The role of pharmacies in health equity

Pharmacists and pharmacies can play a critical role when it comes to tackling the health inequities and issues with access to care in underserved communities, said Alethia Jackson, senior vice president of environmental, social, and governance and chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer for the retail pharmacy giant Walgreens Boots Alliance.

“Pharmacists are trusted health care providers and a key provider of information to people — people interact with their pharmacists probably 10 times more than even a primary care physician — their role is key to reaching underserved communities and building trust,” she said, adding that WBA is utilizing its role to tackle the root causes of health inequity.

As it stands, almost 2 billion people globally are unable to access essential medicines. Achieving universal health coverage, one of the targets under the Sustainable Development Goals is dependent on everyone everywhere having affordable access to quality medicines and health products.

“WBA is helping to close that equity gap,” Jackson said, by facilitating access to medicines, vitamins, and vaccines through its stores, via mobile units, or within outreach programs across the United States, Europe, and Latin America, while also partnering with other organizations to reach more people.

“We are tackling global problems, by also looking at localized solutions for the communities we serve,” Jackson said.

Sitting down with Devex, she shared more about the ways in which WBA is creating improved access to life-saving medicines, the lessons learned in doing so thus far, and why partnering with others is key to achieving global health goals.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What can you share about WBA's commitment to health equity and its various initiatives to increase trust among diverse populations and address health equity in underserved areas?

One example is our vaccine equity initiative to help build trust, especially among people disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. From the Walgreens side, we created a vaccine equity task force, which helped increase access and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in underserved communities. We worked with local partners to build trust and anchored the work under three pillars: education, access, and partnerships. Partnerships helped provide critical information about the vaccine and provided access to it both in and outside of our stores. We were present in local community centers, churches, and other places where people would generally turn to for information. We also did a bus tour across the country stopping at places people frequented to educate them about the COVID-19 vaccines.

Through these efforts, we administered over 28 million vaccines to vulnerable communities, and together with partner organizations we held 1,200 off-site clinics in 46 states. That was one way we were able to activate on a very local level to address health inequity.

Aside from vaccines, how has WBA helped to expand patient access to pharmacy services?

When we think about being a leading partner in reimagining health care and well-being for all, Vitamin Angels is one of our key global partnerships. We started our partnership in 2013 and together provide vitamins and minerals to women and children at risk of malnutrition worldwide. We've been a part of that program for a long time with a goal of reaching 500 million women and children by 2025. So far, we've already reached over 350 million.

As part of the Vitamin Angels partnership, we launched a prenatal pilot program in the south and west side of Chicago in 2021 where we gave expecting mothers free prenatal vitamins through the duration of their pregnancy and provided education around the importance of prenatal vitamins. Due to the continuous success of the phase 1 of the program, we have since launched a phase 2 and 3 and have expanded the prenatal pilot program to 13 additional markets, including all Walgreens stores in Puerto Rico and select stores in Arizona, Tennessee, Louisiana, etc. You can learn more about the expansion on the program site.

What lessons have you learned from this work that might be useful to others?

When we think about the work we do, we have to ask ourselves, what's our overall business strategy and where can we most leverage impact and influence through that work as we rally around certain goals? This work is closely aligned with who we are as a business.

It’s also important to ensure that this work is sustainable — something we continue to build upon — and impactful. That's how we have found success in our strides towards health equity.

Another lesson we've learned is the importance of  partnerships. This isn't work you do alone. It  is best done with others. We partner with local community-based organizations, government officials and other businesses,and collaborate around our shared goals. We also work with our suppliers and our employees to make them a key part of our process. We work alongside our partners to tackle issues we're seeing in communities and the pressing health challenges — such as disease prevention, mental health, or cancer support — our partners accelerate our ability to achieve our shared goals. Partnership is key to doing this work!

When it comes to health equity, what is your call to action for the international development community?

The international development community plays a critical role in addressing health equity by recognizing the impact of social determinants of health. When we think about the conditions and environments — where people are born, where they live, learn, play, worship, and age — it truly affects a wide range of health outcomes, quality of life, and risks. We try to act beyond treating just symptoms of health inequity and address the root causes.

Investing in education, income opportunities, improving access to care and safe and affordable housing, and promoting sustainable environmental practices that impact people's health is part of our healthy planet ESG pillar.

When we think about the international community working to develop holistic solutions that address some of the social determinants of health in a comprehensive manner, it doesn't have a border. We see these issues globally and we're tackling many of the same things regardless of whether we sit in the U.K. or the U.S.