Postdoctoral Training Program, College of Pharmacy, The University of Texas
ASHP Accredited Residency Logo

SPECIALTY PRACTICE RESIDENCY IN PSYCHIATRY
Pharmacotherapy Education and Research Center
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
in conjunction with The University of Texas, College of Pharmacy


San Antonio Psychiatric Pharmacy Faculty 2008-9
William H Benefield Photo
William H Benefield, Pharm.D., BCPP
Developmentally Disabled
Consultant with PharMerica/AmerisourceBergen Corporation
Debra Dandridge, Pharm.D.
Psychiatric Pharmacy Resident (PGY2)
University of Texas Health Science Center
Debbie Gregg, R.Ph., MBA
Debbie Gregg, R.Ph.
Pharmacy Administration
San Antonio State Hospital
Debbie Gregg, R.Ph., MBA
Catherine Hall, Pharm.D., BCPP
Geropsychiatry, Hospice, and Acute Care Units
San Antonio State Hospital
Cindy Mascarenas Photo
Cindy Mascarenas, Pharm.D., MS Pharm, BCPP
Inpatient and Outpatient
South Texas Veterans Health Care System
Troy Moore Photo
Troy Moore, Pharm.D., MS Pharm, BCPP
UTHSCSA
South Texas Veterans Health Care System
Ann Richards
Ann L. Richards, Pharm.D. , BCPP
Pharmacy Administration
San Antonio State Hospital
Stephen R. Saklad, Pharm.D., BCPP
Stephen R. Saklad, Pharm.D., BCPP
Intermediate Care and Adolescent Units
San Antonio State Hospital
Regina Tabor Photo
Regina Tabor, RPh, BCPP
Infectious Disease
Texas Center for Infectious Disease
Sharon Tramonte
Sharon Tramonte, Pharm.D.
Internal Medicine
San Antonio State School

Phillip Lai, Pharm.D.
Psychiatric Pharmacy Resident (PGY2)
South Texas Veterans Health Care System
Location:
San Antonio, Texas [map]

Length of Residency:
One year after PGY1 / Two years concurrent with Masters of Science

Start Date: July 1

Requirements:

Residency Program Director:
Stephen R. Saklad, Pharm.D., BCPP
San Antonio Psychiatric Pharmacy Residency Director
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Pharmacotherapy Education and Research Center, MSC 6220
7703 Floyd Curl Drive
San Antonio, TX 78229-3900
Voice (210) 567-8355
FAX (210) 567-8414
Saklad@uthscsa.edu

Overview and Program Philosophy:
The University of Texas Psychiatric Pharmacy Practice Program is located at several sites throughout Texas. This document describes the accredited specialty residency program based in San Antonio at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA); Laurel Ridge Treatment Center; and San Antonio State Hospital (SASH).

The residency is a comprehensive training program designed to develop clinical expertise in the pharmacotherapy of CNS disorders. For those applicants that will not have completed their PGY1, or desire a more rigorous and didactically enriched program, the concurrent residency with Masters of Science program would be appropriate.

The faculty strongly encourage prospective residents to consider our two-year MS Pharm / concurrent PGY2 Residency option. We will continue to offer the one-year specialty residency program (PGY2), but only to those that are finishing their PGY1 Residency, in compliance with ASHP Accreditation Standards. We believe that for those Pharm.D. candidates that know that their goal is excellence in Psychiatric Pharmacy, our MS Pharm / concurrent PGY2 Residency program offers the prospective resident greater rewards than two separate residency years (PGY1 & PGY2), probably in different cities.

The number of positions that we fill for 2009-10 will depend upon many factors, including the excellence of the applicant pool. The psychiatric pharmacy program in San Antonio has five Pharm.D. clinical faculty, and one administrative pharmacist.

San Antonio is a cosmopolitan area of ~1.2 million people, located on the edge of the Texas Hill Country. Cultural, educational, and recreational activities are available in the immediate area, commensurate with being the seventh largest city in the United States. Summers are hot with afternoon high temperatures over 90F, however the fall, winter and spring are ideal for outdoor activities. Additional climate information is available.

