USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy opens new home in downtown Tampa

Reorganized pharmacy program new home: The USF Health Downtown and its incoming PharmD class. 
 
The USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy, TCOP, for short, finished the takeoff and brought the PharmD program to the new building USF Health Downtown in Tampa, Florida where it held a ribbon cutting on July 30. 
 
Essentially, the shift creates possibilities for the innovative pharmacy programme to claim additional, or new, physical space, enhance technology as well as develop varieties of teaching methodologies. 
 
During the ribbon cutting ceremony people from the USF, USF health, leaders of the community, students, guests, and members of the TCOP all celebrate the progress of TCOP developing from a mere design, to construction, to the current occupancy of the unique home. 
 
”Through the recent establishment of the Water Street site, the University of South Florida can respond the need for the advanced development of Tampa’s medicine and research core. Extending the Taneja College of Pharmacy on this modern campus will give unique educational experience to the students and help this university become even more important for the future health care needs of the state,” added the university president Rhea Law. “Of course, this move is indicative of the commitment that USF has to engage within the communities in which our students and staff live in order to positively affect a healthier future ; we are all eager to see what our students, faculty, and staff will accomplish in this new environment. 
 
“I am beyond grateful that the Taneja family has Joanne and I believe in the vision to transform health education for countless generations to come”, said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, executive vice president of USF Health and dean of USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “This new space is open with the intention of flexibility, creativity and start up This will be the starting point for the future of pharmacy. ” 
 
the ceremony, Kevin Sneed, PharmD, senior associate vice president of USF Health and dean of the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy, recalled the founding of the college, when the inaugural pillars of the program were defined: Geriatrics, Pharmacogenomics, Informatics & Technology, and Leader. 
 
“That vision for the future has not turned out to be wrong at all, as we are now in the next most significant shift in the process of medication development,” Spokesperson Dr. Sneed posited. DNA /RNA/peptide and gene therapies are quickly evolving and the Taneja College of Pharmacy is ready to prepare the future pharmacy clinician for this influx of medication therapy. Please bear in mind that it is in this new home by the works of our brilliant architectural team Gresham Smith as you take a stroll through this layout that we would be cultivating the nation’s finest pharmacists ready and willing to tackle and conquer the most complex medication modalities, research and manufacturing yet to be witnessed in this world. 
 
“I welcome all of you to the Bullet Train to the Future of Pharmacy and health care!” 
 
The new 30,000-square-foot home for the pharmacy college fills about one and a half floors of the building and includes components that enhance the pharmacy program, including:The new 30,000-square-foot home for the pharmacy college fills about one and a half floors of the building and includes components that enhance the pharmacy program, including: 
 
Clinical learning center: As a stand-alone facility with spacious state of the art compound Pharmacy where advance compounding techniques are taught to students as well as perfecting of clinical skills. This space will also become useful for the development of continuing education programs for the improvement of the health care knowledge of pharmacist clinicians and others. 
 
Collaborative ‘maker space’ and ‘pitch’ room: An innovative place is suitable for student teams, for example, ITEHC (Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship in Healthcare) to foster idea development and give rise to the potential for the creation of new technologies in terms of potential health-oriented devices. Accompanying this is a ‘pitch’ room designed as a place where TCOP entrepreneurs can present their idea to possible partners and investors. 
 
Community outreach: In the future, strategies are currently being made to locate ourselves in areas containing youths and make available space for them to engage and learn about health professions through games. It will add to the already established much successful program that aimed at reaching out to the community in any way possible involving the Taneja College of Pharmacy. 
 
Flexible learning spaces and modular classroom: Since it is aimed at deliberately catering for the learning requirements of the present day leaners and the general use of the building, flexibility forms the core of the building’s design The spaces are designed in such a way that students and facultiers can be free from technology and the physical arrangement of the rooms can be easily changed to suit various module and learning situations. 
 
Holographic technology in the educational framework: Central classroom will have a hold to enhance the learning condition for the students as well as the teachers, and to change the educational engagements into ‘more-life like’ experiences and to ‘beam’ people from everywhere into the centre. The use of holographic technology is a shift from the conventional typical two-dimensional remote platforms such as Teams or Zoom where students can get a life like feel of the classroom environment hence improve on their grasp and interaction with the subject. 
 
Student Success Wing: There is also numerous spaces for students: commons area, lounges, and a secluded special counseling office There are also such primary works related to students’ needs: admissions, advising, counseling, and graduation services. 
 
Possibly, the beneficiaries are the new pharmacy students of TCOP who are likely to be in a position to benefit from this new facility whose strategic positioning is in the region’s hub of Tampa. 
 
“It is important to note that with the help of the people present here today, this splendid building and all the state of the art elevations in the education of pharmacy could not have been made,” remarked fourth-year pharmacy student Joseph Diamond at the ceremony. “Each one of you is creating the dreams and turning the dreams of the students into reality So, on behalf of myself and all the students that will have the opportunity to use this fantastic asset in the present and in the future, I would like to say thank you. 
 
The new place was developed by the architecture, engineering and design company Gresham Smith, and the systematic advancement of the project was coordinated by PURE Project Management. It interfaces with the buildings’ mechanical, electrical, and life safety systems and will expand many of the classroom technologies and other educational enhancements implemented for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. 
 
The USF Health Downtown building launched in Water Street Tampa in January, 2020 to accommodate the MD programme for the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute. The application and quality of the students who applied to the MD program increased drastically over the years from the time of laying down the foundation to opening of the new USF Health Downtown building.

Long a magnet for the top Florida pharmacy students, these changes will certainly add even more pressure on USF’s pharmacy school that has suffered big blows in student and faculty recruitment arguably because of the lure of the new Water Street Tampa neighborhood in downtown Tampa. 
 
The possibilities to relocate the College of Pharmacy to USF Health Downtown started in August 2019 when the College received the largest donation of $10 m, the Taneja Family Foundation. 
 
Jugal Taneja and his family came for the July 30 ribbon-cutting ceremony and expressed how proud he and his family are to see the gift they have provided transform USF’s pharmacy program. 
 
“Today it is not only the building that wee are inaugurating but more so the light of hope for the future generations,” said Dr. Taneja. This is more than a physical structure: it is our promise to develop the leaders of tomorrow’s health care industry. Think about the number of people who will potentially be served directly by the graduates of this pharmacy college and future employees of this store—improved health of the families they will take care of, and progress in the field of medicine which will be influenced by the graduates. 
 
Hence when we invest our resources in education today we are providing for future leaders the standards that we envision to be dominant in the American society services, integrity and quality. Hence, let us mark this new beginning in a positive manner not just for this school, but for every student who attends it. It is therefore a prospect for change; a chance not only for them, but also for the multitude of others to be made happier. To-gether we sow seeds of hope and I am eagerly waiting to see how they grow and fructify. ” 
 
The USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy was founded by the Florida Board of Governors in 2009 and opened doors to the first batch of students in 2011. Since its inception the program’s vision has been for the pharmacy program to establish itself as an innovator, locally, regionally and nationally with the goal of developing a pacesetter program of pharmacy curriculum, and clinical experience. Currently, the Taneja College of Pharmacy recruits 85 new students every year for its PharmD program, and has gone to include masters’ programs that are relevant for the student, seeking to gain a professional degree, an advanced degree, or a research-based degree, or for those intending to join the pharma industry.