Third year PharmD students Lindsey Kampas, Caleb Schork, and Molly Marciniak won the First Place Award for the Professional School Category for their research poster at the 2022 University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences: Health Disparities and Social Justice Poster Competition. This competition, held during the spring semester, involved presenters that were Pitt graduate, professional, and postdoctoral trainees conducting research that impacts community-based interventions to address health disparities and social justice.
The students' research, entitled "Vaccine Equity: The Role of Community Pharmacists", aims to identify strategies that community pharmacists can utilize to prioritize vaccine equity in their immunization services. Through semi-structured interviews with Pennsylvania community pharmacists, the team plans to compile a list of strategies into a guide to improve vaccine equity in Pennsylvania. This guide will then be distributed out to community pharmacists to help them improve vaccine equity within their practice and community. The poster was also presented at the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association mid-year meeting and American Pharmacists Association annual meeting.
The research mentors for this project include Joni Carroll, PharmD, BCACP, TTS, Kelsey Hake, PharmD, Kim Coley, PharmD, FCCP, Catherine Rebitch, PharmD, BCACP, Sophia Herbert, PharmD, and Melissa McGivney, PharmD, FCCP, FAPhA. Kampas, Schork, and Marciniak are Community Leadership and Innovation in Practice Center (CLIP) ARCO students.