CASE STUDY 1
PROFESSIONAL EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION
Challenge: Lifetime Medical Television broadcast medical education on Sundays. It was known as "Doctor's Sunday". Dr. Bernstein wanted pharmacists around the country to also benefit from this educational opportunity.
Solution:
--Pharmacy Education On The Air
Dr. Bernstein approached Lifetime Medical Television with the concept of a UCSF School of Pharmacy produced educational TV series for pharmacists. The first program, entitled, "Pharmacy Education On the Air" was broadcast on Sunday, December 27, 1987 on a Christmas weekend. To save costs, we used an existing video program produced by the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists called, "Safe Handling of Cytotoxic Drugs". Over 500 pharmacists called in to receive continuing education credit. The program broadcast was sponsored by Merck. This was a strong response and helped to spur us on to produce the next mini-series.
--Pharmacy Council on Cholesterol
Pharmacist's Handbook
Video Program
In the course of seeking funding for the next mini-series, Dr. Bernstein went back to Merck, which was just releasing Mevacor. They were launching a major campaign with the American Medical Association, Kelloggs and the makers of Pam, to educate medical professionals and consumers about cholesterol. Merck provided an educational grant for $450,000 to the UCSF School of Pharmacy (see Awards) to establish The Pharmacy Council on Cholesterol, a coalition of ten of the major pharmacy organizations formed to develop pharmacist and patient educational materials on cholesterol. Dr. Bernstein led the effort and became Director of the Council. The Council 's main educational offering was the "Ten Cholesterol Battle Strategies for the Pharmacist", which took the form of a two-part video program, a 6 and 2 hour CE written Handbook and a national newsletter sent to all pharmacists in the United States.
--Issues in Pharmacy Practice
Issues in Pharmacy Practice: Ten Cholesterol Battle Strategies for the Pharmacist
Issues in Pharmacy Practice: Strategies to Improve Patient Compliance
"Issues in Pharmacy Practice", produced, co-written and hosted by Dr. Bernstein in 1989 became the first TV series of its kind to offer pharmacist continuing education on national television. The Lifetime mini-series debuted with the two-part cholesterol program, followed by programs on Thrombolytic Therapy Decisions and Strategies to Improve Patient Compliance. These programs were produced by UCSF School of Pharmacy in cooperation with David Watts Productions. Eric T. Herfindal, Pharm.D., M.P.H. was Executive Producer.
--Pharmacy Rounds
The next major series produced by the UCSF School of Pharmacy and American Medical Video of Houston was "Pharmacy Rounds". The programs broadcast included, Biotechnology: Applications for Human Disease, I-IV; Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease, I & II, Quality in an Era of Cost Containment, I & II, Principles of Diabetes Management, I & II, Fungal Infection in the Immunocompromised Host, I-III, G-CSF and Other Colony Stimulating Factors, I-IV, Alzheimer's Disease, I,II and Pharmaceutical Considerations in the Use of Biotechnology Agents I,II.
Pharmacy Rounds: Quality in an Era of Cost Containment
Pharmacy Rounds: Quality in an Era of Cost Containment
The series was sponsored by educational grants from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Dr. Bernstein played a pivotal role in all aspects of the production including, sales, production, writing, editing and hosting the series.
Pharmacy Rounds: GCSF and Other Colony Stimulating Factors
Result: Millions of dollars were raised to support the series. It was broadcast from 1990-1993 on Lifetime Medical Television, the Health and Sciences Network and had special showings at American Society of Hospital Pharmacists Annual and Midyear meetings, California Society of Hospital Pharmacists Annual Meeting, and America Pharmaceutical Association Annual Meeting. The series won several major awards, the most important of which was the C. Everett Koop, M.D. Award for Best film: Health Professionals Categories and First Place in the Therapeutics Category of the International Health and Medical Film Festival in 1994 for the program on Alzheimer's Disease. (See Awards).
Pharmacy Rounds/Milestones In Medicine: Alzheimers Disease with Dr. Ronald Pion and Dr. Linda Bernstein
--Other Continuing Education Programs and Materials
Dr. Bernstein and Vita Media, have produced, written and hosted other continuing education programs and print materials for PowerPak, Network for Continuing Medical Education and Annenberg Center for Health Sciences.
PowerPak CE programs; Avoiding the Pitfalls of Polypharmacy for NCME
Dr. Linda Bernstein hosted Neurology 2000 program entitled, "Epilepsy Today and Tomorrow" for Annenberg Center for Health Sciences.
CASE STUDY 2
PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL NEWS AND INFORMATION
Challenge: How to make pharmacy news and information interesting, engaging, accurate and current.
Solution: Dr. Bernstein has used her creative and clinical prowess to make innovative contributions as a medical writer, reporter and columnist for professional journals, trade publications, media news organizations and websites.
Results: She was a Contributing Editor to Hippocrates Magazine, for which she wrote, “One on One” , interviews with health and medical newsmakers; a medical news reporter for Biospace.com; Clinical Editor and Writer of Pharmacogenomics and In Focus Columns (interviews with famous figures in the world of pharmacy) for Medscape; Convention Medical Reporter for Pharmacy Practice News, and for Global Newsline for the American Osteopathic Association meeting. She is producer, writer and host of The Drug Report on ReachMD.com. She has also served numerous times as a medical editor for pharmaceutical and biotechnology company advisory board meetings.