AUSTIN, Texas—The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) has presented an award to pharmacy student Rene Garza of The University of Texas at Austin for a community diabetes care research project that will take place in Austin during the next year.
Garza, an Austin resident originally from the Rio Grande Valley, was one of three students selected in a nationwide competition to receive the $5,000 Novo Nordisk Pharmacy Practice Diabetes Award. Garza, in his third professional year of pharmacy school, is immediate past president of the Mexican American Association of Pharmacy Students and a member of the UT Austin Pharmacy Council.
Dr. Debra Canales Lopez, a clinical assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy, is faculty adviser for his project, titled "DiaBEATit — Pharmacist Impact on Diabetes Outcomes."
The AACP program was developed to encourage pharmacy students to become actively involved in the treatment of persons with diabetes in the ambulatory and retail pharmacy practice environment. Novo Nordisk also provides $500 for supplies and equipment support for each project.
Garza’s project involves working with a local pharmacist and a local physician to provide outpatient care to a group of patients at high risk for diabetes. The group will be compared with a similar group of patients who do not have a pharmacist involved in their care.
