National foundation creates effort to prevent diabetes in America's communities

The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Foundation is developing Together on Diabetes: Communities Uniting to Meet America’s Diabetes Challenge, which is a $100 million initiative, funded by the Bristol-Meyers Squibb Foundation.

The APhA Foundation’s new effort, Project IMPACT: Diabetes, IMPROVING AMERICA’S COMMUNITIES TOGETHER, will fully integrate pharmacists into the health care team in an effort to address some of the challenges faced by participants living with diabetes. Letters of support have already been received from a preliminary group of partner organizations including the American Pharmacists Association, the Centerfor Health Value Innovation, Giant Food Stores, HHS Office of Women’s Health, the National Diabetes Education Program, U.S. Health Resource Services Administration Pharmacy Services Support Centerand Walgreens.

APhA will host a webinar on Feb. 9 to explain the project and the application process and the criteria for selecting cities for the program. Participants may include leaders from Rural Health Centers (RHC), Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), patient advocacy organizations, for example, since they have a disproportionate share population that includes both Medicare and Medicaid patients.

The program will target areas in Louisiana,which is the state with the highest prevalence for diabetes.

You can contact cbrylski@aol.com and send your contact information regarding participation in the webinar. The information must be submitted no later than Feb. 2.