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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Arnold-Jones

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/15/2007

HB 803

SHORT TITLE UNM Clinical Toxicology Fellowship

SB

ANALYST McOlash

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

$100.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 803 appropriates $100,000 from the General Fund to the UNM Regents for

expenditure in FY 2008 for a post-doctoral fellowship program in clinical toxicology.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $100,000 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the General Fund.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 2008 shall revert to the

General Fund.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The New Mexico Poison & Drug Information Center (NMPDIC) is a twenty-four hour

emergency telephone service accessible to all citizens of New Mexico. The Center assesses and

makes treatment recommendations during possible poisonings, responds to drug information

inquiries, and assists emergency personnel during hazardous material incidents. It also serves as

a major teaching site for the University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy and UNM

House Bill 803 – Page

2

Department of Emergency Medicine. The NMPDIC coordinates poison prevention throughout

the state, and operates New Mexico’s only computerized toxic surveillance system and is

certified as a Regional Poison Center by the American Association of Poison Control Centers.

During the early and mid-70s, the Bernalillo County Medical Center (now UNM Hospital)

operated a poison control center. Although state funds supported this center, approximately 85%

of its services were delivered to Bernalillo County. In July 1977, the center and its budget were

transferred to UNM and the program was administratively attached to the College of Pharmacy.

Since then, the program has been committed to providing the same level of service to all New

Mexico citizens 24 hours a day with a full-time staff. The number of calls received by the Center

has grown steadily over the years from 12,000 in 1977 to over 40,000 in 2005.

There were two important program changes that occurred in FY 2005-06. First, the New Mexico

Poison and Drug Information Center established a separate “All-Hazards Emergency Information

Service" for the State of New Mexico. This service is designed to assist the public and healthcare

providers by providing consistent up-to-date information in a timely manner during a large

disaster. The new service was created by installing separate all-hazards 800 lines, increasing the

number of telephone workstations, and by incorporating sophisticated automatic call handling

technologies (call tree, automatic call distribution, call queuing, and call tracking) into the poison

center’s current infrastructure. The all-hazards system increases call handling capacity of the

NMPDIC from 24 calls per hour to 100 - 350 calls per hour during public health emergencies.

The second important program change was the establishment of a postdoctoral clinical

toxicology fellowship program for pharmacists. The goal of the fellowship is to increase new

knowledge in clinical toxicology by providing motivated, pharmacy scholars with personalized

postdoctoral research, administrative, and clinical training. Fellows participate in a two-year

training program that strengthens skills needed to design, implement and conduct research in

clinical toxicology by working with faculty in the College of Pharmacy and the UNM

Department of Emergency Medicine. The program is flexible enough so fellows can add

additional concentration areas (administrative, bench research) to their fellowship experience.

The program can accommodate two fellows per year.

The minimum requirement for fellows is a Pharmacy Doctorate from an accredited college of

pharmacy. Fellows receive annual base stipends: $37,500 for their first year and $39,500 for the

second year. The goal of the fellowship program is to increase new knowledge in clinical

toxicology by providing motivated pharmacy scholars with personalized post-doctoral research,

administrative, and clinical training. The program is designed to provide candidates with the

skills, knowledge, and abilities necessary to function as a clinical toxicologist within a poison

center or emergency department. The first fellow accepted to the program is Dr. Isela Martinez.

She will complete her training in July of 2007. Dr. Susan Kunkel began her training in July 2006

and will complete her training in July of 2008.

This proposal was not submitted to the HED by UNM, and was not included in the Department’s

funding recommendation for FY08.

BM/csd