Monograph

1. UPS Athletics

Welcome back Phriends and Athletes! Lots has happened since the beginning of the school year in the Athletics departement! Here's a quick summary to bring you up to speed!


--Tug-O-War--
At the Back-to-School-Mixer, we found out which pharmacy class is the strongest. It was an intense battle between the classes but in the end, only one class could could out as the winner. The Tug-O-War championship goes out to the phresh, talented and strong 2T0's! Congratulations on defeating the two time champion 1T8s.


--Pharmacy Soccer Match UofT vs. Waterloo--
Congratulations to our Pharmacy Soccer Team for bringing home the 2016 Ontario Pharmacy Soccer Cup! Waterloo and UofT played a tight match in the pouring rain. Regulation ended in 0-0 tie and UofT fought to take the cup home with a 4-3 win in penalty kicks!


--Intramural Softball Tournament--
Congratulations to our Pharmacy Softball Team for playing through three wet but glorious games at the annual softball tournament!

--Intramurals--
Intramurals are back! Let's first introduce our teams and respective captains for the school year.

Male Basketball (fall/winter) - Captain Jahed Koshnood
Female Basketball (fall/winter) - Captain Emily Hammond
Co-Ed Basketball (fall/winter) - Captain Ashour Barkho
Male Flag Football (fall) - Captains John Ngo and Ran Shu
Female Flag Football (fall) - Captain Elise De Francesco
Co-Ed Flag Football (fall) - Captains Elise De Francesco and John Ngo
Male Hockey(fall/winter) - Captain Taylor Smith
Female Hockey (fall/winter) - Captain Elise De Francesco
Co-Ed Hockey (fall/winter) - Captains Taylor Smith and Elise De Francesco
Male Soccer (fall/winter) - Captain David Tom
Female Soccer (fall/winter) - Captains Alex Kourkounakis & Meiko Peng
Male Volleyball (fall/winter) - Captain Jerry Boun
Female Volleyball fall/winter - Captains Halina Lam & Meiko Peng
Co-Ed Volleyball Div. 2 (fall/winter) - Captain Quang Vuong
Co-Ed Volleyball Open 1 (fall/winter) - Captains Joseph Blommesteyn & Leanne Kong
Co-Ed Volleyball Open 2 (fall/winter) - Captain Nga Pham
Male Lacrosse (winter) - Captain Spencer Martin
Co-Ed Softball (fall) - Captain Spencer Martin
Co-Ed Ultimate Frisbee (fall/winter) - Captains Jonathan Mak & Ran Shu
Co-Ed Inner Tube Waterpolo (winter) - Captain Leanne Kong

No tryouts, no fees! All sign-ups can be done through IM Leagues (http://www.imleagues.com/spa/portal/home). If you have any questions or comments please send us an email (athletics@uoftpharmacy.com)! Check out the UPS intramurals page for each captain's contact information and the links to the teams' Facebook group (http://uoftpharmacy.com/intramuralTeams.php). Stay tuned for intramural game updates and athletes of the month!

Looking forward to an amazing year with each and every one of you!
Elise and Sylvia

2. Capsi and OPA


Welcome back to school everyone!

We are excited to plan some amazing events for the 2016-2017 year! CAPSI (Canadian Association of Pharmacy Students and Interns) is a national organization that is aimed at promoting and advocating the interests of Canadian pharmacy students. As U of T Pharmacy students in the PharmD program, you're automatically a CAPSI member!

This past summer, your CAPSI Senior (Maria) and CAPSI Junior (Nisha) attended the CPhA conference in Calgary, Alberta. We met with CAPSI National consisting of other student representatives from pharmacy schools across Canada. We discussed topics such as CAPSI membership, PDW seat allocation and competitions. It was also a great opportunity to find out what's going on at other pharmacy schools so we can bring some new ideas your way!

