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MPA 2006 December Dean's Article.

As always, I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts with the MPA membership.

As I recently reported, the Skaggs Building Addition is moving along well, all the brick facing has been completed and the contractor is now placing the aluminum panels on the building, which ties the design elements of our first addition project into this project.  The interior of the building is also taking shape, the walls are up and the laboratory benches are being installed.  The project is still on track to be completed early in 2007.

As practitioners know better than me, Medicare Part D has been a challenge.   It will be very interesting to observe the 110th Congress.  As most of you know, Senator Baucus will be the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee and he has indicated that hearings will take place on this issue.  No one has a crystal ball to predict the future, but it seems to me that some process should be put in place to pay pharmacists for value added to the dispensing process in addition to the cost of the drug product.  That value added needs to be documented for all to review, which should create the impetus for and become a major force compelling support of such reimbursement.

As I am writing this missile our football team has played its last game of the 2006 season with a loss to the  University of Massachusetts.   Our Grizzly Football Team had a very good year (12-2) and I am sure they will make a run at a national championship in 2007.

The Skaggs School of Pharmacy has two second-year students among the starters on the Grizzly football team on the defensive side of the ball.  We are proud of these two excellent student athletes, both for their exploits on the field and in the classroom.  We have other student athletes in our College as well, and I am also proud of our faculty who go the distance working with students so that success can be achieved in the classroom as well as on the field of competition.

Please stop by the College to visit with us and take a look at some of our activities, especially our Skaggs Building Addition project.

Best wishes for a happy holiday season!

Dave Forbes