Joe Zorek, assistant professor (CHS) in the Pharmacy Practice Division, is among a team of faculty members honored by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) with the 2014 Rufus A. Lyman Award.The award recognizes the best paper published in 2013 in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. The authors developed and validated SPICE, an instrument designed to measure pharmacy and medical student perceptions of interprofessional clinical education.

“Development and Validation of the Student Perceptions of Physicians-Pharmacists Interprofessional Clinical Education (SPICE) Instrument” was authored by David S. Fike, PhD, Joseph A. Zorek, PharmD, Anitra A. MacLaughlin, PharmD, Mohammed Samiuddin, MD, Rodney B. Young, MD, and Eric J. MacLaughlin, PharmD.

The authors worked across professions and institutions to create SPICE, an instrument designed to assess how students view interprofessional interactions between physicians and pharmacists. The final instrument consisted of subscales measuring student perceptions of interprofessional teamwork and team-based practice, roles/responsibilities for collaborative practice and patient outcomes from collaborative practice. SPICE may serve as a useful tool for educational researchers in assessing the impact of interprofessional educational experiences.

The research was also featured in a recent edition of MarketWatch, part of The Wall Street Journal Digital Network. MarketWatch, published by Dow Jones & Co., tracks the pulse of markets for engaged investors with more than 16 million visitors per month. The site is a leading innovator in business news, personal finance information, real-time commentary and investment tools and data, with dedicated journalists generating hundreds of headlines, stories, videos and market briefs a day from 10 bureaus in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Zorek and faculty colleagues will receive the award on July 29 during the closing banquet at the AACP Annual Meeting, Pharmacy Education 2014, in Grapevine, Texas.