Category: Pharmacy Access

In Communities Deserted By Pharmacies, Advocates Fear Inequitable COVID-19 Vaccine Access

CNN, December 24, 2020. Chicago (CNN)Rochelle Sykes worries that her west side Chicago neighborhood will be left out when the Covid-19 vaccine becomes widely available next year. “It’s a national phenomenon,” said Dima Qato, the lead author of the study of Chicago drug stores and an associate professor at the University of Southern California School…Continue Reading In Communities Deserted By Pharmacies, Advocates Fear Inequitable COVID-19 Vaccine Access

‘Pharmacy desert’ concerns arise on south, west sides of Chicago

Fox 32 Chicago, December 23, 2020. CHICAGO – Health experts are calling on Illinois to make some changes after the state’s contracted Medicare prescription provider dropped Walgreens. The state says the south and west sides of Chicago have pharmacies in reach, but health experts on the front lines say the issue is access and it…Continue Reading ‘Pharmacy desert’ concerns arise on south, west sides of Chicago

Disinvestment in Black and Latino Chicago neighborhoods is rooted in policy. Here’s how these communities continue to be held back.

Chicago Tribune, July 27, 2020. It’s an oft-quoted statistic: White families have significantly more wealth than nonwhite families in America — nearly 10 times that of Black families. The racial wealth gap continues to greatly impact the differences in opportunity and access, from long-term health outcomes of a global pandemic, to education and income levels,…Continue Reading Disinvestment in Black and Latino Chicago neighborhoods is rooted in policy. Here’s how these communities continue to be held back.

Exploring the Importance of Pharmacies to Public Health

National Academies of Science, April 22, 2020. Research by NAM Pharmacy Fellow Dima M. Qato has shed light on “pharmacy deserts” and closures that reduce people’s access to medications. Pharmacies have been one of the few types of businesses allowed to stay open despite states’ closures of nonessential businesses to help contain COVID-19 — a…Continue Reading Exploring the Importance of Pharmacies to Public Health

‘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

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

UIC Researchers to Address Pharmacy Deserts, Closures in Chicago

WTTW News, October 27, 2017. In some city neighborhoods pharmacies appear to be in abundant supply, but in others they are few and far between. As with areas that lack access to grocery stores, many residents of Chicago now live in “pharmacy deserts.” “Pharmacies are an essential resource for any community. They provide medicines. They…Continue Reading UIC Researchers to Address Pharmacy Deserts, Closures in Chicago

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