Cardinal Health on Friday announced a new college scholarship program, making $1.1 million in scholarship funds available to thirteen pharmacy schools across the United States.
Recipient schools will be endowed with scholarship funding ranging from $50,000 to $125,000.
According to Mike Kaufmann, chief executive officer of Cardinal Health's Pharmaceutical segment, five of the thirteen pharmacy schools that received funding were selected because of their commitment to advancing the independent pharmacy profession.
[See also: Pharmacists ready to quit DME.]
These schools offer curricula focused on operating an independent pharmacy; support student-run chapters of the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA); endorse internship and co-op programs with local independent retail pharmacies and demonstrate high post-graduate placement rates in community pharmacy settings, he said.
Several of the selected pharmacy schools have a strong nuclear pharmacy program; and others were selected because of their strong hospital pharmacy programs, according to Kaufman.
"Cardinal Health serves more than 7,000 community pharmacists across the country, and we're one of the nation's largest employers of nuclear and hospital pharmacists," Kaufmann said. "We passionately believe in the essential role pharmacists play in making sure patients receive safe, high quality healthcare. That's why we're proud to partner with some of our nation's best universities to invest in developing tomorrow's pharmacy leaders."
Schools receiving scholarship funding in Cardinal Health's Pharmacy Scholarship Program include:
- Philadelphia College of Pharmacy at University of the Sciences (Philadelphia, Penn.)
- Long Island University's Arnold & Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
- Ohio Northern University's Raabe College of Pharmacy (Ada, Ohio)
- East Tennessee State University's Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy (Johnson City, Tenn.)
- University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy (Oxford, Miss.)
- Washington State University College of Pharmacy (Pullman, Wash.)
- The University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy (Albuquerque, N.M.)
- The University of Tennessee at Memphis (Memphis, Tenn.)
- Purdue University College of Pharmacy (West Lafayette, Ind.)
- The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy (Columbus, Ohio)
- The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy (Austin, Texas)
- The University of Arizona College of Pharmacy (Tucson, Ariz.)
- The University of Florida College of Pharmacy (Gainesville, Fla.)
Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Cardinal Health, Inc. is a $99 billion healthcare services company.
[See also: Cardinal Health offers $1M in grants to fund patient safety initiatives.]