Millis Commission

Information and knowledge develop on a continuum. Facts and information gained during the years of our formal education represent a thin slice on this continuum. Some of what we learn from the academic curriculum does remain viable unfortunately, much decays and becomes incomplete and inaccurate. Health care professionals and scientists must constantly renew and add to their skills, resources, and knowledge. This is fundamental to the profession. The Millis Commission in 1975 eloquently stated [26] ... 

The Millis Commission s report in 1975, Pharmacists for the Future The Report of the Study Commission on Pharmacy (Millis, 1975), suggested that pharmacists were inadequately prepared in systems analysis and management skills and had particular deficiencies in communicating with patients, physicians, and other health care professionals. A subsequent report suggested including more of the behavioral and social sciences in pharmacy curricula and encouraged more faculty participation and research in real problems of practice (Millis, 1976). 

The term clinical pharmaceutical scientist was originally developed within the profession of pharmacy and was applied to pharmacy practitioners who became scientists. The concept of a CPS originated with the Millis Commission in 1975, which described the need for people who are equally skilled and trained in a science and in pharmacy practice. This commission proposed the vision of training skilled pharmacy practitioners in research to increase the number and variety of clinical pharmacists. " Since the original definition, the concept has evolved, and. several subsequent definitions have... 

Together, these changes have expanded the spectrum of research opportunities for clinical pharmaceutical scientists and have fostered the continued evolution of the definition. The term translational research has evolved to define scientific endeavors that provide a critical link between research theory and human application. The result is that today, there is variety in the types of clinical pharmaceutical scientists to be found, which is in fulfillment of the Millis Commission imperative. 

By the early 1970s, debates over pharmacy manpower, pharmacists roles, and pharmacy education were heightened. In 1972, AACP President Arthur Schwarting recommended the formation of a Commission on Pharmacy to study the scope of pharmacy services in health care and to project the educational requirements needed to train pharmacists to provide these services. The commission was chaired by John S. Millis, President of the National Fund for Medical Education. The Millis Commission s report, Pharmacists for the Future, was published in 1975. The report contained 14 recommendations for pharmacy practice and education. Among these were continued movement of pharmacy as a knowledge-based clinical profession, increased development of clinical practice sites for pharmacy school faculty, and development of a national board licensing exam for pharmacists. 

As a result of the Millis Commission s report, many pharmacy educators believed the time was right to adopt the Pharm.D. degree as the sole degree leading to... 

Millis JS. 1976. Looking ahead The Report of the Study Commission on Pharmacy. Am J Hosp Pharm 33 134. 

Cecily C. Selby, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University A comment and a question. The comment relates to MIT in the 1970s, when Jerry Wiesner and Howard Johnson as president and chairman of MIT did exactly what you described in terms of finding women on the faculty. They actively promoted them and moved them, and that is how Sheila Widnall got to be Secretary of the Air Force and Shirley Jackson head of the Atomic Energy Commission. Margaret MacVicar was advanced before her premature death, and of course we all know of the continuing advance of Millie Dresselhaus. Jerry and Howard are the best example I know of being really proactive. 

To assure objectivity, Schwarting required that the Commission include other health professionals and healthcare planners in addition to pharmacists. Dr. John Millis, President of the National Fund for Medical Education, was selected to Chair the Commission. Eleven distinguished individuals from pharmacy, medicine, nursing, and the pharmaceutical industry were selected to serve on the Commission. The Commission spent two years studying the practice of pharmacy and the process of pharmacy education before publishing its report in 1975, and utilized 80 consultants to help formulate opinions, observations, and recommendations. A record of the events that led to the formation of the Commission is detailed in a historical record of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. ... 

Calculations of the absorbed radiation dose resulting from inhalation of Tc-milli-microspheres are based on technetium-labeled aerosols (ICRP Publication 53, International Commission on Radiological Protection 1987b). It is assumed that the label is released in the lung slowly, with a biological half-time of 24 h, and that the activity is excreted by the kidneys. The effective dose equivalent is 0.015 mSv/MBq. The dose to the bladder wall after inhalation of 150 MBq (4 mCi) is 1.95 mCy. The effective whole-body dose in adults (70 kg) resulting from inhalation of 150 MBq of Tc-millimicro-spheres is 2.3 mSv. 

To perpetuate the name of Curie, the quantity of emanation in equilibrium with one gn.m of radium was termed a curie. This is an inconveniently large amount and the milli-micro curie is frequently used as a practical unit. It is the quantity of emanation in equilibrium with one millionth of a milligram of radium. Since one-fiftieth of this can be detected with a sensitive electroscope, this method of detecting the presence of radio-elements is extraordinarily sensitive — more so even than the spectroscope. The above definition of the curie has now been superseded. In July 1950 the Joint Commission on Standards, Units and Constants of Radioactivity defined the curie as the quantity of any radioactive nuclide in which the number of disintegrations per second is 3-700 X io10. 

Enzymes are complex proteins capable of converting almost all organic substances occurring in organisms and even some inorganic compounds (e.g., nitrates, nitrites). The substances altered during an enzyme reaction are generally called substrates. For the conversion rate of the enzyme reaction the term enzyme activity is used. The Commission of the International Union of Biochemistry (lUB) recommended the use of katals. One katal (abbr. kat) represents the amount of an enzyme that converts one mole of substrate within 1 s [147]. The derived units mkat, zkat, nkat, and pkat may be used and correspond to milli-, micro-, nano- and pico-moles of the converted substrate per second. 

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