To kick off the spring semester, entrepreneurs from the Nashville area were invited to speak to second-year student pharmacists during the Pharmacy Practice Management and Pharmacoeconomics course. The first presentation of the term featured Don Hejny (pictured far left), founder and CEO of Nerdwax™, a Nashville entrepreneur whose company was featured this season on ABC’s Shark Tank. Mr. Hejny illustrated the entrepreneurial process for the College’s students, taking them through his experiences launching and sustaining Nerdwax™, a product that prevents eyewear slippage, as well as what it was like to be highlighted by a nationally televised program. Nashville faculty member, Dr. Kenneth Hohmeier (pictured center) and Dr. Rick Sain (’89), co-founder of Reeves-Sain in Murfreesboro (pictured right), shared their personal insights on innovating as pharmacists. Their experiences imparted to the students how their careers unfolded as a result of bringing an entrepreneurial spirit to compounding and community pharmacies.
The Pharmacy Practice Management and Pharmacoeconomics course, directed by Dr. Justin Gatwood, focuses on improving business acumen that can be taken into pharmacy practice, regardless of site, and highlighting innovators in Tennessee. The course was used to spark student interest in a required business plan project. During the spring semester, second-year student pharmacists are working as teams to develop and pitch an innovative pharmacy product or service. Many students are working alongside established firms throughout Tennessee, gaining real-world experience with business planning.
A sense of entrepreneurship is equally evident in the Community Pharmacy elective, a course directed by Dr. Hohmeier, where second-year student pharmacists can experience a semester-long immersion in community-based practice. After an introduction to community pharmacy operations and practice, students partner with local community pharmacies to develop a customized collaborative practice agreement (CPA), based on the recently passed landmark Tennessee law and the specific needs of the pharmacy. The students merge the traditional practice of pharmacy with emerging opportunities in the state to create a CPA that either improves operational efficiencies or allows for the growth of financially sustainable patient care services. Working in concert, both courses seek to ignite the entrepreneurial spirit in UT’s student pharmacists, inspiring pharmacy innovators of tomorrow.