The Urgent Role of Manager Pharmacists in Equity Work
- aPHP
- Jul 3
- 5 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Summary: This blog highlights how manager pharmacists fulfill the pharmacist’s mission by embedding health equity into practice and driving long-term change.
Improving Health Equity in Pharmacy
The disparities in quality of care, healthcare access, and clinical outcomes for historically marginalized communities are alarming. Now more than ever, increasing efforts to improve health equity is essential.
As a global priority, various initiatives have been implemented to advance health equity and reduce systemic barriers. Despite these efforts, inequities persist throughout the healthcare system, disproportionately impacting marginalized groups and communities.
The unique positioning of pharmacists in the healthcare system has made them invaluable to improving health equity in their immediate community.
This blog highlights how manager pharmacists fulfill the pharmacist’s mission by embedding health equity into practice thus driving long-term change. Before diving in, it is important to understand what health equity means and how it differs from health equality.
What Is Health Equity in Pharmacy Practice?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), health equity is a state where a person is able to attain the highest level of health and health outcomes, free from avoidable, unfair, or unjust differences regardless of their social, economic, or demographic status.
The World Health Organization (WHO) expands on this definition, stating that these inequities exist across gender, disability, socioeconomic class, geographic location, and other dimensions of inequality—all of which impact healthcare access and outcomes.
Throughout history, minority pharmacists have helped dismantle these barriers, ensuring that historically excluded populations gain equitable access to medications, care, and health education.
Historically excluded groups in healthcare include which of the following?
A) Black or African American communities
B) People with disabilities
C) Indigenous populations
D) LGBTQ+ communities
Health Equity vs. Health Equality:
Why the Difference Matters
It is essential to understand the difference between equity and equality, especially in pharmacy practice.
Health equity focuses on fair and just access to care, ensuring each patient receives support tailored to their unique needs and barriers. In contrast, health equality treats all patients the same, regardless of context, often overlooking the structural challenges some communities face.
True equity means addressing the root causes of disparities, rather than simply offering identical services to everyone.
Manager pharmacists play a vital role in this shift. They are uniquely positioned to build inclusive teams and elevate diverse perspectives—ensuring, at the very least, that minority pharmacists help lead equity-focused campaigns while contributing meaningfully across all areas of person-centered care.
Champion Pharmacy: The Ideal Pharmacist’s Impact
Champion pharmacists like Dr. Chauncey I. Cooper go beyond clinical knowledge. They embody a deep, enduring commitment to equity, advocacy, and service. One of the earliest and most influential figures in this legacy is Dr. Chauncey I. Cooper, former Dean of Howard University and co-founding leader of the National Pharmaceutical Association (NPhA).
As a trailblazing pharmacy equity champion, Dr. Cooper challenged structural barriers, elevated minority voices in healthcare policy, and laid the groundwork for today’s equity-driven practice models. His leadership exemplifies the ideal pharmacist mission: combining pharmaceutical expertise with systemic advocacy.
Modern pharmacists inherit this legacy by:
Mentoring underrepresented pharmacy students
Promoting equitable access to pharmacy services in underserved areas
Aligning care with SDOH compliance and advocacy goals
Prioritizing health justice as a core mission
Dr. Cooper’s work reminds us that the most effective pharmacists are those who operate as change agents, committed to both patient care and structural reform. This distinction between equity and equality is more than theoretical. It has served as a guiding principle for generations of pharmacy leaders.
Minority pharmacists have long modeled what it means to deliver care rooted in justice and responsiveness. Among them, Dr. Chauncey I. Cooper stands out as a pioneer whose legacy offers a blueprint for advancing health equity in practice. Manager pharmacists today are uniquely positioned to carry that blueprint forward.
The Manager Pharmacist: Leading SDOH and Equity Strategy
To carry forward the equity-centered legacy of pharmacists like Dr. Cooper, today’s manager pharmacists must lead with strategy, structure, and accountability. Manager pharmacists hold a unique position of influence, capable of embedding health equity into the foundation of pharmacy operations. While all pharmacists contribute to addressing disparities, it is the manager pharmacist who shapes protocols, supervises workflows, and drives implementation across teams.
To lead effective health equity strategies, pharmacists in management roles must:
Integrate SDOH data into care models to identify patient risk factors early.
Set measurable learning objectives for staff tied to cultural competence and bias mitigation.
Establish pharmacy star performance targets linked to SDOH outcomes.
Advocate for CMS-compliant reimbursement policies that prioritize equity.
Build a team culture rooted in the pharmacist code of ethics and mission.
By adopting a systems-focused mindset, the manager pharmacist becomes the operational driver of pharmacy equity, ensuring that clinical intent translates into measurable community outcomes.
Pharmacist Advocacy: Advancing Justice Beyond the Counter
Health equity requires action at all levels and pharmacist advocacy is central to transforming that vision into reality. From grassroots efforts to national policy change, advocacy empowers pharmacists to influence the systems shaping care.
Pharmacists advocate by:
Testifying before boards of pharmacy and legislative committees on access issues.
Championing reforms that expand pharmacists' roles in public health and chronic disease prevention.
Supporting pharmacists grants and initiatives aimed at community health equity.
Participating in professional organizations focused on health justice.
Pharmacy professionals who understand systemic inequities are best prepared to challenge the status quo. That’s why advocacy education is essential. To truly lead in advocacy, pharmacists need more than passion, they need training, tools, and a supportive learning environment. That’s where the Academy of Population Health Pharmacy™ (aPHP) comes in.
aPHP - Academy of Population Health Pharmacy's™ Mission: Training Pharmacy Equity Champions
The Academy of Population Health Pharmacy™ (aPHP) is a pharmacist-founded organization dedicated to advancing equitable care through training, advocacy, and system-level change. aPHP empowers pharmacists to lead in health equity by offering tailored professional development and continuous learning opportunities.
To support this learning, aPHP’s upcoming book Champion Pharmacy: Health Equity, Social Justice, and Systemic Change, equips pharmacists with a full training guide, case studies, and CPD-aligned reflection tools.
To get a feel for how aPHP’s CPD-aligned training deepens reflection and drives advocacy, consider the following real-world question used in our modules:
Reflect on a time when you identified a structural barrier to care in your pharmacy setting. What action did you take (or wish you had taken), and how might this inform future advocacy as a pharmacy professional?
Use this prompt to reflect on your professional mission and evaluate how your current role aligns with broader health equity goals. aPHP’s training modules are designed to support this process, enhancing team performance, boosting productivity, and strengthening patient engagement.
By engaging with our resources, you help sustain our ability to produce pharmacist-centered tools and blogs that advance health equity. Subscribe to our newsletter for new insights, training updates, and upcoming releases.
Redefining Pharmacy Practice Through Health Justice
The pharmacist’s role in advancing health equity has never been more urgent. As healthcare evolves, so must our approach to reducing disparities and improving outcomes for historically excluded populations.
Equity-driven practice is more than a moral imperative, it is a professional standard that reflects the pharmacist’s mission to protect public health, support vulnerable populations, and deliver care without bias.
Manager pharmacists are especially positioned to embed equity into workflows, train teams, and operationalize systemic change. By modeling this commitment, they set a standard for what it means to lead in healthcare.
Pharmacists must continue to advocate, innovate, and educate, working toward a system where every patient has the opportunity to attain their highest level of health.
Health equity is the starting point. Health justice is the destination.
댓글