This program focuses on the development and expansion of several research initiatives focusing on access to medications, drug utilization and pharmaceutical policy. Our current research projects fall into the several broad categories highlighted below:
1. Pharmacy Access and Health Equity
This line of research examines how pharmacy access impacts individual’s ability to obtain and adhere to necessary medications as prescribed by their doctors. In addition, this area of research examines how pharmacy access and potential closures impacts health outcomes and disparities in those outcomes, given low-income and minority populations are disproportionately affected. Disparities in the use of prescription medications may be related to the fact that more members of minority groups live in “pharmacy deserts,” or low-access communities whose residents must travel farther to the nearest pharmacy to obtain their prescription medications. Thus, a large component of this research focuses on “pharmacy deserts” and closures that reduce individual’s access to medications and how this impacts health outcomes.
2. Access to Essential Medicines
Research in this area focuses on examining economic, clinical, social, and structural factors that can cause many individuals to go without access to essential medicines. Access to essential medicines, even inexpensive medications, can be influenced by a variety of social factors, such as race, ethnicity or citizenship status. Individuals living in disadvantaged communities often endure inadequate access to healthcare providers and pharmacies–factors that may result in medications being less accessible.
3. Polypharmacy, Drug-Drug Interactions and Adverse Effects
This area of research examines the risks patients may face when taking multiple prescription drugs at once, also known as polypharmacy, including the potential impact of harmful drug-drug interactions or cumulative side effects from taking many drugs. These risks could potentially affect millions of people of all ages, including both adolescents and the elderly. One particular challenge is that a patient’s medication may not be prescribed entirely at one pharmacy or by one doctor which increases the risk of them experiencing drug-drug interactions and/or adverse side effects. The goal is to develop a tool to assist health care professionals and patients in making more informed decisions about the medications they prescribe, dispense, or use and better understand not only their therapeutic benefits but their side effects alone and in combination with other drugs.
4. Global and Humanitarian Health
This line of work focuses on access and safe use of medications in vulnerable populations, including immigrant and refugee populations. Studies utilize population-based methods to better understand the patterns and determinants responsible for medication use and underuse, and how these patterns influence health-related outcomes and disparities. In addition, research uses a policy lens on these issues exploring strategies that can be undertaken both at a community and national level to address these global health issues.
5. Pharmaceutical Policy and Drug Safety
Research in this broad area involves better understanding and improving the safe use of medications and ensuring pharmacies and clinicians serve a prominent role in the development and implementation of policies aimed at improving public health and reducing health disparities. One past project involves an evaluation of the drug safety program implemented by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), also called Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), which require manufacturers to develop REMS to ensure benefits of a drug/biologic product outweighs its risks.