Training, education, and experience of active duty army pharmacy officers.

OBJECTIVE: To create a summary of training, education, and experience by pharmacy officer rank (colonel, lieutenant colonel, major, and captain) to produce information for senior pharmacy leaders to describe active duty army pharmacy officers and for junior army pharmacy officers to use for individual career planning. METHODS: A 32-question, anonymous, and voluntary survey was developed. Active duty army pharmacy officers were able to complete the survey via the government website, Intelink. The survey was open for 6 weeks during the summer of 2017. RESULTS: The survey was completed by 62% of active duty army pharmacy officers. The responses were used to create a summary of training, education, and experience by pharmacy officer rank. CONCLUSION: The survey was successful in capturing information relating to training, education, and experience by rank, thereby providing useful quantifiable information to describe army pharmacy officer careers. These results may prove valuable to those interested in pharmacy careers in the military, and they create an opportunity to illustrate the distinct profession of army pharmacy officers.

Risks of clinically significant upper gastrointestinal events with etodolac and naproxen: a historical cohort analysis.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Etodolac is a generic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). Previous in vitro studies have shown that etodolac is a selective inhibitor of cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 with selectivity in between that of other COX-2 inhibitors such as celecoxib and rofecoxib. However, there are no outcomes data assessing clinically significant upper gastrointestinal (CSUGI) events with etodolac. METHODS: A historical cohort study was performed at the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center in which 16,286 veteran patients (5596 patient-years) received etodolac or naproxen during a 3-year period without concurrent use of other ulcerogenic drugs other than low-dose aspirin. The primary outcome was the CSUGI event rate of the etodolac and naproxen groups without concomitant low-dose aspirin. RESULTS: The incidence of CSUGI events was .78% and .24% for naproxen and etodolac, respectively. In the NSAID-naive subset, the incidence of CSUGI events was .99% and .24% for naproxen and etodolac, respectively. Compared with naproxen, etodolac was associated with a reduction in upper gastrointestinal events, corresponding to an odds ratio of .39 (95% confidence interval, .20-.76; P = .006). Concomitantly used low-dose aspirin increased event rates with naproxen 2-fold and etodolac 9-fold. Hence, there was no significant difference in gastrointestinal event rates between etodolac and naproxen when low-dose aspirin was taken concomitantly. CONCLUSIONS: Etodolac is a generic COX-2 selective inhibitor that reduces CSUGI events compared with the nonselective NSAID naproxen. However, concomitant use of low-dose aspirin negates the gastrointestinal safety advantages of etodolac.