Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.)
The Pharm.D. program extends over six years of study with a total of 201 credits to complete, including two years of pre-pharmacy followed by four professional years (P1, P2, P3 and P4) of pharmacy education.
Admissions
Applicants to the professional year 4 (P4) leading to the Pharm.D. degree must be graduates of the LAU School of Pharmacy. Those who graduated with a B.S. in Pharmacy more than two years ago are required to sit for a P4 entrance exam. They must complete an online P4 application form during the call for applications. The application deadline is announced by the Office of Student Affairs. Incomplete applications and any application received after the deadline will not be processed.
Students applying to P4 must have successfully completed the PHA 523 Clinical Pharmacokinetics course.
To be eligible to apply for admission into the P4 year, students must fulfill all of the following conditions during their professional pharmacy years:
- Complete all professional pharmacy courses with a minimum cumulative GPA of 2.5,
- Pass all courses of the professional pharmacy program with a minimum letter grade C,
- Have no more than three course repeats, whether these repeats were of the same course or different courses (Note: a course withdrawal noted “WF” is counted as repeat), and
- Not have received more than one official academic warning.
Evaluation criteria for admission into the P4 year are based on all of the following:
- GPA of courses related to the professional pharmacy program courses,
- Performance on an interview conducted during the admissions process,
- three recommendation letters
- Number of repeated courses (R), withdrawal (WF), and failed courses (F), and
- Number of official academic warnings.
The School Admissions Committee reviews applications and conducts interviews at the end of the fall semester of the P3 year. Student acceptance into the P4 year remains pending until successful completion of all P3 courses. A student may not carry any course from the pharmacy professional program to the P4 year.
All students accepted into the P4 year must complete the pharmacy curriculum exit exam according to the schedule set by the School of Pharmacy.
Admission to the P4 year takes place in the fall semester of each academic year. Class capacity is determined based on site capacity.
All students admitted to the P4 year must complete mandatory onboarding orientation process.
Students admitted into the P4 year are subject to the requirement of ACPE’s Standard No. 3, namely “required APPEs are completed in the United States or its territories or possessions and occur in four practice settings: (1) community pharmacy; (2) ambulatory care; (3) hospital/health system pharmacy; and (4) inpatient adult patient care.”
Curriculum
(27 credits)
The P4 curriculum applies only to Pharm.D. students. It encompasses all the Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs) that include nine clerkship rotations of which four are required and five are electives for a total of 1,440 hours. The four required APPEs are conducted in the United States or its territories or possessions (District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands). All APPEs are conducted after students have successfully completed all didactic, laboratory and practical (IPPEs) course work during the first three professional years.
Required APPEs
| Number | Course Name | Cr. |
|---|---|---|
| PHA670 | Ambulatory Care | 3 |
| PHA671 | Community Pharmacy | 3 |
| PHA672 | Hospital or Health-System Pharmacy | 3 |
| PHA673 | Inpatient/Acute Care General Medicine | 3 |
Elective APPEs
The elective APPEs are selected from any of the following choices of course number PHA650:
| Course Name | Cr. |
|---|---|
| Academic Teaching | 3 |
| Ambulatory Care Pharmacy | 3 |
| Anticoagulation Management | 3 |
| Antimicrobial Stewardship | 3 |
| Cardiology/Coronary Care Unit | 3 |
| Community Pharmacy | 3 |
| Critical Care | 3 |
| Discharge Medication Counseling | 3 |
| Emergency Medicine | 3 |
| Endocrinology | 3 |
| Geriatrics | 3 |
| Health Economics and Outcomes Research | 3 |
| Industrial Pharmacy | 3 |
| Infectious Disease | 3 |
| Internal Medicine | 3 |
| Internal Medicine/Heme Onc. | 3 |
| Internal Medicine/Infectious Diseases | 3 |
| Investigational Drug Services | 3 |
| Nephrology | 3 |
| Neurology | 3 |
| Obstetrics and Gynecology | 3 |
| Oncology | 3 |
| Patient/Medication Safety | 3 |
| Pediatrics | 3 |
| Pharmacovigilance – Lebanese National Pharmacovigilance Program (LNPVP) | 3 |
| Pharmacy Informatics | 3 |
| Pharmacy Management | 3 |
| Primary Health Care Centers | 3 |
| Regulatory Affairs | 3 |
| Specialty Pharmacy | 3 |
| Sterile Compounding | 3 |
Academic Rules and Procedures
In addition to LAU’s graduate academic rules and procedures, a Pharm.D. student must complete all P4 courses with a minimum letter grade C.
Accreditation
The “Lebanese American University School of Pharmacy’s Doctor of Pharmacy program is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, 190 South LaSalle Street, Suite 3000, Chicago, IL 60603-3446, 312-664-3575; Fax: 866-228-2631, website https://www.acpe-accredit.org.”
The Doctor of Pharmacy program at LAU School of Pharmacy received its continued accreditation in February 2023 by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE). “The accreditation term granted for Doctor of Pharmacy program extends until June 30, 2031, which represents the customary eight-year cycle between self-studies”. It currently remains the only Pharm.D. program outside the United States that is accredited by ACPE.