Tucson, AZ --Mazda Shirazi, MD, PhD, has been appointed medical director of the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, effective July 1, 2010.
The Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, located in Tucson in the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy, provides a poison hotline, toxicology consultations, poison prevention services and medication and pregnancy risk information throughout Arizona. It answers about 65,000 calls per year from health-care professionals and Arizona citizens.
Dr. Shirazi also is the medical director of the emergency department and chief of staff at University Physicians Healthcare Hospital at the Kino campus in Tucson. He holds an assistant professorship of clinical emergency medicine, pharmacology and medical toxicology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. In addition, he is a clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the UA College of Pharmacy.
Following completion of a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Arizona State University, Dr. Shirazi earned a medical degree and a PhD in pharmacology and toxicology from the UA College of Medicine. He completed an internship and residency in emergency medicine at the University of Texas at Southwestern and a fellowship in medical toxicology at the UA.
The poison and drug information center also announces the appointment of Keith Boesen, PharmD, as its managing director, effective July 1. He has held the position of interim managing director of the center since November 2009.
A 2002 alumnus of the UA College of Pharmacy, Boesen began at the center as a student intern in 2000. He became certified as a specialist in poison information in 2002 and currently is training to become a diplomate of the American Board of Applied Toxicology.
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