The data is staggering. Rural and underserved communities in Georgia continue to experience persistent barriers to primary care access. In fact, according to federal and state sources, more than six million Georgians live in designated Health Professional Shortage Areas, and 142 of the state’s 159 counties have inadequate access to primary care providers. Simply put, an urgent need for innovative workforce development and primary care delivery models exists across the state.
The College of Pharmacy’s Ambulatory Care Collaborative (AC2) is responding to this need through a variety of initiatives aimed at improving access to quality patient care across the state of Georgia and beyond. Their efforts recently were rewarded with a $20,000 scholarship from the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Foundation to launch an innovative initiative that will help citizens in rural communities receive better primary care by using pharmacists and telehealth technology.
To implement their project, the AC2 group is developing the “Collaborative Drug Therapy Modification (CDTM) Toolkit of the PCP HELPR (Primary Care Provider Healthcare Extension by Leveraging Pharmacists in Rural Communities through Telehealth Technologies) project.” This comprehensive web- and mobile-based toolkit will support pharmacist-led Collaborative Drug Therapy Modification (CDTM) services in primary care settings in rural and underserved areas. Said Dr. Sharmon P. Osae, an AC2 faculty member and the lead of the NACDS Foundation-funded project, “This toolkit will provide training resources, standardized workflows, documentation templates, outcomes tracking, and billing guidance to help physicians and pharmacists collaborate more effectively. Through faculty leadership and student engagement, PCP HELPR will expand access to care, enhance chronic disease management, and prepare current and future pharmacists to practice at the top of their license while advancing health equity statewide.”
In April, the NACDS Foundation announced a record-breaking $300,000 in scholarships , marking the largest investment in its history and reinforcing a 31-year commitment to advancing pharmacy education and the future of patient care. Awardees, including the College of Pharmacy’s AC2 program, were selected from a competitive pool of applications submitted from accredited colleges and schools of pharmacy across the country.
Established in 2021 and housed in the Department of Clinical and Administrative Pharmacy, the AC2 group provides progressive ambulatory care education in the College of Pharmacy curriculum, ambulatory care training opportunities for postgraduate pharmacy residents, and clinical pharmacy services within local communities. In addition, AC2 members conduct clinical research in their specific areas of expertise. The AC2 faculty includes Dr. Osae, along with Drs. Josh Caballero, Chelsea Keedy, Devin Lavender, Beth Phillips, Rebecca Stone, Sarah Thompson, and Christen Wilhight.
