APhA selects 25 organizations for Project IMPACT: Diabetes

The American Pharmacists Association Foundation (APhA) recently announced the first 25 healthcare organizations that will be participating in its Project IMPACT: Diabetes program.

In November, 2010, the APhA Foundation was selected as 1 of 4 initial grantees in the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation’s Together on Diabetes initiative. The goal of the $100 million, 5-year program is to help Americans with Type 2 diabetes by strengthening patient self-management education, community-based support services, and broad-based community mobilization.

One explicit purpose of the initiative is full integration of pharmacists into the teams delivering healthcare. “Pharmacists will play an important role in each community, as members of an interdisciplinary care team focused on improving care for patients with diabetes. Pharmacists’ efforts will be focused on empowering patients to be more informed about their condition, more involved in their care, and more effective in diabetes self-management,” said Benjamin M. Bluml, RPh, vice president of research for the APhA Foundation.

The 25 organizations that will be taking part in the project include Appalachian College of Pharmacy in Oakwood, Va.; Bakersfield & Visalia Communities of the CHC in Bakersfield & Visalia, Calif.; Balls Food Stores of Kansas City in Kansas City, Kan.; Capstone Rural Health Center in Parrish, Ala.; Central Ohio Diabetes Association in Columbus, Ohio; Centro de Salud Familiar La Fe Inc. Pharmacy in El Paso, Texas; County of Santa Barbara Public Health Department in Santa Barbara, Calif.; CrossOver Ministry Clinic Inc. in Richmond, Va.; Diabetes Initiative of South Carolina in Columbia, S.C.; Finks Pharmacy in Essex, Md.; Fresno & Madera Communities of the CHC in Fresno and Madera, Calif.; Jefferson County Department of Public Health in Birmingham, Ala.; Kroger Pharmacy Cincinnati-Dayton Division in Cincinnati, Ohio; Mountain States Health Alliance in Johnson City, Tenn.; Pascua Yaqui Reservations of the El Rio Health Center in Tucson, Ariz.; Price Chopper Pharmacy in Schenectady, N.Y.; The Daily Planet Inc. in Richmond, Va.; The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy in Columbus, Ohio; Tucson Urban Community of the El Rio Health Center in Tucson, Ariz.; University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy in Lexington, Ky.; Variety Care in Oklahoma City, Okla.; West Virginia Health Right in Charleston, W.V.; Wichita Public Schools USD 259 in Wichita, Kan.; Wingate University School of Pharmacy in Wingate, N.C.; and Zufal Health Center in Dover, N.J.

The facilities were selected in part because they serve a disproportionate share of the population of patients with diabetes and they are implementing an interdisciplinary care process that includes pharmacists, Bluml said.