VCU news

By Joe Kuttenkuler

Victor Yanchick, Ph.D., professor and dean of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy, has been tapped to serve as chairman of the Council of Deans of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. He will begin his one-year term when he is officially installed during the association's annual meeting in Salt Lake City in July.

Comprised of all 89 U.S. pharmacy colleges and schools, the AACP is a national organization that represents the interests of pharmaceutical education and educators and includes more than 4,000 faculty, 36,000 students enrolled in professional programs, and 3,600 individuals pursuing graduate study. The Council of Deans sets policy and deals with a broad range of pharmacy education issues including quality, finance, and faculty and curricula development.

One of the major initiatives Yanchick hopes to address during his term is one he has championed throughout his career - the need to restructure health sciences education so that students are taught in a multidisciplinary environment to function as a health care team.

"Curricula must be redesigned so that students from pharmacy, medicine, nursing, and the other health professions learn together in and out of the classroom to work as a team to provide the highest level of patient care," said Yanchick, who over the years has been instrumental in developing a doctoral degree (Pharm.D.) in pharmacy education that educates pharmacists to work collaboratively with physicians.

Yanchick added, "Pharmacists can play a key role as a health care provider by making sure that patients get optimal benefit from the drugs that are prescribed. This means that pharmacists need to have an open line of communication with both the patient and the prescribing physician.

But this wasn't the case when I was in school. We were taught to fill prescriptions and were not supposed to talk about the drugs to the patient. I always thought there was something wrong with that."

Yanchick established a Pharm.D. program at the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma and initiated the Pharm.D. program at VCU.

In addition to his AACP appointment, Yanchick also has been selected by peers at his alma mater - the University of Iowa - to receive the 2004 Distinguished Alumni Award in May.

"Never in a million years did I think I'd be coming back [to Iowa] as a distinguished alumnus," said Yanchick, who has been dean of VCU's School of Pharmacy since 1996. "This, along with the chance to continue enhancing pharmacy education with the AACP, is a tremendous honor."

This is the seventh year the University of Iowa has given the award, which recognizes alumni who have distinguished themselves nationally and internationally. Yanchick will receive the award during a dinner on May 12 in Iowa City.

"Victor Yanchick has made extraordinary contributions to pharmacy and pharmacy education through his visionary leadership," said Jordan L. Cohen, Ph.D., dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Iowa. "I'm honored to help recognize his distinguished career and the educational innovations he has initiated."

"I am delighted that Dr. Yanchick has received this wonderful recognition from both his alma mater and from his fellow Deans of Schools of Pharmacy. However, I'm not surprised. He is well known as an exceptional leader in academic Pharmacy and his career achievements have clearly earned him these honors," said Dr. Sheldon Retchin, M.D., vice president for Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Yanchick also received a Distinguished Alumni Award from Purdue in 1996.

Prior to joining VCU, Yanchick was professor and dean at the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy from 1985 to 1996. He was a faculty member in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin from 1968 to 1985, where he served as the associate dean for administration from 1981 to 1985. Yanchick received his Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the University of Iowa in 1962, and his Masters degree in pharmacy in 1966. He earned his pharmacy Ph.D. from Purdue University in 1968.