Pharmacist recognized nationally for his efforts to help patients

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on June 24, 2023.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Pharmacist and co-owner, Igor Shaskin holds his recently acquired national award for his compounding skills, Friday at Stafford Pharmacy Home Healthcare.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

A local pharmacist has been recognized nationally for his innovative and creative ways of helping his patients with specialized custom dosage forms called compounding.

Igor Shaskin, pharmacist and co-owner of Stafford Pharmacy Home Healthcare, says the award is an annual award given to a Canadian pharmacist involved in compounding.

“The award was given by the Professional Compounding Centres of America, which are based out of Houston, but they have their Canadian offices in London, Ontario. So, this award is just for Canada per se, and it was totally a surprise,” says Shaskin.

He says his family and staff knew about it for about four months and he was shocked to realized they were all able to keep it a secret that long.

Shaskin says that during what he believed to be a regular continuing education conference event he attended last weekend, which he has been taking part of for many years, a video started to play with some information about the winner and it sounded familiar.

“I didn’t really click until they said my name and it was quite a shock.”

He says the award is won by being nominated, which is still a mystery to him about who nominated him, all he knows is that it would have to be a colleague in conjunction with PCCA.

“I have been a member of the organization since 2003, I’ve been compounding for even longer than that. I know most of the winners over the past years, they’re all pharmacists I respect in the profession, who have been compounding for several years, 10 to 20 years, so it’s very humbling.”

He said in the almost 45 years of being a pharmacist in Lethbridge, he has not been able to find record of any pharmacist south of Calgary winning that award.

Shaskin says virtually all pharmacists have been trained in compounding, historically speaking, because medications at the turn of the century had to be made at the pharmacy. It wasn’t until commercial pharmaceutical companies came into play that pharmacists’ roles became less about making the actual medication, and more about dispensing it.

“That is certainly still what we do, but I believe that one size doesn’t fit everyone, and compounding or custom formulations, or custom dosage forms, allow us to do that.”

He says, for example, if a medication prescribed for a child is not available in liquid form, they can make something from scratch, into a liquid or suspension that is appropriate.

Â “In other cases, drug formulations that are not available commercially or were available and have since been discontinued, as long as we can get adequate quality of raw materials because it has to meet certain standards of course, then we can prepare that dosage form and it could be in the form of a suspension, a cream, an ointment, a capsule, transdermal formulations, nasal sprays, eye drops, etc. the list goes on.”

Shaskin says they do custom formulation not just for human patients, but for small veterinary patients that are companion animals, like dogs, cats, birds, amphibians, and reptiles, among others.

“We have made for a crow, for horses, but we don’t do anything for food producing animals, that’s not something that we’ve specialized in as there’s special concerns about that. We don’t want drugs getting into the food system, so I don’t have that expertise, but certainly companion animals, we’ve done them all.”

He has treated tree frogs, snakes, lizards, rabbits and even a crow.

“There was a crow that was adopted; I believe it was a rescue situation. I mean for a rescue situation the limits are endless.”

When it comes to compounding for animals, sometimes pharmacists have to be creative, not only by figuring out what flavour to add for medication that is prescribed, but how to administer some medication.

“Sometimes if we can’t match the flavour, we’ll get them to inject, if it’s appropriate, into a cricket and feed it to the animal, like certain reptiles for example. I believe certain birds would be a good target too.”

Shaskin says that is the beauty of compounding; it allows them to think outside the box, be creative and innovative.

“Obviously there’s science behind it, there’s a formulation science that we rely on to develop these, because they have to be not only stable, safe and effective, but they have to also be stable for a length of time that can be usable in all these situations.”

But it’s the creative aspect of the process that is the fun side of the practice.

“No two days are the same; there is never a dull moment. I always say, everyday is an adventure and that is why I am still doing it.”