FIP, as the global leader for pharmacy, has taken the initiative to build the “FIP World List of Pharmacy Schools”, which will be the most comprehensive and up-to-date list of pharmacy institutions from around the world. This global list is intended to guide all pharmacy stakeholders, from students to policymakers, in assessing the appropriateness and effectiveness of pharmacy education strategies. The availability, completeness and quality of FIP’s World List of Pharmacy Schools means it will provide a unique source of information for pharmaceutical workforce policies, procedures and plans.
Further background on the FIP World List of Pharmacy Schools:
The FIP World List of Pharmacy Schools is an initiative to monitor pharmaceutical capacity and capability, similar to those of many other global organisations, such as the World Medical Schools List held by the World Medical Association. Given 2021 is the World Health Organization’s Year of Health and Care Workers, the need for our global organisations to demonstrate increased capacity in all health workers is key to ensure our professions are not further diminished but amplified.
FIP is a founder member of the World Health Professions Alliance (WHPA) with doctors, nurses, dentists, and physiotherapists. All WHPA members have been requested to feedback their schools’ status to the WHO as part of pandemic preparedness, and FIP having a list of accredited pharmacy schools will help to identify where schools may be needed and created to ensure long-term pharmaceutical workforce capacity.
University of Pittsburgh
School of Pharmacy
Chartered in 1878, the School of Pharmacy is the oldest of the University of Pittsburgh's Schools of the Health Sciences. The School of Pharmacy is located in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh, adjacent to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). Like the five other Schools of the Health Sciences, the School of Pharmacy is affiliated with the internationally renowned academic medical center, the UPMC-Health System, which provides the region's largest and finest network of tertiary, specialty and community hospitals. Collectively, these facilities provide one of the nation's greatest, most complete health centers for teaching, patient care, and research in the health sciences.
Pharmacists are held in high esteem by the public, as evidenced by the nine-year number one ranking in honesty and ethical standards among the professions (Gallup polls). The University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy is on the forefront of educating pharmacy's future practitioners with its four-year PharmD program. Setting the School apart from others is a curriculum that 1.) integrates science and practice throughout the course of study; 2.) emphasizes team building through collaborative learning in group work; 3.) leads the nation in its service learning program; 4.) offers professionally and technologically advanced methods of instruction delivery; and 5.) prides itself in excellent student-faculty relationships. The School of Pharmacy also enjoys a national reputation for the Clinical Pharmaceutical Scientist Program, a relatively unique PhD program that educates scientists to conduct translational or patient-oriented research.
Today, the School of Pharmacy is a leader in research, with endeavors ranging from patient care outcomes and human clinical research to research in molecular genetics. The School of Pharmacy is home to four centers: the Center for Pharmacogenetics, the Center for Education and Drug Abuse Research (CEDAR), the Pharmacodynamic Research Center, and the Center for Innovation in Health Care. The School also houses the Cell Imaging Core of the Center for Reproductive Science, a Neuroendocrinology Research Consortium, as well as, considerable chemistry expertise in the Bioanalytical/Proteomics Core and Medicinal Chemistry/Pharmacognosy Group . Collectively, these programs catapulted the School in the year 2000 into the top 10 among schools of pharmacy based on competitive research funding from the National Institutes of Health.
In education and patient care, the International Smoking Cessation Specialist Program and the Program for Pharmaceutical Care to the Underserved Population, respectively, are landmark programs that reflect the quality and excellence in the School of Pharmacy as are the Drug Information Center and Pittsburgh Poison Center. The School also has a direct link to the Institute for Research, Education and Training in Addictions (IRETA) through one of its faculty members who also serves as the Scientific Director of IRETA. The latter is an organization through which state-of-the-art research is translated to the practice of substance abuse treatment.
The School of Pharmacy's overall reputation is grounded in the excellence of the teaching, patient care, research, and service conducted by the faculty, graduate students, residents, postdoctoral fellows, staff, and alumni of the School of Pharmacy.