Florida A&M University has begun an innovative distance learning project designed to help working pharmacists earn an Executive Doctor of Pharmacy degree. Currently, the course is available to students in Miami, Tampa, and Tallahassee. A site in Jacksonville will be added in the fall.
Students are required to complete a 27-semester- hour curriculum consisting of nine courses. Lectures by faculty will be given on the designated centers and broadcast to the other facilities. Students will be able to push a button and appear on screen, ask questions, and receive answers from the professor in real time.
The program will provide students with the skills to design, recommend, and evaluate pharmacotherapeutic regimens for a variety of disease states.
"We established the external PharmD [program] to enhance the clinical and administrative skills of the practicing pharmacist in order to meet the healthcare-related challenges of the future," says Dr. Henry Lewis III, dean of the College of Pharmacy. "The program ... [allows] pharmacists to go back to school without interrupting their careers."
The program is accredited by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education.

Northern Arizona University (NAU) has launched a program that will provide engineering students — especially Native Americans, other minorities, and women — with opportunities to work with the scientific methodology of high performance computer modeling and simulation.
NAU students will do undergraduate research in conjunction with the University of Utah's Center for the Simulation of Accidental Fires and Explosions. They also will be advised by the Department of Energy's (DOE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researchers in an engineering design course where they will have the opportunity to apply theory to real-life problems.
The LLNL also will provide students with access to Blue Pacific, the supercomputer that broke the speed barrier for computing last November by performing 3.9 trillion calculations per second — 15,000 times faster than the average desktop computer.
The program, which is being coordinated by the College of Engineering and Technology's Multicultural Engineering Program, has three primary objectives: ensuring a highly skilled, diverse workforce consistent with science and technology needs within DOE Defense Program mission and goals; advancing the use of parallel computing and simulation technologies with a special interest on national security relevant disciplines; and enhancing national security and civilian scientific and technical literacy with an appreciation for and sensitivity to cultural diversity.
For more information, contact Dr. Mason Somerville, dean of NAU's College of Engineering and Technology, by e-mail at <Mason.Somerville@nau.edu>; or by phone at 520-523-2880.