The University of Florida Alumni Association honored Kevin Duane, Pharm.D., a 2013 graduate of the UF College of Pharmacy and owner of Panama Pharmacy in Jacksonville, with a 2018 Outstanding Young Alumni Award during a ceremony April 14.
As a community pharmacy owner, Duane has balanced his career demands of running a business with identifying opportunities to better his community through patient outreach. Since purchasing Panama Pharmacy in 2016, he has established a community outreach program based at senior centers in underserved areas of Jacksonville. His pharmacists and technicians provide basic self-care, screenings, vaccinations and general education to patients in need. In addition, he donates pharmacy supplies to the Muslim American Social Services Care Clinic in Jacksonville, which provides free health care to anyone in need.
Panama Pharmacy devotes significant resources to combating the national opioid epidemic at the local level by educating and providing naloxone — an opioid overdose-reversing drug. Panama’s pharmacists ensure all patients on chronic opioid therapy have a form of naloxone at home, in the event of an accidental overdose.
Robin Moorman Li, Pharm.D., BCACP, C.P.E., a clinical associate professor at the Jacksonville campus, nominated Duane for the UF Outstanding Young Alumni Award.
“Kevin Duane is an amazing pharmacist who has demonstrated time and time again that he is dedicated to his community and always puts patients first,” Moorman Li said. “He has developed a team of employees who have been very successful in implementing a variety of community outreach programs to improve patient safety, compliance and reduce overall health care costs. I am honored to nominate him for this deserving award.”
The UF Alumni Association established the Outstanding Young Alumni Awards in 2006 to recognize alumni who have graduated within the past 10 years whose achievements positively reflect the Gator Nation. Recipients are selected annually by their college and honored during the UF Alumni Association’s Orange & Blue weekend festivities.