St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital offers a 12-month ASHP-accredited specialized PGY2 Residency in Clinical Pharmacogenomics.

This program prepares residents to excel in implementing pharmacogenomic testing in clinical practice. The Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences provides unmatched opportunities for clinical use of pharmacogenomics into patient care due to St. Jude’s full integration of an electronic medical record that applies to inpatient and outpatient care, comprehensive translational research programs, highly skilled clinical pharmacy specialist team, and a strong laboratory component of the PGY2 program. 

As a resident, you will learn, contribute and participate in a dynamic environment with world experts translating laboratory-based discoveries into comprehensive medication management for multiple disease states. 

St. Jude runs an institution-wide program to implement pre-emptive pharmacogenomic testing (PG4KDS). You will assist in directing the Clinical Pharmacogenomics Program, return results to patients and families in a pharmacist-run Clinical Pharmacogenomics Clinic, and provide pharmacogenomic consults in the context of a comprehensive approach to pharmaceutical care integrated into the clinical practice areas: general hematology/oncology and bone marrow transplantation. Training will be provided in applied pharmacokinetics, infectious diseases, nutrition support, clinical informatics and advanced pediatric pharmacotherapy. The resident will work with established clinicians on interdisciplinary teams to deliver personalized pharmacotherapy to pediatric patients with catastrophic diseases. 

The resident will design safe and effective patient-centered therapeutic regimens and monitoring plans. In addition, the resident will build pharmacogenomic clinical consults and help develop customized pharmacogenomic clinical decision-support alerts (best practice advisories) that will alert clinicians of high-risk gene-drug pairs and allow for pharmacogenomically guided drug dosing. The resident will participate in patient education, drug information, quality improvement and medication-outcomes activities and will be expected to have a publication ready manuscript by the end of the residency year. 

Residents are highly involved in international efforts to implement pharmacogenomics on a broad scale via participation in the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC). Upon completion of the program, the resident will have the clinical and leadership skills as well as the necessary experience to start and manage a clinical pharmacogenomics practice, and to implement pharmacogenomic testing in other health-system settings. 

Clinical Pharmacogenomics residents learn, contribute and participate in a dynamic environment that consists of interprofessional and technical personnel in both patient care and pharmaceutical research. Along with direct patient care responsibilities, residents will have the opportunity to gain experience in teaching through lectures, in-services, journal club presentations and precepting pharmacy students. A teaching certificate is offered by the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy. An independent research project will be carried out during the residency, with a presentation of the findings at a national meeting. 

• Official school transcript(s) 
• Letter of intent 
• Three (3) letters of reference 
• Doctor of Pharmacy degree, successful completion of an ASHP-accredited PGY1 Residency, and eligibility for licensure to practice pharmacy in the state of Tennessee 
• Completion of an onsite or virtual interview 

About St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

The Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is committed to providing advanced practice pharmacy services that individualize care for each child at St. Jude while supporting a collective research endeavor. PGY2 pharmacy residency programs build on Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) education and PGY1 pharmacy residency programs to contribute to the development of clinical pharmacists in specialized areas of practice. PGY2 residencies provide residents with opportunities to function independently as practitioners by conceptualizing and integrating accumulated experience and knowledge and incorporating both into the provision of patient care or other advanced practice settings. Residents who successfully complete an accredited PGY2 pharmacy residency are prepared for advanced patient care, academic, or other specialized positions, along with board certification, if available. PGY2 residents in the individual programs learn, contribute, and participate in dynamic environments that include professional and technical personnel in patient care and pharmaceutical research. St. Jude offers five distinct ASHP-accredited 12-month specialized pharmacy residency PGY2 opportunities.

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