Clinical Training Environment:
Our program uses a wide range of clinical environments to provide training in pharmaceutical care, primary care (drug therapy management per Texas' law), inpatient management, outpatient clinical services (managed care and government funded), consultant activities, teaching, and research. We believe that the highest levels of clinical competency can only be achieved by intensive participation in a variety of multidisciplinary treatment team environments. These provide the opportunity to participate in the management of many different disease states including acutely ill psychiatric inpatients, ambulatory patients with mood and anxiety disorders, psychiatric patients with medical problems, and developmentally disabled individuals. In our outpatient clinics, the resident follows patients over extended periods of time to provide a longitudinal perspective on improving the quality of life for persons with serious mental illness. Experience at the outpatient clinic is integrated into the resident's schedule for the entire year and occupies approximately four to six hours per week. Many inpatient and outpatient elective rotation opportunities are available in a variety of clinical settings.

San Antonio State Hospital's objective is to provide pharmaceutical care to all patients. In order to achieve that result we continue to expand the role of staff pharmacists by placing them on clinical units to provide pharmaceutical care. A consult service provides limited pharmaceutical care to those units that do not have full-time clinical pharmacologist or staff pharmacist coverage.

Managed care training opportunities include an elective with psychiatrists at Alamo Mental Health, private outpatient practice. Inpatient consult liaison psychiatry provides an opportunity to integrate medical, neuropsychiatric, and pharmacotherapeutic practice in the care of seriously (and complex) ill patients.

Annual Psychiatric Pharmacy Program Retreat            

The South Texas Veterans Healthcare System, Audie Murphy Division is our training site for substance abuse and ambulatory care, and is available for electives in inpatient and outpatient psychiatric services, neurology, and primary care (Prime Care VA program).

Participation in an investigational project is a required part of the residency program. This research exposure is not intended to provide the resident with the ability to conduct independent research. Instead, it serves to provide a foundation for the future development of the skills needed to systematically evaluate a clinical intervention, including the basic methods and grantsmanship. The resident will develop a research idea in collaboration with a faculty advisor, review the published background literature, prepare a comprehensive and realistic research proposal, submit this for Institutional Review Board approval, conduct the research, analyse the results, and present and publish the results.

Educational Opportunities:
Like all well-designed comprehensive educational and training programs, we employ a three stage learning model: seeing an example, practicing yourself, and teaching someone else. Activities and schedules are intended to permit all three stages of learning over the course of your training. This includes several didactic and seminar courses on neuroscience, clinical psychopharmacology, and psychiatric diseases taught by our faculty. These courses are taught at the graduate level throughout the year.

The Psychiatric Pharmacy Journal Club meets weekly using two-way interactive digital video between SASH, UTHSCSA, and the VA. Occasionally we have guests join from more distant locations. Our weekly Journal Club covers review and analysis of recent literature and presentation of difficult patient cases with literature review for discussion, evaluation, and input.

A variety of formal and informal presentations are a required component of the our training program. These presentations employ a variety of teaching techniques, including state of the art classroom technologies. Some presentation are during Journal Club, others are on clinical units at your rotation site. Role model activities on clinical units and laboratory (problem-based learning discussions) sections for Pharm.D. students comprise the majority of teaching responsibilities. Classes for improving your teaching effectiveness including professional evaluations are available. Educational opportunities such as Pharmacotherapy Conference and guest lecturers are an integral aspect of our training programs.

Attendance and active participation in regional psychiatric pharmacy (University of Texas Psychiatric Pharmacotherapy Update each Fall) and residency (Alcalde: Southwest Leadership Conference each Spring) activities provide opportunities to obtain ACPE-certified CE as well as gaining additional presentation experience. Attendance at national meetings such as the annual meeting of the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP), the New Drug Clinical Evaluation Unit (NCDEU), and American Society of Health-system Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting will be supported once annually and if presenting at the meeting.

Administrative experience can be gained through direct involvement in the ongoing expansion and continuous quality improvement activities of our clinical programs and by an elective rotation with the Pharmacy Services Director at SASH.

The full resources of The University of Texas College of Pharmacy and The UTHSCSA Pharmacotherapy Education and Research Center (PERC) are available, including the UTHSCSA Briscoe library, TexShare, and UT Austin libraries, computer support, and drug information services.

Administrative Arrangements:
The UT Austin College of Pharmacy and UTHSCSA collectively administer the residency in psychiatric pharmacy. The Departments of Psychiatry and the Pharmacotherapy Research and Education Center (PERC) of the School of Medicine at UTHSCSA provide additional clinical supervision and research support. Each resident may select any of the faculty to be their professional development advisor. However, all of the faculty actively participate in the training and supervision of each resident.

Residents have appointment through the College of Pharmacy, University of Texas at Austin. Paid benefits include two weeks vacation, professional travel time, and funding for attending a national professional meeting. Recently, our single residents' apartment rents are ~$500-900/month, depending on number of bedrooms and amenities (swimming pools, fireplace, washer/dryer, pets, etc.).

