Pharmacy Practice and Science (PPS)

PPS Research Outcomes To see the future of pharmacy practice in action, look no further than the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science.
James B. Ray is the Otterbeck OnePoint Patient Care Professor James B. Ray, center, stands between James Otterbeck (left) and Dean Donald Letendre (right). Ray is the James A. Otterbeck OnePoint Patient Care Professor in Hospice and Palliative Care.
Mary Schroeder: Understanding Patients through Economics Mary Schroeder, PhD, an assistant professor, is an economist in the college.
Ernst's Stewardship Combats Superbugs By using antibiotics optimally, Erika J. Ernst and her team are slowing down drug-resistant bacteria.
Creating the Science to Save Lives on Our Nations Highways Gary Milavetz, ACS Associate Professor and division head, works with the National Advanced Driving Simulator to help reduce driver impairment.

We pride ourselves in providing Doctor of Pharmacy students with the professional clinical foundation of pharmacist practice -- teaching the fundamentals of Pharmacotherapy decision-making, broadening one’s understanding of the impact of social, behavioral, and economic factors on patient outcomes, and giving student pharmacists controlled and diverse experience as a clinician.

Jay Dean Currie, Department Chair

About PPS

The Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science (PPS) houses two divisions:

The Division of Applied Clinical Sciences (ACS)
The Division of Health Services Research (HSR)

PPS offers:

The creation of new knowledge through scientific discovery and practice innovation

PPS faculty are well known for their research and practice innovation.

Investigations range from the genetic basis of therapeutic action, optimizing specific therapeutic outcomes, and the novel delivery of patient care to the economic and social aspect of pharmaceutical use in society.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) education

PPS is home to one PhD program.

The Program in Pharmaceutical Socioeconomics uses an interdisciplinary approach in studying behavior and choice in health care with an economics and social-psychological theoretical basis.

Post-PharmD residency training

Many pharmacists spend their first year of practice receiving an intense, advanced education in their chosen clinical field.

PPS is the home of the most prominent residency program for community pharmacy practice and has a long, extremely successful program of resident training in the specialty area of family medicine.

Post-Graduate fellowship training

Some pharmacists, usually after taking a residency, continue their education in an intense research environment.

These individuals usually seek a career that heavily engages in the discovery of new knowledge as a scientist on faculty or in the private sector.

PPS faculty have developed and actively participate in fellowship programs.

Service to patients and the profession

PPS faculty are involved in an array of professional service activities including service to patients through practices in such places as family medicine clinics and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, leadership positions in national and state organizations such as the American Pharmacists Association and the Iowa Pharmacy Association, and to the public through volunteer activities at free medical clinic and the UI mobile clinic.