As the only co-op pharmacy program in the nation and one of only two in North America, Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy aims not only to create globally-engaged citizens, but great Canadians and pharmacists as well. The first new School of Pharmacy in Canada in more than 20 years, it will help to fill the urgent demand for more pharmacists across the country. As the anchor institution of the Downtown Kitchener Health Sciences Campus, the school will be at the forefront of a unique inter-professional collaboration with McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, a family health clinic, and a teaching and service clinic from Waterloo’s School of Optometry.

In the collective style that is a hallmark of Waterloo Region, forward-thinking partners came together to make the Health Sciences Campus and the School of Pharmacy a reality. The City of Kitchener was the catalyst, investing $30 million and providing an eight acre site in the downtown. The Region of Waterloo invested $15 million in capital to support the McMaster medical program. $8 million came from Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities. The local Lyle S. Hallman Foundation contributed $3 million to attract the best leadership for the Pharmacy program.

Pharmacy’s undergraduate curriculum is designed to emphasize breadth, both in the type of students accepted and the learning experience. Flexibility is built in to allow students to pursue areas of interest, such as business, policy development, health informatics or research. Key to the School’s philosophy is that the students’ experiences will continuously inform the curriculum, keeping it fresh and relevant, while work placements provide direct application of concepts learned in the classroom. Waterloo students work in community pharmacies, hospitals, long-term care facilities, family medicine or specialty clinics, the pharmaceutical industry, government bodies, international organizations, pharmacy-affiliated businesses, and on research projects. They are also required to complete at least one co-op term in an area of pharmacist shortage. Co-op is key to the School’s ability to train graduates who can take full advantage of the rapidly expanding role for pharmacists in today’s health care context.

The school’s new home is a 120,000 sq. foot building with a seven-storey tower rising above a four-storey main section. Designed by Toronto firms Hariri Pontarini Architects and Robbie/Young + Wright Architects, the distinctive building is already a landmark. The exterior is covered in glass panels depicting medicinal plants, reflecting the fact that some 60% of modern medicines originated in the natural world.

As part of the entrepreneurial University of Waterloo, the School of Pharmacy benefits from the established uWaterloo culture, particularly the generous intellectual property policy wherein the investigator owns and is free to exploit any discoveries, and the inherent connectivity to the business world that comes with co-op programs. As Pharmacy’s faculty complement grows, it is building research strengths in bio-nanotechnology, drug delivery, pharmacology, neuroscience, diabetes treatment, paediatric pharmacokinetic modeling, pharmacotherapy in the elderly, and vaccine development, among many others.

“The Health Sciences Campus aims to become an innovative centre that brings together education, treatment, research, and commercial applications in dramatic new ways.“

“This city and this region have embraced the School of Pharmacy in astonishing ways. We are proud to truly be integrated with our community, whether through partnerships with hospitals and health teams, educational programs for the public, or the involvement of our students with not-for-profit agencies. It is all part of bringing health and healing to the population.” - Dr. Nancy Waite, Interim Hallman Director, School of Pharmacy

Sources:
• http://newsrelease.uwaterloo.ca/news
• www.pharmacy.uwaterloo.ca