a family home in Canmore. As well, she enjoys trying different types of dance classes for fun, with notable ones including belly dancing, bollywood fusion, and scottish highland dancing. Jared and I wouldn’t say that this episode was possibly near the amount of fun that the dancing sounds, but we enjoyed talking to Pam nonetheless, so listen closely as she has a lot of advice to share!

Episode 69: Placement Spotlight Series - Jenny Wichart

Keeping it going with our Placement Spotlight Series, we had the absolute fortune of interviewing Jenny Wichart. Jenny is a graduate of the University of Alberta, getting her Bachelor of Pharmacy in 1998. Not wasting any time, she then went on to complete her pharmacy residency in Calgary in 1999, wherein she developed a passion and love for everything transplant. Even outside of work, she has continued to develop this passion, spending a lot of time enjoying and learning from many opportunities, such being Chair of the CSHP Transplant Pharmacy Speciality Network and also holding various Committee, Executive, and Board positions with the Canadian Society of Transplantation and International Pediatric Transplant Association. In 2019, she was awarded the CSHP Preceptor of the Year Award from the Alberta Pharmacy Residency Program, and followed it up in 2020 with the ACP and RxA APEX M.J. Huston Pharmacist of Distinction Award. In her free time, Jenny enjoys walking and exploring the City of Calgary and surrounding areas. Although, she makes a note that the locations have to be safe from bears, as she admits to having a disproportionate fear of them. All this exercise is to prepare her for the annual September Kidney March, which is a 100km walk through Kananaskis to raise funds and awareness for kidney disease and organ dysfunction. Last but not least, she enjoys cooking for her friends and family, and goes as far to boast a crazy large autographed cookbook collection.
Well, Jared and I definitely had a meal of a conversation in this episode with Jenny, so we hope you all can take some time out of your day to listen to it!

Episode 68: Placement Spotlight Series - Philip Wong

Continuing our Placement Series Special, we next interviewed Phil Wong. Phil has both a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Pharmacy. Following the completion of his pharmacy education, Phil went on to work as a community pharmacist for 3.5 years, eventually making his way up to being a Manager of a Safeway Pharmacy. From there, Phil transitioned into working as a clinical pharmacist with Corrections Pharmacy, where he’s been at for the past 7 years and earned a nomination for Preceptor of the Year. Pushing the boundaries of pharmacy practice, Phil is also the owner and founder of Arlo Medical Injections, which is a botulinum toxin and dermal filler injection clinic in Calgary.
In addition to pharmacy, Phil is incredibly passionate about real estate investing, having written a book titled “Real Estate Side Hustle for Investors”, which is available on Amazon, as well as hosts a podcast called “Commonwealth Home Ownership Real Estate Investing”, which has over 4000 downloads to date.
In his freetime, Phil loves traveling and has been to over 30 countries! 
Both Jared and I had a blast interviewing Phil, and we hope you all also enjoy listening to this episode!

Episode 67: Placement Spotlight Series - Bruce Winston and Sabrina Sunderji

Hello everyone! Welcome to our Placement Spotlight Series. In these episodes we’ll be interviewing preceptors and students at unique placements. Whether it be a leadership rotation, a specialized clinical experience, or anything in between, be sure to listen in as we dive deep into what these placements offer and how you can best prepare yourself as students for success.
In this episode, we had the opportunity to interview both preceptor and student! On the preceptor side of things, we’d like to introduce Bruce Winston, a pharmacy grad from the University of Alberta. Following just 1 year after pharmacy school, Bruce purchased his first community pharmacy, before co-founding APEX Pharmacies, which operated 20 Alberta pharmacies under the Sandstone Pharmacies brand. Recently, he sold Sandstone Pharmacies to Neighbourly Pharmacy and is now employed by them as Head of Alberta Pharmacy Strategy and Professional Affairs. He is also a member of the Alberta Pharmacists’ Association Board of Directors where he served as past president. In his free time, Bruce is a real fan of watching Major League Baseball, and has even visited all but 8 of the Major League ballparks. He hopes to visit the rest in the next few years. Not to be left out, we’d like to introduce next Sabrina Sunderji, a fourth year pharmacy student currently on rotation with Bruce. Prior to pharmacy, she actually completed her Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology at the University of Calgary. Furthermore, she worked as a kinesiologist and a Client Services Director at a private health care clinic for a few years before entering into the pharmacy program.