SUPPLEMENT COURSES AID GIANT FOOD PHARMACISTS

MATTHEW W. EVANS

LANDOVER, Md. -- Giant Food here has trained its 550 pharmacists about, among other topics, vitamin supplements and the effects of popular herbals, according to print ads run in the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post.

"Our pharmacists recently completed courses on vitamins and herbals," stated the full-page Post ad, which ran last month. "As part of these courses, they received extensive training on things like antioxidants, vitamin supplements and nutrition, and the effects of popular herbals and how they should be used or not used." A Giant Food official declined to give details about the training.

Credited by the University of Maryland, the continuing education program was made up of six four-hour sessions addressing disease management, one source stated. In addition to the vitamins and the use of herbals, he said, sessions addressed "behavior modification, asthma, diabetes, cholesterol and hypertension. Basically, an introduction to disease management."

This will not be the only continuing education program for Giant pharmacists, according to another source. The retailer plans to have its pharmacists attend a program, "Whole Health Initiatives for Retail Pharmacists," credited through Philadelphia's Temple University and administered next February and March by the General Merchandise Distributors Council, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Asked about the program, Roy White, vice president of education for the GMDC, said, "Ours is a broader program that discusses the concept of whole health and how the pharmacist fits within it."