All the above photos belong to Marcus Ellis.

Contemporary Pharmacy Practice: Renal Transplant

Student: Marcus Ellis

UMB Pharmacy student, Marcus Ellis, participated in training in Contemporary Pharmacy Practice: Renal Transplant in Australia under Dr. James Trovato's mentorship. Student responsibilities focused on: identifying and managing drug interactions with immunosuppressant agents, conducting medication history interviews and completing medication reconciliations, counseling patients or caregivers on renal transplant medications, conducting medication order reviews utilizing laboratory data and patient observations to recommend changes to pharmacotherapy where appropriate, knowing mechanism of action, dose, adverse effects and drug interactions of immunosuppressive agents commonly encountered on rotation, assisting with therapeutic drug monitoring for immunosuppressant’s and making recommendations about dose changes where appropriate, presenting a case presentation on a renal transplant patient to a group of pharmacists and intern pharmacists, presenting a journal club presentation on a renal transplant related topic to a group of pharmacists and intern pharmacists, gaining an appreciation of how the Australian health care system differs from the US system.

"For me, with such a close personal connection to renal transplantation the most profound thing I took away from this experience is the pharmacologic knowledge and counseling points required to maximize renal function and overall health in patients who have received a transplant, especially within the first few months…Although the medication burden is quite significant, and routine monitoring of laboratory values to ensure safety and efficacy only compounds the difficulty of staying adherent post-transplant for almost all patients, this was a more than fair trade for the hours spent on dialysis machines to filter the blood when their kidneys cannot do the job. As a child, I knew not the challenges my father faced during his years on dialysis and after receiving his transplant but this rotation gave me some insight into what he went through during his battle with kidney disease. This renal transplant rotation at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne, Australia has motivated me to continue doing outreach events to promote kidney disease awareness, education, and strategies for preventing the development and progression toward end-stage kidney disease."

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