A $2-million gift from Shoppers Drug Mart to the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences will fund research aimed at innovation for primary health care in pharmacies to help expand access for Albertans.
“This gift will drive projects by our researchers exploring innovative approaches to health care,” says Christine Hughes, dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
“Alberta’s broad scope of practice for pharmacists is already a model that the rest of our nation looks to for inspiration — and the work this funding will support will only add to our reputation as leaders in this area.”
“As health-care providers, we know that the old ways of delivering care aren’t working and that finding solutions to this problem will take innovation and collaboration amongst a host of players,” says Jeff Leger, CEO of Shoppers Drug Mart.
“That’s why we’re proud to be partnering with the University of Alberta, funding vital research to explore integrated models of care, ones where pharmacists are able to use their full scope of training to improve access to care and health outcomes for Albertans.”
More than 650,000 Albertans do not have access to a primary care physician, an issue that is compounded for rural patients. As emergency room care replaces family doctor visits, health-care costs continue to rise and wait times swell.
Pharmacists in Alberta have the broadest scope of practice in Canada, with training to assess a wide range of conditions and treat minor ailments as well as chronic diseases. That creates the opportunity to integrate more health-care professionals into an overwhelmed primary care system, Hughes notes.
“The Alberta community pharmacy environment is unique in that we have such a broad scope of practice, and it’s an ideal location to be able to study new services like the ones that we’re proposing,” says Mark Makowsky, associate professor in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and practising pharmacist at the MacEwan University Health Centre.
In one of several funded research projects, Makowsky and an interdisciplinary team of researchers including a family doctor, emergency department physician and infectious disease specialist will develop an evidence-based care pathway to support pharmacist assessment and management of respiratory tract infections.
“The pathway will be implemented and we will determine if the care provided is effective, what impact it has on the patient experience of care and how it impacts the primary health-care system,” Makowsky explains.
“Pharmacists are important providers in the primary health-care system, and anything we can do as researchers to help pharmacists provide high-quality patient care and improve accessibility for Albertans is what we are here to support,” says Makowsky.
Research projects funded by the gift will also include work led by Allyson Jones and Ross Tsuyuki that examines pharmacist-physiotherapist collaborative management for early knee osteoarthritis, research on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by Tatiana Makhinova and cardiovascular risk reduction research from Yazid al Hamarneh.
"This gift and clinic opening is beneficial for our students and learners who have the opportunity to work in primary care while on rotations," says Hughes.
The research funding will also coincide with the opening of the Shoppers Drug Mart Pharmacy Care Clinic in Edmonton, located near the U of A’s North Campus.
Dapheni Morton, pharmacist and associate owner of the Pharmacy Care Clinic, says the services it offers will help ease the burden on doctors’ offices and emergency rooms.
Morton, a graduate of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, hopes that pharmacists treating patients in clinics will lead to emergency rooms being used mainly for emergencies and physician visits for more complex cases.
“Being able to treat, manage conditions and keep patients out of emergency rooms will help people heal with better outcomes,” says Morton.
Patients with acute minor ailments and those with chronic diseases needing ongoing medication management for conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, COPD and asthma will benefit the most from pharmacist-led care, says Morton.
The first Pharmacy Care Clinic was launched in Lethbridge in June 2022. Since then, more than 50 Pharmacy Care Clinics have opened in Alberta, with plans to have 103 clinics operating across the province by the end of this year.
Morton hopes to increase awareness of pharmacy services available that provide patients with convenient, high-quality care from knowledgeable professionals.
“The goal is to make sure that we’re available for patients when they need us.”