Community pharmacist to investigate ways to enhance medication experience for kids with cancer

The first day of school in Simon Boulis’s home was a busy one. On the same day he was starting the Master of Science in Pharmacy program at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, his two children were both starting new programs at their school and daycare.

Like his children, Simon was excited to start a new chapter in his education.

“I was comfortable with what I know, but I wanted to advance myself and my career. When this opportunity came, it opened my mind that the sky is the limit with this profession,” says Simon, a community pharmacist in Niagara Falls. “This education will strengthen my clinical skills and provide me with tools to enhance my practice and even allow me to do research that will impact the community and my patients.”

Simon started his career in pharmacy in Egypt after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in 2006. He moved to Canada in 2011, first to British Columbia where he completed the International Pharmacy Graduate Program, then to Ontario in 2015. He became licensed to practise in Ontario and worked for a few years in community pharmacy and pharmacy management at large pharmacy chains.

But Simon was interested in working in pediatrics and providing clinical services, and he started working as a pharmacy manager at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton. He recalls that one of the first prescriptions that he filled at the hospital was for leprosy – a disease that he assumed had been eradicated but is still diagnosed in Ontario, though rarely. The experience made him realize the importance of continually learning and sharing knowledge with other pharmacists.

“As pharmacists, we need to keep learning, keep studying and keep our minds open because we can only provide care for what we know about.”

“As pharmacists, we need to keep learning, keep studying and keep our minds open because we can only provide care for what we know about,” he says.

After a year at the hospital, he decided to open his own community pharmacy in Niagara Falls, where he provides specialty services such as compounding, hormone replacement therapy, a cardiovascular metabolic clinic and diabetes education. Simon now owns three pharmacies in Niagara Falls and has about 15 staff. His team is highly involved in the community: they organized a golf tournament that raised more than $16,000 that they split between two pediatric oncology organizations. Simon is also interested in public protection, specifically in improving the pharmacy profession and patient care, and he was recently elected to the Ontario College of Pharmacists board of directors.

Master’s program is already helping advance clinical practice

Knowing the importance of continuing education, Simon began looking at different programs to expand his pharmacy skills and learn about how to undertake research in the community. He found the Master of Science in Pharmacy program at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, and when he saw that he could undertake a research project related to pediatric oncology, he was immediately interested.

He started the program this September with supervisor Lee Dupuis, senior associate scientist at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy. During the program, Simon plans to undertake research aimed at improving access to medication and support for pediatric oncology patients through community pharmacies.

Even though he is only a couple of months into the program, he says that the courses are already improving his pharmacy practice.

“I need to keep learning and sharing with my staff to keep up and provide the services that our patients deserve.”

“The first course is about how to advance my practice to become more of a pharmaceutical care expert, so as I'm studying, I am trying to take these learnings and apply them to me and my staff,” he says. “In the next several years, as medicine becomes more personalized and medication becomes more complex, in the pharmacy we will need to advance as fast as the science advances. So I need to keep learning and sharing with my staff to keep up and provide the services that our patients deserve.”

Simon says that he is passionate about providing high-quality patient care and ensuring that patients have access to the medication and care they need, and these passions have motivated the steps he has taken in his career.

“This profession is challenging. It needs continuous work to improve yourself and people’s lives, and you have to care about your profession and your patients,” Simon says. “But it's such a rewarding profession. You’re going to reap that effort by going home and feeling satisfied that you did something great.”