Binghamton native returns to home base as a pharmacist

One may have to go far to find someone as excited as Tom Giovinazzo about the new School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SOPPS). A community and consultant pharmacist at The Medicine Shoppe on Vestal Avenue in Binghamton, Giovinazzo can hardly wait to work directly with SOPPS PharmD students during their internships this summer.

“I’ve been very excited about it,” he said. “When students are around, they’re always excited, have a good attitude and their outlook is positive. It rejuvenates my passion for the profession every time. Plus, this is my hometown and to put the pharmacy school in a seemingly overlooked area of Johnson City is very inspiring. It’s why I feel so compelled to be involved.”

Giovinazzo grew up on Binghamton’s south side. While at Binghamton High, he was diagnosed with Type I diabetes.

“I was in ninth grade with a lot of changes happening,” he said. “I was very sick for a month and in the hospital, but almost immediately after being admitted, I felt better and was interested in how they were able to make me better. My parents had this Reader’s Digest drug book that I would read for fun, so I knew early that I wanted to pursue a career in pharmacy.”

As a pharmacy student at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Giovinazzo, like all pharmacy students, was required to complete an introductory pharmacy practice experience, known as an IPPE – often a PharmD student’s first experience working directly with patients. His was at The Medicine Shoppe, where he’s now been for over 10 years.

“I was an intern here first during the summer for my IPPE, building communication skills by taking phone orders, doing patient counseling, building trust with patients and all the activities a pharmacist does, but under a pharmacist’s supervision. Karen [Conn] has been my mentor,” Giovinazzo said. “I then got hired the following winter as a paid intern, and then was hired full time after graduating in 2010.”

Binghamton’s SOPPS students will start their IPPEs this summer at The Medicine Shoppe and many other sites in the region, following their first year of coursework. They’re required to complete at least 300 hours during their first three years, under the supervision of a preceptor like Giovinazzo. “I would imagine they’re already being challenged a lot,” he said.

As a community and consultant pharmacist, Giovinazzo divides his time between working with patients at The Medicine Shoppe and consulting in long-term care settings such as nursing homes and adult care facilities.

“Consulting is an interesting branch where I work to improve medication use for seniors who, for example, live in a nursing home. I work closely with the nursing, medical providers and other staff and provide recommendations,” Giovinazzo said. “A lot of it can be driven by finances. The goal being to achieve positive health outcomes at the best cost. A lot of it is helping to determine appropriate psych drug use or antimicrobial or antibiotic stewardship. I want to make sure a patient’s medications have an appropriate diagnosis, a stop date and also to know their use is warranted.”

The Medicine Shoppe is somewhat unique is its approach to patient care, Giovinazzo said, with specialized packaging and delivery, as well as medication synchronization. “It’s an appointment-based model so that, instead of coming in every week to pick up one refill, we’ll get all a patient’s medications in-sync and put them in one bag so we can go through it with the patient and ensure there are no adverse interactions,” he said. “That’s the direction community pharmacy is going in. We also put things like pill sorters into their bags to help them with adherence.”

Giovinazzo added that The Medicine Shoppe also does compounding, which will prove valuable for SOPPS students. “Compounding is individualized medicine to fit a patient’s specific needs,” he said. “For example, right now the flu is very prevalent and there are shortages of Tamiflu® and it’s harder to get it commercially now, so if you have the capsules you are allowed to make a suspension of it for children. PharmD students take skills lab and have to make ointments and capsules and suspensions and that’s where they can apply those skills in practice. It’s more science and will prepare students if they’re going to take the New York state board exams. They’ll be doing pharmacy calculations and applying the skills in practice.”

Now, back to Giovinazzo’s excitement about working with SOPPS students: “We want them to have a valuable experience and for us to be able to give them enough of our time, not to be diluted between students from other schools or multiple students,” he said. “We want to be a premier preceptor site for your students.”