Dr. Rima Mohammad Named 2021 Teaching Excellence Award Winner

Rima Mohammad, PharmD, has received the 2021 Teaching Excellence Award. This award recognizes exceptional teaching in the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy’s PharmD and PhD programs. Dr. Mohammad is a clinical associate professor at the College of Pharmacy and post-ICU and hepatology clinical pharmacist specialist at Michigan Medicine.

“Throughout my career as a faculty member, I try to stay true to my teaching philosophy – students learn best through motivation and by example from positive role models,” says Dr. Mohammad. “I see novel techniques and innovation as a way to enhance that educational experience.”

Dr. Mohammad’s students agree, and have high praise for the innovation she brings to the classroom. One student said, “Dr. Mohammad always went over and above for us during therapeutics. I really appreciated her efforts and her involvement with the DecisionSim™ program.”

“A few years ago, I implemented a unique method to deliver educational material to students through virtual simulation (Decisionsim™),” says Dr. Mohammad. “I, as well as several faculty members, have developed and implemented virtual patient cases in several recitation and laboratory sessions within the therapeutic courses, which was then evaluated through a study.”

“Our study results showed that the use of virtual patient cases resulted in significantly higher post-simulation scores compared to pre-simulation scores,” notes Dr. Mohammad. “Seventy-four percent of students agreed that virtual cases were an effective way to learn therapeutic clinical application skills and 80% believed these cases stimulated their critical-thinking.”  

Therapeutics, a notoriously difficult set of courses, can benefit for simulations and real-world examples, according to Dr. Mohammad. “I believe I was able to effectively teaching these complicated therapeutic topics by simplifying and clearly outlining the topics to the pharmacy students.  By applying the content learned to real-life patient scenarios and utilizing virtual patient cases to walk students through the disease, complications related to disease and treatment recommendations helped clearly deliver the content to these learners.” 

In addition to her didactic teaching, Dr. Mohammad has a passion for mentoring students and residents. “I appreciated the positive guidance of all my mentors and preceptors throughout my career and wanted to dedicate my career to paying it forward,” notes Dr. Mohammad.  

Dr. Mohammad serves as a faculty advisor to several student organizations. She was a founding faculty advisor to the Multicultural Pharmacy Student Organization and the Arab American Pharmacist Association Student Chapter.  “My role in these two organizations have reinforced my career goal, to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the College of Pharmacy and throughout these learners’ careers,” Dr. Mohammad adds.

She also has been actively involved in precepting pharmacy students through their Introductory and Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences, including the hepatology transitions of care clinic and teaching/academic rotations.  Additionally, she has been involved in student PharmD Investigations projects and has guided students to successfully complete their research projects and present them at national meetings. 

Dr. Mohammad received her Doctor of Pharmacy from The James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, University of Cincinnati in 2004. She completed a pharmacy practice and critical care specialty residency at Michigan Medicine in 2006. She has taught for almost 15 years at various pharmacy schools, joining the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy in 2014. Dr. Mohammad is a board certified specialist in pharmacotherapy and a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. Additionally, Dr. Mohammad deepened her expertise in medical and pharmacy education through completion of the University of Michigan Medical School Medical Education Scholars Program.