Top

Tag Archives | Pharmacy practice

Now available on iBooks!

By on December 10, 2014 in Cultural Competence, Health disparities, News, Pharmacy Practice, Racial and ethnic health disparities

“What Pharmacists Need to Know About Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities”, available on iBooks

Available on iBooks - What Pharmacists Need to Know About Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

 

 

 

 

 

iBooks lets you browse books and download them directly to your Mac®, iPad®, iPhone®, or iPod® touch.

The same content as the print book with the added convenience of

  • Interactive Images with callouts, pan-and-zoom, and pop-overs.
  • Scrolling Sidebars to cover relevant asides and tangential topics.
  • Highlighting and study cards – Use your finger as a highlighter when you’re reading a book on your iOS device or Mac. Just swipe over the selected text (using the trackpad on your Mac), and it’s highlighted. Notes and highlights automatically appear on study cards.
  • iBooks supports updates – that means if a book you purchased is republished with new or additional content, iBooks lets you know. You can download the updated version free, and it automatically replaces the older copy in your library.

A text for use in public health, health disparities, health services research, and related courses

for pharmacy students in their second, third, and fourth years of training. Discusses the concepts of race and ethnicity and the constructs used to classify and categorize them and provides an overview of the data collected regarding disparities in mortality, morbidity, provision of health care, and other health indicators and epidemiologic studies of mechanisms and pathways. Addresses racial and ethnic health disparities that can occur in real-world pharmacy care, such as differences in disease conditions, response to medication, access to care, health literacy, and understanding of health and medications.

As reviewed in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education

Print version available on Amazon.com

Pharmacy practice and health disparities

By on October 8, 2014 in Health disparities, News, Pharmacy Practice, Racial and ethnic health disparities

Pharmacy practice may affect racial and ethnic health disparities through any one of three pathways

The pharmacy and health disparities

When we think about the most frequent interactions in pharmacy practice – filling and dispensing prescriptions – it isn’t immediately obvious how racial and ethnic disparities might manifest themselves, or how the pharmacy can affect health disparities. Research about such disparities in pharmacy practice is in its early stages, and we are just beginning to learn about ways in which these disparities might occur.

Pharmacy and health disparities

infographic for Chapter 5, which highlights the three ways racial and ethnic health disparities may arise in pharmacy practice.

Chapter 5 of “What Pharmacists Need to Know About Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities” describes the research emerging in three areas:

Racial or ethnic differences in disease conditions, response to medication, or use of medication

Advances in genomics and pharmacogenomics have provided information about the genetic distribution of traits linked to disease and to drug metabolism. Pharmacists working with different populations may encounter different prevalences of certain conditions, as well as differences in patient responses to specific medications.

Racial and ethnic differences in health literacy or understanding about health and medications

Racial and ethnic groups vary in their understanding about their health and the medications prescribed for them. This variation may result from differences in education, language limitations, or cultural issues.

Racial and ethnic differences in access to pharmacy care

The issue of access to care encompasses a broad range of factors, including access to health insurance, income, coverage by Medicare and other insurers. It also encompasses broader definitions of access. Geography and transportation limit people’s ability to access many types of services, including pharmacies. If a person doesn’t live near a pharmacy or has no access to transportation, their access is limited. Similarly, if the pharmacy in their neighborhood does not stock what they need, their access to the care they need is limited.

More about the role of pharmacists in eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities in the book, “What Pharmacists Need to Know About Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities”.

Ch 4 Mechanisms of health disparities

By on September 16, 2014 in Cultural Competence, Health disparities, News, Pharmacy Practice, Racial and ethnic health disparities

Infographics are a great way to begin a discussion about mechanisms of health disparities.

Infographic mechanisms of health disparities

Conceptual model: Mechanisms of health disparities

This infographic illustrates multiple potential pathways leading from race and ethnicity to disparities in health outcomes, mechanisms of health disparities. Chapter 4 of “What Pharmacists Need to Know About Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities” explores mechanisms and explanations and provides students with tools for understanding this complex topic.

The visual can provoke thought, raise questions, and educate, all at the same time. The infographic suggests pathways, but doesn’t cover them all. The student can take this infographic, generate hypotheses, and explore relationships.

For example, a student might begin with the association between race and ethnicity and socio-economic status, and then follow the pathways leading through occupation, income, education or neighborhood, which then lead through variables such environmental exposures, ability to understand health information or health insurance coverage, and then to health outcomes.

Another set of pathways might begin with the association between race and ethnicity and culture and religion (another broad area, in itself). One can follow the pathways through behaviors such as diet, reproductive practices, attitudes towards medication, education and occupation, and lead to differences in risk factors and health outcomes.

Chapter 4 also explores direct effects of race or ethnicity on health – and discusses the landmark study “The effect of race and sex on physicians’ recommendations for cardiac catheterization” that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1999.

“What Pharmacists Need to Know About Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities” – a text tailored for pharmacy students.

Available on amazon.com

Book Review

By on September 8, 2014 in Cultural Competence, Health disparities, Pharmacy Practice, Racial and ethnic health disparities

“What Pharmacists Need to Know About Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities”

Book review pharmacy health disparities

Great to see this thoughtful book review of “What Pharmacists Need to Know About Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities” in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education.

Dr. Christine Catney, of the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy reviewed the text, recommending the book.

 

She wrote,

Pharmacy educators who are developing materials and approaches for teaching health disparities and cultural competence topics will appreciate the author’s suggestions for assignments and learning activities. Examples of these ideas include examining census forms, preparing reports to illustrate and explain specific health disparities in detail, and generating examples from students’ pharmacy practice experiences. Several of these ideas, as well as examples provided within the text, could be transformed into small group activities for a flipped classroom approach.

Teaching about pharmacy health disparities

She also pointed out the need to cover other disparities that are affected by factors such as income, gender, age (under 18 years and 65 years and over), geographic location, sexual orientation, disability, and special or chronic care needs, and I couldn’t agree more.

There are so many issues in considering pharmacy health disparities, and the important thing is to begin the discussion. The classroom is the right place to generate lively discussion about pharmacy health disparities and the pharmacist’s role in addressing disparities. Learning about health disparities during professional training is a first step towards cultural competence and equips students to engage in these issues throughout their lives and careers.

MIE Resource publishes “What Pharmacists Need to Know About Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities”

By on February 13, 2013 in News, Pharmacy Practice, Public Health, Racial and ethnic health disparities

MIE Resources is proud to announce publication of “What Pharmacists Need to Know About Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities” by Tamar Lasky, PhD,

a text for use in public health, health disparities, health services research, and related courses for pharmacy students in their second, third, and fourth years of training.

Racial and ethnic health disparities

This book, the first of its kind, introduces pharmacy students to basic concepts about race and ethnicity, and the classification of race and ethnicity in the United States for data collection. It then moves on to an overview  of the data collected regarding disparities in mortality, morbidity, provision of health care, and other health indicators and epidemiological studies of mechanisms and pathways to demonstrate the extensive body of evidence describing racial and ethnic health disparities. The text describes mechanisms through which race and ethnicity may affect health outcomes.

After laying a general background, the text addresses racial and ethnic health disparities that can occur in real-world pharmacy care, such as differences in disease conditions, response to medication, access to care, health literacy, and understanding of health and medications. It concludes with a discussion of the pharmacist commitment to eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities.

Available at amazon.com