Category: Access to Medicines in Vulnerable Populations

‘Pharmacy deserts’ a growing health concern in Chicago, experts, residents say

Chicago Tribune, June 14, 2019. In Chicago, research has shown most of these neighborhoods share a mix of characteristics: Their residents tend to be low-income, immigrants, and/or black and Latino. And, experts argue, given the widening scope of services many pharmacies are providing, including physicals, immunizations, drug counseling, sexually transmitted infection screening and other laboratory…Continue Reading ‘Pharmacy deserts’ a growing health concern in Chicago, experts, residents say

Hispanic heart disease deaths highest in mostly-Latino communities

Reuters Health, October 19, 2018. (Reuters Health) – Hispanics in the U.S. have lower rates of death from heart disease overall than non-Hispanic whites, except in communities where Hispanics make up most of the population, a recent study finds. “Given the residential racial/ethnic segregation across communities in the U.S. and the fact that localities with…Continue Reading Hispanic heart disease deaths highest in mostly-Latino communities

Where Did All The Corner Drug Stores Go? Areas Lose Easy Access To Medicine

WBEZ Chicago, January 24, 2018. You’ve heard of food deserts — often low-income neighborhoods that are more than a mile from a grocery store. Now another service desert is on the rise in these same neighborhoods: pharmacy deserts. As pharmacies slowly begin to close down on Chicago’s South and West sides, residents are finding it…Continue Reading Where Did All The Corner Drug Stores Go? Areas Lose Easy Access To Medicine

Access to Pharmacies Increasingly Difficult on South, West Sides

WTTW News, January 23, 2018. In recent years, pharmacies have increasingly become frontline health care providers, offering a range of services from drug counseling to immunizations to physicals. But in poor communities of color on the West and South Sides of the city, many pharmacies have closed their doors, creating so-called “pharmacy deserts.” These areas…Continue Reading Access to Pharmacies Increasingly Difficult on South, West Sides

Genes Don’t Cause Racial-Health Disparities, Society Does

The Atlantic, April 13, 2015. Researchers are looking in the wrong place: White people live longer not because of their DNA but because of inequality. As a thought experiment, say that scientists got ancestry right and cooked up a drug that closed the cardiovascular disease mortality gap. Would it do any good? Considering that more…Continue Reading Genes Don’t Cause Racial-Health Disparities, Society Does