We started off the year with the CAPSI textbook sale in the summer package and our CAPSI Ice Cream social to welcome of the first years at Phrosh. We had a wonderful time meeting the 2T0s and the upper years at Clubs Fair. In September, we opened the registration for CPhA benefits, which you get free as a CAPSI member. Note: This membership gets you access to the very popular RxTx app!

PDW 2017 is scheduled to take place in the beautiful city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. For those of you not sure of what PDW is, it's the largest completely student-run pharmacy conference in Canada. The conference will take place from January 4th to 7th, and registration will start late October/ early November. Over the course of the 4 days, there are many exciting activities planned such as the opening gala, talks, and motivational speakers. Make sure to sign up for the CAPSI competitions (ex. PIC/OTC, student literary challenge and more!)

As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact Maria (torontosr@capsi.ca) and/or Nisha (torontojr@capsi.ca).

We look forward to seeing you around PB!

Maria and Nisha

3. OPA
Hi Pharmacy! To all returning students, I hope you had an enjoyable summer, and to all incoming students, welcome! The Ontario Pharmacists Association (OPA) had a busy summer! We were busy moving office locations down University Ave and hosting our annual OPA Conference celebrating our 50th anniversary- all the while carrying out our advocacy efforts for the profession of pharmacy! Here are some photos from the OPA Conference this year. We had a great selection of guest speakers this year at the conference and the occasion was topped off by having our very own oncology/hematology professor at the faculty, Dr. Carlo De Angelis, be recognized as OPA's Pharmacist of the Year! Congratulations Professor!


Now that everyone is starting to get in the swing of things at school, make sure to take full advantage of all the benefits you can enjoy as a student member such as continuing education courses, members-only access to publications and resources, and competitively priced liability insurance. In particular, don't forget to register for OPA's upcoming student dinner-and-learn sessions being held at the faculty. The sessions planned for this semester are as follows:




Student Dinner-and-Learn Sessions (Sign up at: www.opatoday.com/224127)
Wednesday, September 28 @ 6-7:30pm in PB850 - The first few years as a new pharmacist
Wednesday, October 26, @ 6-7:30pm in PB850 - What can you do with a pharmacy degree: Alternative practice settings
Methadone Student Sessions (www.opatoday.com/224128)
Wednesday, October 19 @ 6-8pm in PB850
Wednesday, November 16 @ 6-8pm in PB850


Thank you to all of our existing student members for your continued support of the association ¨C our ability to voice your opinions and create change is only possible through our strength in numbers. For any students who have not yet become members, application forms can be mailed, faxed, or completed online, and any questions can be directed to membership@opatoday.com.

Good luck in your classes!
Tanner



4. UTSU Opt-out

GOTCHA! Bet you are only reading this because of the "opt out" title!


Welcome 2T0's and welcome back 1T8's and 1T9's to another fun filled school year!

I want to highlight an important change from UTSU this year regarding our health and dental plan. Our student insurance provider used to be Green Shield Canada, but in order to tailor the plan more to our students' needs, we have changed our provider this year to Desjardins. This is important to know as this means that if you go to a pharmacy outside of UofT, you will need to inform your pharmacy staff that the coverage has changed. They will need to re-enter your insurance information! This new insurance provider is giving us increased coverage for psychological services that the previous provider was lacking. The opt out date for this year's health and dental plan is September 30th, 2016. Please consult UTSU.ca for more detailed information regarding what the new plan covers.

Over the summer, the UTSU board and executive members have been extremely busy working on new initiatives that better benefit our students. One initiative that is worthy of note and super applicable to pharmacy students is the tuition cap expiration. Currently, for professional faculties, tuition is set to increase maximally by 5% per year. As of January 2017, this maximum cap amount expires - what does that mean for you? This basically means that the university is free to increase the tuition by as much as they would like without a cap. This is scary considering how much we are already paying per year. As a result, UTSU is trying to work with Queen's Park to try to reinstate the cap or to put a freeze on tuition increases until a more permanent solution can be reached. If you have any questions regarding this initiative and how you can get involved, please go to the UTSU website where all the important information will be posted and updated regularly.

