Program Honoring ASHP Past President Creates Symposium, Medal

One of the university-based annual award programs that honors the legacy of a leader in pharmacy practice and residency training this year held a full-day symposium and presented a commemorative medal to past awardees.

The Clifton J. Latiolais Symposium, held in May on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University, received "very, very positive feedback from attendees," said Latiolais Leadership Program director Robert J. Weber.

So positive were the responses from the nearly 120 attendees that Weber said it may be hard for the next symposium to live up to the success of the first.

The morning's program consisted of five presentations, four of which described advances at some of the patient care environments where Ohio State conducts its combined M.S. degree and residency program. This program was created in 1959 by Clifton J. Latiolais, then the fairly new director of pharmacy for the university's hospitals. The fifth presentation was given by ASHP residency surveyor Toby Clark, who offered his perspective on the 55-year-old combined degree–residency program.

At breakout sessions in the afternoon participants discussed two topics: the "six broad goals" suggested by Latiolais and coauthors in the seminal Mirror to Hospital Pharmacy, published by ASHP in 1964; and the pharmacy leadership changes needed to advance pharmacists as healthcare providers.

Latiolais served as the president of ASHP in 1960–61 and as pharmacy director for Ohio State's hospitals until his retirement in 1983.

Alumni of the combined degree–residency program established the Clifton J. Latiolais Award in 1985.

Weber, who is administrator for pharmacy services at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said only four awardees were unable to attend the symposium and receive their medal.

He said the format for future symposia, funding permitting, will encourage more interaction among the attendees.

Four other university-based award programs honor pharmacy directors who were leaders in residency training and also president of ASHP:

• Fred M. Eckel Pharmacy Leadership Award , by UNC Hospitals,
• Harold N. Godwin Leadership Legacy Award , by the University of Kansas pharmacy residency programs,
• Paul F. Parker Award , by the University of Kentucky pharmacy residency programs, and
• Winston J. Durant Lecture Award, by the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics pharmacy residency program.

The Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, and Wisconsin award programs recognize their newest awardee during luncheons held in conjunction with ASHP's Midyear Clinical Meeting in December.

"We're encouraging the [Ohio State] alumni to wear their medal to the luncheon," Weber said.