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Pharmacists as Public Health Advocates: Education and Prevention

Book Title: Multidisciplinary Research Nexus: Ideas for the Modern World

Chief Editors:  Mr. Irshadullah Asim Mohammed, Dr. Yogesh Mohan Gosavi, and Prof. (Dr.) Vineeta Kaur Saluja

Associate Editor: Mrs. Sruthi S

Co-Editors: Dr. S. Rajeswari, Dr. Nikhil Saini, and Ms. Atreyee Banerjee

ISBN:  978-81-985805-1-1

Chapter: 1

DOI: https://doi.org/10.59646/mrnc1/321

Authors:  Anjanjyoti Deka, Ankita Chakraborty, Shiny Ahmed, Priyam Jyoti Das, and Dhiraj Baishya

Abstract

Public health access has increased as a result of the changes in pharmacy practice during the past 15 years. Nowadays, community pharmacies offer a variety of public health services that show promise for bettering health outcomes and access. The modifications in practices that have been seen draw our attention to systemic problems that still require our combined attention. In order to maximize the impact on public health, we must prioritize the pharmacy-public health collaboration and develop cooperative policy and research agendas as we fortify our intersectoral public health system. The United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People initiative uses evidence-based medicine to develop goals that target important preventable health conditions. The goal of Healthy People is to increase life expectancy and quality while reducing avoidable illness, disability, damage, and death. Pharmacists can contribute to raising public awareness, working with other medical professionals, and achieving HP 2020 goals based on the Healthy People 2020 ~HP 2020 objectives. Nine of the 13 new HP 2020 focus areas—adolescent health, blood disorders and safety, dementias, early/middle childhood, global health, infections linked to health care, older adults, emergency preparedness, and sleep health—can be impacted by pharmacists, depending on their level of experience and accessibility. Now available online, HP 2020 is an interactive, user-friendly database that can improve patient-pharmacist communication even more. Pharmacists and student pharmacists can accomplish the aims and objectives outlined by HP 2020 by implementing these health improvement priorities using the different tools and resources at their disposal.

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