EVENT: 'You're Gonna Need An Ocean of Calamine Lotion'

Med-Start participants make anti-itch lotion from "scratch" and tour research facilities at the UA College of Pharmacy and the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center

DATE/TIME: THURSDAY, JULY 15, 8:30 A.M. - 12:30 P.M.

PLACE: UA College of Pharmacy, Room 205 (lotion lab)
1501 N. Campbell Ave., Tucson

MEDICAL WRITERS/ASSIGNMENT EDITORS NOTE: Media are welcome to cover this event and Med-Start participants will be available for interviews (several are fluent in Spanish); to make arrangements, please contact Antonio Carr, Med-Start coordinator, AHSC Office of Minority Affairs, (520) 626-9271, or pager 410-0766.

Forty-two high school students participating in Med-Start at The University of Arizona College of Medicine will make anti-itch lotion and learn about pharmacy careers on Thursday, July 15, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., at the UA College of Pharmacy.

Participants will make their own anti-itch lotion from "scratch," under the guidance of Theodore (Ted) G. Tong, Pharm.D., associate dean for academic and student affairs and professor of pharmacy practice, pharmacology and toxicology, UA College of Pharmacy.

Using mortar and pestle, students will combine camphor and menthol crystals to form an anti-itch compound, then mix it with lotion and water and pour it into plastic bottles. After labeling the lotion, the students will leave the dispensing lab with the results of their work, and a new appreciation of the wide variety of roles a pharmacist fills in the health care system.

Part of the Med-Start participants' introduction to the pharmacy sciences, the session also will include tours of the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, where they'll observe pharmacists dispensing life-saving information, and the College of Pharmacy, for an overview of the importance of pharmaceutical research and the pharmacist's role in health care.

Med-Start encourages Arizona high school students -- particularly rural, minority and economically disadvantaged students -- to pursue health care careers. Participants explore a variety of health care professions and learn firsthand what it takes to be a health care professional. The students receive training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and basic first-aid and learn to perform physical exam screenings. In addition, they attend classes in college-level composition and study skills. Out-of-town participants are housed in UA campus dormitories.

Med-Start was developed more than 30 years ago to improve health care in rural and economically disadvantaged areas and to increase the number of minority health care professionals in Arizona. Med-Start also promotes youth exploration of health careers year-round through tours of the Arizona Health Sciences Center, high school career days, student health events and other activities.

July 14, 1999
Contact: Jean Spinelli or George Humphrey, (520) 626-7301

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