Scot Simpson, professor and grad supervisor and Travis Featherstone discuss Featherstone's thesis on managing diabetes in seniors.
As an undergraduate student, Travis Featherstone (BSc Pharm '09) made juggling school and extracurricular activities an art form. While completing his degree, Featherstone also played hockey for the University of Alberta Golden Bears, winning two national titles in 2006 and 2008. Keeping up with the demands of hockey and the full-time pharmacy program was no easy task, but Featherstone found a way to make it all work.
"Since junior high, it's always been a balancing act between competitive hockey, school and all the other extra activities," he says.
Featherstone became interested in the profession after serving as a caregiver for his grandmother, who was having challenges with her medication.
"My grandmother was a big part of my life growing up and when she was having difficulties, it was tough for me that I was not able to assist her. I realized I want to know more about medications and how they interacted, as well as delivery of medications, and I saw it as opportunity to really help others," he says.
In second year, after being challenged by Scot Simpson, his professor and now graduate supervisor, Featherstone and several of his classmates decided to take on a summer research project and he found himself very interested in the research side of things.
Featherstone currently works with Pharmacare, an Alberta-based health-service company that supports over 4000 patients daily and specializes in the delivery of clinical services to clients through an integrated health team. His work on both the clinical and the operations side includes being involved in transition projects, operational system development, management of pharmacies and business analysis.
Given his history of multitasking and his passion for research, it's no surprise that Featherstone returned to the University of Alberta to pursue graduate studies. However, this time around, Featherstone is balancing a full-time job, his graduate work and the demands of a young family.
Featherstone, who's in his last year of his master's degree, has the September 2016 deadline in his sights.
He's examining how to identify seniors with unrecognized diabetes and how that condition is best managed. "I'm looking at the opportunity for pharmacist intervention in senior facilities for people with diabetes. Specifically, whether or not, we can use a simple questionnaire to help identify those who may have diabetes but don't know that they do and what programs are currently in place utilizing pharmacists as the primary monitoring practitioner."
According to Simpson, Featherstone "has always been interested in research."
Simpson admires Featherstone's ability to balance things and "his incredible sense of the bigger picture of where this research fits in, how to ask questions appropriately and design analyses to evaluate that."
"I'm very fortunate to have strong family support and understanding from my friends," Featherstone. "And the professional mentorship I've received from both Scot Simpson and Cheryl Sadowski, as well as other faculty, have been amazing and critical to realizing opportunities."
For those alumni who might be considering graduate studies, Simpson, who is also the associate dean, Research and Graduate Studies says, "the limit of grad studies is your own imagination. The first step for this journey is to connect with a supervisor in your area of interest. After that it's a matter of crafting your program full-time or part-time, whatever works best for you.
"You have to be willing to expect a two- to four-year process and have an interest in evidence-based medicine and the process of research, " says Featherstone. "The faculty is very supportive and has a bread and depth of knowledge that makes this an opportunity and time that makes it favorable to return and study."
If you're interested in graduate studies, visit the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences website.
(this article originally appeared in the Fall 2015 Issue of UAlberta Pharmacy Magazine).