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The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy will honor five members of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy Cyber Cafe team with a distinguished service award July 22 at its annual meeting in Chicago.

Under the leadership of William H. Riffee, Ph.D., dean of the College of Pharmacy, the team of information technology buffs have set up a virtual office away from home at nearly every AACP annual meeting for more than a decade, where pharmacists from across the country have been able to finish presentations and check their e-mail. In addition to Riffee, they are Mike Brodeur, senior associate dean for finance and administration; Randell Doty, Pharm.D., clinical associate professor and associate dean for experiential education; Lane Blanchard, coordinator of computer applications; and Peter Mauro, a former IT technician for the college who is now a senior engineer for UF Computing and Network Services.

"Generally, the minute we start putting this thing together, people start knocking on the door," said Brodeur, who has led UF's program since its inception in 1996. "About 1,000 faculty members come through here, usually more than once."

The idea for the Cyber Cafe began in the early '90s when Riffee started a similar program at the University of Texas and decided to continue the tradition at UF. Back then, the "cafe" had 10 desktop computers, no wireless connection and a 15-minute time limit for users.

After resolving some growing pains along the way, the team now operates the cafe from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and has expanded services to include 30 computer stations and wireless service for those attendees with laptops.

"I love doing this, and I think everyone in our group loves it too because pharmacists from around the country are really exceptional people," said Blanchard. "They make the job easy."