The Taneja College of Pharmacy has enhanced its foundational, didactic, and experiential curriculum to accommodate the diversity of students entering pharmacy school, many with diverse backgrounds in study, work, and life experiences. The curriculum includes components that allow students to pursue their passions, become workforce-ready, and pursue nontraditional pharmacy career paths.

As the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy’s (TCOP) new 30,000-square-foot home in downtown Tampa continues to progress, plans include a Maker Space/Creativity Lounge, a space that will connect students, faculty, and staff with leaders and innovators to promote creativity as part of professional development.

“The key to this vision is the ITEHC Academy (Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship in Healthcare). What originally started as a student-developed organization has grown to become the foundation for initiatives focused on advancing our student’s creativity, innovative and disruptive mindsets. It is now the pinnacle of the pillars and strategic plan of the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy,” said Kevin M. Olson, MBA, PharmD, CPh, assistant professor at the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy and director of the ITEHC Academy.

To help elevate and advance pharmaceutical education further, the new space will include virtual and augmented reality, a multitaction video wall, CAD drawing software, 3D printing, and holographic technology.

The space will allow various student groups, such as ITEHC, to develop innovative ideas and prototypes for health-related devices.

“Envision a space where students, faculty, staff, and community partners can come together and collaborate, a space where they can discover new ways of creating value that will advance pharmacy practice, differentiate pharmacist career opportunities, and reshape the future of pharmacy and health care,” Dr. Olson said.

Story and video by Ryan Rossy, USF Health Communications and Marketing

Rendering of the Student Commons outside the Creativity Lounge.

Rendering of the Creativity Lounge.

With virtual and augmented reality becoming more prominent, the USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS) is expanding its research efforts to explore the use of virtual and augmented reality in medical simulation training. 

“Traditionally, health care simulation has been actors, task-trainers, and mannequins. Virtual reality allows us to be fully immersed in an alternate world and that world can be an operating room, an outpatient clinic, or an ambulance, and be changed quickly. You will really feel like you’re there, which is challenging to do in a simulation center.” said Yasuharu “Haru” Okuda, MD, FACEP, FSSH, executive director for USF Health CAMLS and associate vice president for USF Health Interprofessional Education and Practice.

As the research mission at CAMLS develops, the goal is to easily export its virtual medical simulation trainings to different parts of the world so other medical professionals can take advantage of the research expertise there.

“You can connect to VR training scenarios from anywhere. You will be able to bring it to your home, bring it to your classroom, and conduct a training within only a headset that is just as powerful as anything in person,” Dr. Okuda said.

Shannon Bailey, PhD, Sr. Human Factors Scientist for USF Health CAMLS and assistant professor for the Department of Medical Education at the Morsani College of Medicine.

To help expand its research efforts, CAMLS hired a PhD, tenure-track researcher, Shannon Bailey. She has over 10 years of experience designing and testing extended reality (XR) training simulations and educational games. In her research, she explores how augmented, virtual, and extended reality technology can be used to inspire effective student learning through adaptive training and natural user interfaces.

Before coming to CAMLS, Dr. Bailey worked for the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD). After gaining extensive experience in military simulation training, she transitioned to the field of medical simulation training as a researcher director for a technology company called Immertec, which develops medical simulation training to impact how medical professionals learn.

“This research is important because it is moving the field forward by systematically testing different ways to approach simulation training and finding ways to optimize the training for both the learner and the medical professionals, which could lead to better outcomes for patients,” said Dr. Shannon Bailey, assistant professor for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

“VR at CAMLS will not replace real-world mannequin-based training,” Dr. Okuda said, but offering a resource to those who lack access to high-fidelity simulation centers allows them to experience the same level of training and experience in a virtual environment. 

“We are thrilled to have Dr. Shannon Bailey as our first PhD tenure-track researcher at CAMLS. What she brings to CAMLS is the ability for us to really lean into this area of extended reality and then apply it into a health care academic setting,” said Dr. Okuda. 

Story and video by Ryan Rossy, USF Health Communications and Marketing

First-year students put on simulation goggles to see how certain drugs interact in the body

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Virtual (VR) and augmented (AR) realities are transforming the way pharmacology students learn at the University of South Florida’s College of Pharmacy. First-year students are now using simulation goggles to see how certain drugs interact in the body.

They have applied AR/VR to visualize how beta blockers commonly prescribed to treat hypertension, asthma and cardiac workload may affect the heart, lungs and blood vessels. This new learning experience is part of a key initiative to integrate advanced technologies into the student curriculum.

Daniel Lee, PhD, associate professor of pharmaceutical science (standing), explains the integration of virtual and augmented reality into the College of Pharmacy  course he’s teaching.

“As dean, I teach an advanced metabolic syndrome course, and I have always wanted the students to have high fidelity visualization of the medications we use to treat diabetes and heart disease. With AR/ VR, we are now able to conceptualize organ function better, soon followed by complex medication mechanisms of action,” said Kevin Sneed, PharmD, dean of the USF College of Pharmacy. “We are now able to conceptualize organ function better.”

During a recent class, students covered their eyes with headsets and chose from components previously learned. They used a laser beam to drag and drop small medication doses onto an organ to witness a reaction. In some treatments the heart beat faster, the lungs expanded, or blood vessels constricted.

“They are able to really play with and really understand which drugs are causing the constriction which would lead to increase hypertension,” said Daniel Lee, PhD, associate professor of pharmaceutical science. Lee’s students gained a better perspective on main lecture objectives down to molecular organ function.

The experience is a game changer for Andreas Rosario, a student who had never tried VR and was seen smiling from ear to ear. “In lecture it’s just words and pictures, kind of hard sometimes to wrap your mind around it,” Rosario said. “I can just take my own time, it’s my own experience.”

Another student, Amanda Hutchings, said she’s a visual learner. “You can tell me day in and day out what Carvedilol (a drug treatment) does this to a receptor, but until I see it happen, I’m not going to understand it.”

This program is just the beginning. Feedback from participating students will be factored into future reiterations of the module. Faculty from the college will continue to work closely Information Technology’s Advanced Visualization Center (AVC) at USF to keep the technology fresh. Funding is received from a student technology fee initiative.

“It’s a great collaboration that shows the spirit of USF,” said Howard Kaplan, advanced technologies manager at AVC.

Kaplan’s team develops mechanisms for learning inside augmented and virtual realities with many departments across the university to innovate curriculums, enhance research projects and inspire more uses of new technologies.

“I wish I had something like this when I was learning pharmacology,” said Lee.“It’s very interactive.”

– Video by Ryan Noone and photos by Sandra C. Roa, USF Communications and Marketing