Spring 2026 — Explore Articles

Congratulations to this year’s eight pharmacist recipients of the Pharmacy Excellence Awards and two student recipients! From Cumberland to Salmon Arm, these pharmacists represent some of the best of the profession.

This year, the selection…

This spring is particularly memorable for pharmacists in British Columbia. March is Pharmacy Appreciation Month and is an annual reminder of the incredible care pharmacists across the province and Canada as a whole provide to their patients.

With a passion for building long-term relationships with patients, Thazin Win Maung is ready to join the ranks of community pharmacists when she graduates from B.C.’s Entry-to-Practice PharmD program this spring.  

Attending Discover Pharmacy Day at the University of British Columbia was the catalyst for Esther Lu’s aspiration to become a pharmacist. Now a third-year Entry-to-Practice PharmD student, she recalls that she immediately decided to volunteer at a pharmacy after the event, and soon, secured a…

She’s practised across the country, including in places with some of the widest pharmacist scope of practice available, but it is here in British Columbia’s downtown Vancouver where 2023 Doctor of Pharmacy graduate Thao Dao has chosen to call home.

A big city pharmacy with small-town style service — for nearly 20 years, that’s been pharmacist Bernice Lam’s approach to operating her north Burnaby store. It is here, along the busy Hastings Street, where Lam’s presence has been a gift to her patient population, and where her mentorship to…

The Sunshine Coast community of Gibsons just wouldn’t be the same without him. Despite an ongoing staffing shortage, Atsushi Sato has been a health-care bulwark for his patients, serving as the longest-tenured pharmacist at his retail store location.

Shenaz Lakhani considers herself a lifelong student of leadership, and her goal is to inspire the next generation of leaders in pharmacy. 

It’s the middle of a quiet midweek hour when Joe Frketic’s pharmacy is interrupted by a rush of 15 people shuffling in. The customers and patients are in a hurry, with those in the back of the line anxiously checking their watches or phones, as if they all have somewhere to be at the same time.…

Eighteen months. At one point, that was how long patients in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island were willing to wait to see pharmacist Kerri Moskal for her innovative hormone-replacement therapy (HRT) clinic for women. 

Unheard of. Incredible. Distinguished. Instrumental. Phenomenal. These are words used to describe Akarsha Bhat Mairaje from those who have received his care or worked with him. 

If British Columbia is a pioneering province for research and clinical care in harm reduction in Canada, then pharmacist Amin Janmohamed is an innovator among B.C. health-care professionals leading that work.