Ole Miss Pharmacy Selected for APhA, CDC program to Advance Health Equity

Ole Miss pharmacy joins the Community of Practice teams as part of the Advancing Health Equity with Pharmacy-Based Strategies, Pharmacists Patient Care Services and Support Services project to advance health equity and prevent heart disease and stroke in the U.S.

“I believe the School of Pharmacy was chosen for its unwavering commitment to rural health and improving health outcomes through pharmacy interventions and because of our long commitment to this work – serving in the Mississippi Delta for roughly 17 years,” said Meagan Brown, clinical associate professor of pharmacy practice and School of Pharmacy lead on the collaboration.

 Teams from state and local health departments, state pharmacy associations, professional organizations, colleges of pharmacy, pharmacy practice settings and community-based organizations were invited to submit applications.

Six teams were selected following a competitive application and evaluation process based on composition, qualifications and commitment to cardiovascular disease prevention.

The School of Pharmacy team, comprising a partnership between the school, the Mississippi State Department of Health and the Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network Mississippi, are training pharmacy-based community health workers to screen for social determinants of health, identify patients at risk and connect these patients to cardiovascular health resources. 

“The Community of Practices program is really about highlighting best practices and understanding the challenges and success of public health partnership,” Brown said. “This program allows us to discuss what things are unique in our state and identify similarities between efforts too.”

Teams in the program will accelerate the implementation of pharmacy-based strategies to advance health equity through initiatives that address racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular disease risk factors, prevalence or outcomes.

Brown noted the School of Pharmacy’s commitment to keeping health equity at the forefront of its educational programs.

“We teach our students about health equity through a required P3 course, but it’s also woven into our modules and other courses where we are helping them to connect the dots between caring for someone’s disease state and addressing the systemic inequities that are in place that we must advocate to change,” Brown said.

Pharmacy-based strategies currently being implemented as part of the program include implementing comprehensive medication management in community pharmacies centered around hypertension and cholesterol control, managing medication access for patients and addressing social determinants of health in the pharmacy.

Community of Pharmacy teams will engage with each other in virtual learning sessions and peer-to-peer learning opportunities and build capacity for health departments and pharmacy partners to implement promising program models in local communities.

“Pharmacists are natural collaborators,” said Michael Hogue, executive vice president and CEO of APhA. “We are excited to see the models the Community of Practice teams employ to tackle cardiovascular disease, including financial sustainability as a part of the model, to optimize public health and pharmacy partnerships to address the needs of local communities.”

The project was funded in part by a project agreement with the CDC, which is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

By Natalie Ehrhardt