Finally, remember that UTSU has discount tickets for Canada's Wonderland, Screemers (perfect for post-midterm de-stressing!), Cineplex (including date night tickets) and Casa Loma. For y'all who don't work at Shoppers, UTSU also provides a 20% discount at Rexall for all your drugstore needs!

If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding anything UTSU- related, go ahead and head to utsu.ca or shoot me an email at adriana.too@utsu.ca. If you see me around at school, please come say hi!

I wish everyone the best of luck in the upcoming school year and remember to have fun!

Adriana

5. IMHAP and PSWH


Who Are We? The purpose of IHMAP is to propagate knowledge and awareness about mental health, and to fight the stigma that surrounds mental illnesses and those afflicted by such diseases. As future pharmacists, we are perfectly positioned to play a crucial role in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders.

What Do We Do? Throughout the year, we will be holding various outreach events aimed at providing students and the faculty with information relating to the recognition, diagnosis and treatment of various mental illnesses. In addition, we will be holding awareness campaigns in the hope of fighting the stigma associated with mental disease.

Mental Health in Resources! Think Outside the Box: Think Outside the Box is a free resource that provides creative solutions to barriers faced by those with mental health disabilities. It also provides engaging stories from these individuals and their service providers about how accessibility and accommodation has made a difference for them. The Jack Project: The Jack Project is a national network of young people that are transforming societal perceptions of mental health. Jack.org provides initiatives and programs designed for young people, by young people in order to end the stigma associated with mental health. The Jack Project encourages and enables young people to better care for themselves and support their peers.

Once a month, we will be providing de-stress snacks along with a handout and brochure with more resources and information about mental health in Canada!

We look forward to meeting you all at our various events!

IMHAP Team

Did you know?

1. In any given year, ONE IN FIVE Canadians experiences a mental or addiction problem

2. Nearly 4000 Canadians die by suicide each year - an average of 11 suicides a day

3. Mental illness is the second leading cause of disability and premature death in Canada

4. 49% of those who have suffered from depression or anxiety have never gone to see a doctor about the problem

6. Pharmacy Students for Women's Health

Pharmacy Students for Women's Health (PSWH) is a student group that aims to advance and promote women's health through advocacy and education within the profession of pharmacy, as well as in the community. Be sure to "Like" us on Facebook by searching "Pharmacy Students for Women's Health" for our upcoming events/ initiatives.

As an introduction, the PSWH team wanted to share with you 5 fast facts about intrauterine devices (IUDs)!

You have probably heard of IUDs as one of the many methods of contraception available. The two main types of IUDs are metal based (copper) and hormone based (progestin). However as future pharmacists, there is a lot more we can learn about IUDs, which will be useful in educating our patients on the different options available to them. Here are 5 interesting facts about IUDs that you should know.
1. Copper containing IUDs can prevent pregnancy for up to 10 years while hormone containing (progestin) IUDs such as Mirena?, can prevent pregnancy for up to 5 years.
2. Women who use copper containing IUDs tend to have heavier and longer periods, while patients who use progestin releasing IUDs tend to have lighter and less painful periods, or no period at all.
3. Copper Intrauterine devices (CU-IUD) can be used as emergency contraception. Post coital insertion of CU-IUD used within 5 days of unprotected intercourse is reported to have 99% efficacy. This is in comparison with Levonorgestrel (Plan B?) which has an efficacy of 52-94%.
4. CU-IUDs are the recommended method of emergency contraceptive for obese patients (BMI > 30 kg/m2).
5. Women who use metal containing IUDs can undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) procedures safely as the metals do not move or significantly increase local temperature during the MRI.

Thanks for the read! We look forward to seeing you at our many PSWH events!

PSWH Team