Besides interviews at the ACCP Annual Meeting, ASHP MCM, and the CPNP Annual Meeting, we may invite you to visit our facilities, interview with a larger number of our faculty, and observe our program first-hand. Interviews in San Antonio are usually scheduled for late fall through early February and last about 1 to 1.5 days (more if you visit the our affiliated programs based at the South Texas Veterans Health System or in Austin). Generally, we will have you arrive Thursday evening, interview on Friday and depart on Sunday so that you can visit the area with our current residents and faculty. Alternately, arrive on Saturday, interview on Monday and depart late Monday. This typically lowers airfare costs that you have to pay. While in San Antonio, all of your expenses will be covered by the program.

Annual Psychiatric Pharmacy Program Retreat             Annual Psychiatric Pharmacy Program Retreat

Training Facilities:
San Antonio State Hospital and the Texas Center for Infectious Disease are operated under the auspices of the Texas Department of State Health Services, and San Antonio State School is operated under the auspices of the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services on the same campus in southeast San Antonio, 17 miles from UTHSCSA. SASH has 302 inpatient beds certified by JCAHO and SASS has 335 inpatient beds certified by ACDD and ICF-MR. SASH patient units include acute adult psychiatry, extended care, adolescent psychiatry, multiple disabilities, medical-surgical, neurology, day hospital, transitional living, clinical research, and community services to 13 surrounding counties. In addition, the county mental health authority operates a substance abuse unit on the SASH campus. SASS has a variety of homes that provide care to the developmental disabled with varying degrees of functional impairment, many with concomitant medical and/or psychiatric illnesses. In addition to our pharmacy program, SASH participates in education and training of healthcare professionals in all major disciplines.

Our primary inpatient research site is located at Laurel Ridge Treatment Center.

Stipend:

Recent Former Residents:
2005-06 Jehan Marino, Pharm.D. - Clinical Assistant Professor @ Nova Southeastern University
2003-05 Douglas Boggs, Pharm.D., BCPP - Clinical Assistant Professor @ University of Maryland and Maryland Psychiatric Research Center
2003-05 Troy Moore, Pharm.D., MS Pharm, BCPP - Clinical Assistant Professor @ UTHSCSA Psychiatry + Clinical Assistant Professor UT
2003-05 Shannon N. Saldana, Pharm.D., MS Pharm, BCPP, Clinical Specialist, Psychiatry, Division of Pharmacy, Pediatric Pharmacology Research Unit, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
2003-04 Angela Passero, Pharm.D., BCPP - Clinical Pharmacist @ Springfield Hospital Center, MD
2003-04 Christopher J. Wallen, Pharm.D., BCPP - Clinical Pharmacist Educator @ VA Hudson Valley
2002-03 Kristin B. Case, Pharm.D. - Clinical Pharmacist @ Caremark in San Antonio
2002-03 Emily E. Lefler, Pharm.D., BCPP, Pharmacy Manager, Sharp Mesa Vista Hospital, San Diego, CA
2001-03 Cynthia A. Mascarenas, Pharm.D., MS Pharm, BCPP, Clinical Pharmacist @ South Texas Veterans Health System + Clinical Assistant Professor UT
2001-02 Joshua Cabalero, Pharm.D., BCPP - Clinical Assistant Professor @ Nova Southeastern University
2001-02 Jennifer L. Potter, PharmD, BCPP - Clinical Assistant Professor, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Clinical Pharmacist, Psychiatry, University Medical Center at Princeton
2001-02 Lisa Mican, Pharm.D., BCPP - Clinical Pharmacist @ Austin State Hospital + Clinical Assistant Professor UT
2000-01 Stacy L. Anderson, Pharm.D., BCPP - Clinical Pharmacist @ Philadelphia VA
2000-01 Breann K. Bruton, Pharm.D. - Clinical Pharmacist @ Excelle Rx in PA
2000-01 Christine M. Ketchie, Pharm.D. - Clinical Pharmacist @ State Hospital in South Carolina
2000-01 Elham Tabarsi, Pharm.D. - MSL AstraZeneca

The University of Texas at Austin and its affiliated institutions are an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Qualified women and minorities are encouraged to apply.  Security sensitive; conviction verification conducted on applicant selected.


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26 August 2008
College of Pharmacy at UT Austin
Comments to: pharmacy@www.utexas.edu