UCI Research Team Examines Trends in Pharmacist Interventions to Advance Health Equity

Aya Ozaki / PC: Christopher Todd

In a review published in the Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, researchers from the UCI School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences examined trends in worldwide pharmacist interventions to improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, and advance health equity.

In the review, Worldwide characteristics and trends of pharmacist interventions contributed to minimize health disparities, the researchers summarize worldwide pharmacist-involved interventions that contributed to reducing health disparities.

Health disparities are differences in health or outcomes correlated with social (race, ethnicity, gender, etc.), economic (income level), or environmental disadvantage (geographical location, pollution, etc.). Populations with health disparities commonly experience health outcome differences such as a higher prevalence of risk factors and behaviors, earlier onset and increased incidence of disease, lower rates of self-reported health-related quality of life, and higher premature death caused by disease.

“In this review, we found that pharmacists have been involved in a variety of clinical interventions targeting a diverse range of patient populations to minimize health disparities,” says corresponding author, Aya Ozaki, assistant professor of clinical pharmacy at the UCI School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences.

The research team plan to identify types of interventions that are more effective in certain diseases with the ultimate goal of providing guidance on future directions to advance health equity. “Our future plans include initiating a program at the UCI Division of Cardiology to provide care to reduce health disparities in patients with coronary artery diseases,” says Ozaki. This collaborative project was conducted by clinical pharmacy faculty and pharmaceutical sciences students from the UCI School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, including Christine Cadiz, health sciences associate clinical professor; Keri Hurley-Kim, health sciences associate clinical professor; Cheryl Wisseh, assistant professor of clinical pharmacy; Erin Knox, director of experiential pharmacy education; Joyce Lee, health sciences clinical professor; Ashley Wang, student; Sakhi Patel, student; and Alexandre Chan, chair and professor of clinical pharmacy.