Pharmacy student receives CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship

Offered jointly by the Tri-Agencies, these national awards are designed to support students who have demonstrated excellence during their undergraduate and early graduate careers while they develop their research skills. CGSM scholarships are among the most prestigious awards offered to Master’s students in Canada, and Kelly is certainly deserving. 

Kelly’s master’s research is being carried out under the supervision of Dr. Dave Blackburn. Her current project is to describe the use of blood glucose testing strips in Saskatchewan and to examine potential relationships of self-monitoring of blood glucose (i.e. use of testing strips) on health care utilization. Blood glucose test strips are emerging as a major source of health expenditures for drug benefit payers in Canada.  Although frequent testing is required in some clinical situations, the outcome for many low-risk patients with diabetes is not influenced by the frequency of testing. She hopes to explore the potential relationship that increases in test strip usage has on hospitalization rates for hypoglycemia in Saskatchewan.  

Kelly Buxton graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences with a Bachelor of Science in Biology in 2004 and from the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy in 2010. Following the completion of a post-graduate residency with the Saskatoon Health Region, Kelly practised the in areas of adult critical care, cardiology, infectious disease, and emergency and adult internal medicine. She returned to the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition to pursue a Master of Science in Pharmacy in January 2015. Kelly also serves as a Presidential Officer for the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists (Saskatchewan Branch) and is currently in the Past-President role.