SWAGºÏ¼¯

Overview
The Pharmacy Administration and Administrative Health Sciences Department (PAAHS) has 20 full-time and adjunct faculty. Through this department, students are prepared for careers in Health Administration, Health Information Management, and Pharmacy. Members of the faculty in the Department are housed in the Nabrit Science Building and in Gray Hall on Campus. Faculty study interests include tobacco cessation, mental health, medication therapy management, and Interprofessional Education (IPE). Recognizing that inequalities in access to health services and the unequal burden of disease are at the forefront of problems in healthcare, the COPHS has incorporated health disparities courses into the curricula. Faculty in the department and in the College’s experiential program participate in the University’s Study Abroad program and have led two-week excursions arranged during summer months. Students are encouraged to consider a study abroad trip to enhance their educational experience. In the past, students have visited countries in the Caribbean and Africa. The program is being expanded to include other countries. Course credit may be earned for the travels and some funding is available to students.

Health Information Management
The undergraduate Health Information Management (HIM) program at SWAGºÏ¼¯ provides its students with a solid business and information systems background as well as a broad healthcare foundation. The HIM Program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM). Health information management professionals hold many diverse roles, yet all share a common purpose: to provide reliable and accurate information that drives the healthcare industry. Health information management (HIM) professionals are the experts who focus on the use, integrity, availability and privacy of health information to facilitate real-time healthcare delivery and make critical health related decisions for multiple purposes such as finance, law, research, and strategic planning across many types of organizations and disciplines. The HIM program is a great undergraduate program for students interested in becoming marketable and pursuing a career right after graduation or for those students interested in going directly to graduate or professional school.

Health Administration
The undergraduate Health Administration (HA) Program was established in 1982. It is credentialed by the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA). Its faculty, including adjuncts, make contributions to the profession through publishing, grant acquisition, presentations, and have board appointments from professional organizations to national boards, such as Texas Community Health Worker Certification Program, Health Administration Press, American College of Healthcare Executives, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Graduates from the undergraduate Health Administration (HA) programs are poised to oversee the management and delivery of health services.

Healthcare Administration
Masters in Healthcare Administration (MHCA) at SWAGºÏ¼¯ provides students with the knowledge and skills to manage as a health care professional. Students learn how to manage in health care organizations, how to deal with personnel, and how to interpret and comply with laws that affect healthcare providers, administrators and organizations. Course work in organizational, information systems and financial management are combined with human relations and health care issues to provide the student with a comprehensive set of skills for advancing in the profession of health care administration. The Program prepares individuals for leadership positions in contemporary health care organizations and systems.

Pharmacy Administration
The Department’s Pharmacy Administration faculty jointly with faculty in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Health Sciences offer pharmacy administration and management courses required in the College’s Doctor of Pharmacy Program (PharmD). The department’s faculty also support the experiential program and practice sites and collaborate to meet the educational needs of COPHS students via the Interdisciplinary Health Professions Simulation Center at the College. Pharmacy Administration faculty have led Interprofessional Education (IPE) initiatives at the College, including establishing an interprofessional geriatrics education and training consortium to engage primary care providers and the full spectrum of healthcare and community health professionals in a highly targeted integrated geriatrics and primary care training model to improve health outcomes for older adults.

The Department of Pharmaceutical and Environmental Health Sciences made up of 20 full-time faculty members, one program coordinator, and several research personnel. The faculty in the Department of Pharmaceutical and Environmental Health Sciences is national recognized in teaching excellence and innovative research in pharmaceutical and environmental health sciences to enhance the quality of life of the citizens of Texas and beyond. The mission of Department of Pharmaceutical and Environmental Health Sciences is to provide high quality education of pharmaceutical and environmental health sciences, to advocate basic, translational, and clinical research in the field of drug discovery and development, and to promote collaborations and partnership for career development and community engagement. Goals and objectives of the department are (1) to provide quality and effective delivery of course materials and to provide an innovative, productive and receptive learning environment for pharmacy and environmental health science students, as well as for the graduate students in pharmaceutical sciences; (2)to promote faculty and student participation in scholarly activities including extramural grant application, peer-reviewed publication, scientific presentations, and other collaborative research activities in the advancement of pharmaceutical education and research; and (3) to improve faculty participation in service activities. Overall, the department of pharmaceutical and environmental health sciences is positioned to strengthen our faculty team capability to provide the optimal teaching/learning services to our students, to be engaged in advanced pharmaceutical and health science researches, and to participate in services.

The Department of Pharmaceutical and Environmental Health Sciences, along with the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Health Sciences, offers courses leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy Degree. The Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) is a six-year program requiring a minimum of two years of study at the pre-professional (pre-pharmacy) level and four years of study at the professional level. Courses offered through this department include the following disciplines: biochemistry in human diseases, pharmaceutics, pharmacokinetics, and integrated courses including pharmaceutical/medicinal chemistry, pathophysiology, pharmacology, and principles of drug action.

The Department of Pharmaceutical and Environmental Health Sciences offers a B.S. in Environmental Health. The Environmental Health Program provides graduates with the technical and administrative skills to function in industry, governmental agencies, consulting firms, and academia. Graduates are qualified to enter the workforce in air and water quality control, solid and hazardous waste management, occupational health and industrial hygiene, environmental toxicology and risk assessment, epidemiology, and disease surveillance.

The Department of Pharmaceutical and Environmental Health Sciences also offers courses leading to the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree and a contingent or default Master of Science (M.S.) degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences. The graduate program was approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board on July 15, 2004 and the first students were accepted into the program in the fall semester 2004. The major focus of the department’s graduate program is to provide students with a strong focus and training to prepare them for careers in academia, pharmaceutical industry, or FDA. These degree offerings are intended to meet the high demand for professionals with broad-based training in pharmaceutical sciences. Furthermore, the need for minorities to be trained in this field is paramount since less than three percent of all minorities in the entire nation are in this field.

Members of the faculty in the Department of Pharmaceutical and Environmental Health Sciences are housed in Gray Hall with the Department Office located in Gray Hall Room 124. The department is the hosting department to receive $1.44 million/year RCMI grant from NIMHD/NIH to continue building and develop SWAGºÏ¼¯'s faculty research capability in the past five years. The department faculty, in collaboration with faculty from University of Houston College of Pharmacy and the Gulf Coast Consortia, also leads a CPRIT-funded core facility grant supporting preclinical PK/PD and dosage formulation for anticancer drug development.

Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Health Sciences (PPCHS) department is comprised of 17 faculty members with programs leading to Baccalaureate in Science for Clinical Laboratory Science (CLS) and Respiratory Therapy (RT) respectively and Doctorate Pharmacy degrees. Pharmacy Practice faculty are engaged in instruction, practice site development and research. CLS and RT faculty are involved in instruction and practice site programming. The faculty prepare students to monitor the health and progress of patients in response to drug therapy, respiratory care and measure patient’s body fluids. The COPHS has state of the art laboratories including for CLS assay analysis and control, Prescription Practice dispensing with clean rooms for sterile intravenous medication preparations for Pharmacy, Ventilators with gas tanks for RT students respectively. Additionally, the COPHS has provided a state of the art simulation center that offers students an opportunity to engage in realistic inter- professional team based learning environment, promote critical thinking and problem solving skills necessary for collaborative team based patient care practice in the 21st century. Some of the research interests include cancer prevention and management, healthcare disparity, medication management services for the older adults, diabetes and Pharmacoeconomics. The faculty have received grant funding’s from private, local state and federal agencies enabling faculty to conduct research projects.