GoodRx’s 2021 Pharmacy Innovation Scholarship Winners and Their Ideas for Closing Healthcare Gaps
For the third year in a row, GoodRx has granted students pursuing a career in pharmacy the chance to win scholarship money to put toward their studies. They hail from different parts of the country, but one thing they have in common is their desire for change in their communities.
As we have seen during the pandemic, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians play a vital role in the healthcare ecosystem. They’ve been available to answer questions about medications, vaccinations, and disease. As one of our scholarship winners puts it, pharmacists are the only healthcare professionals who can offer free consultations without an appointment.
To address the health gaps that have become more apparent than ever, we asked applicants to tell us what health disparities they have observed in their communities. We also asked them to share ways that pharmacists or pharmacy technicians can help address these issues and close the gaps using existing or emerging technologies.
Here are the winning entries.
Delilah Knapp
The University of Texas at El Paso, Class of 2024
Born and raised in the predominantly Hispanic border town of El Paso, Texas, Delilah grew up seeing health disparities firsthand. In her community, residents struggle to manage multiple diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and high blood pressure. Many don’t have jobs with health insurance and can’t afford their medications. And because most are Spanish speakers, they often don’t understand their diagnoses or how to take their medications due to a lack of bilingual pharmacy staff. Delilah believes pharmacists can close the gaps by promoting wellness and healthy behaviors through 1-on-1 educational talks with patients about managing their diseases. Additionally, she hopes language classes can be provided to pharmacists, which can open up communication with patients.
Julia Stojadinovic
Northeastern University, Class of 2024
Due to her work at the Massachusetts Eye & Ear Infirmary in Boston, Julia has been able to witness the gap in patient disparities within the visually impaired community. She is also a member of a pharmacy student club, where she works with other students on the Braille Project. Together, they are creating the first ever Braille medication leaflet featuring the top 15 medications used by visually impaired people. The leaflet will contain medication information such as drug names, uses, side effects, and interactions with other drugs. They hope to produce the leaflet by the fall and distribute it to local community pharmacies, clinics, and disability centers to help narrow disparity gaps within the visually impaired community.
Jenessa Teta
University Of Saint Joseph, Class of 2022
The disparities in the state of Connecticut and in Jenessa’s community are far and wide. For example: Babies born to Black mothers are four times as likely to die before their first birthday than babies born to white mothers, and Black and Hispanic residents are more than twice as likely as white residents to have diabetes and even more likely to suffer severe complications as a result.
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Though most of the population is within 5 miles of a community pharmacy, Jenessa says pharmacies can use existing telehealth platforms to reach more individuals, like those who don’t have a regular healthcare provider or who lack transportation. She believes a pharmacist-created app could allow pharmacists to be more involved in patient care, such as being able to help patients set medication reminders, provide counseling on how to take their medications, and answer patient questions directly through a “contact your pharmacist” feature.
Jessica Walker
Auburn University Harrison School of Pharmacy, Class of 2022
One of the health disparities Jessica has witnessed is the lack of quality healthcare for patients in her community. Patients are often not adequately informed on the importance of their medications, and they lack education on their conditions. Jessica believes pharmacists and pharmacy technicians can help address these issues by simply printing out easy-to-read information sheets explaining how the medication will help treat the patient. Additionally, pharmacies can create patient portals for patients to access all the medication information they need, including when and how often they should take it. Jessica also believes pharmacists should work closely with healthcare providers and patients to keep the lines of communication open regarding medications.
Katie Cooley
Louisiana Tech University, Class of 2025
Katie has observed how lower-income individuals in her community are unable to pay for basic healthcare including regular visits to a primary care physician. On the other hand, she has seen how people who make a higher income have no problem going to their healthcare provider and buying their medications because they can afford to do so.
She believes that pharmacy technicians are in a position to help underserved patients by telling them about free or low-cost clinics and showing them programs or apps that can help them save money on medications. Katie says pharmacy technicians need to view informing people of these programs as their duty, so the gaps between the rich and the poor can start to close.
Kristina Zaharas
University of Wyoming: School of Pharmacy Education, Class of 2025
Kristina grew up in a rural community and has observed that those living in rural areas must often travel great distances – even to neighboring states – to receive proper healthcare. This is because of a healthcare workforce shortage and lack of special services. Kristina believes that pharmacists and pharmacy technicians need to step up to help address these issues. Rural pharmacies are much more accessible than clinics and can offer services like blood pressure monitoring, diabetes and blood pressure management, vaccinations, smoking cessation advice, and more. By doing more for patients than simply filling prescriptions, Kristina believes pharmacists can make a major difference in the health of people in their community.
Megan Griffin
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Class of 2023
Megan remembers growing up with a family member who struggled to manage their pain medications. She believes a pharmacist could have made a difference by providing education about the risks of opioid addiction, optimizing their medication regimens, and improving patient safety through drug monitoring. Through this experience, she believes pharmacists play an important role in patient lives because they’re the only healthcare professionals who can offer free consultations without an appointment. Rural pharmacists especially can take advantage of existing medication therapy management (MTM) programs that can identify therapy issues and alert the pharmacy team to call patients and doctors for resolutions. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is another emerging technology that pharmacists can use to monitor health outcomes like blood pressure and blood glucose in real time. Megan finds it imperative to introduce new ideas and technology to the ever-changing field of pharmacy.
Mar Medina
University of Texas at El Paso, Class of 2024
Growing up in El Paso, Mar knew what it was like to live without health insurance and healthcare access. In fact, El Paso is a medically underserved community, of which many residents also have low socioeconomic status. Many residents’ first language is not English, or they don’t speak English at all.
As a volunteer at a no-cost clinic and later a pharmacy student, Mar has interpreted health information and counseled patients in Spanish. She believes that pharmacists and technicians can leverage existing technology, however simple, to help bridge language barriers and overcome obstacles to medication adherence. These tools include text-to-speech smartphone apps, dosage devices like pillboxes, and education around new services like auto-refills and delivery. Mar believes that the best way to support her patients and the residents of El Paso is to be innovative and adapt to their needs.
Quyen Dinh
The University of Texas at Austin, Class of 2025
Quyen grew up in an immigrant family and was exposed to many health disparities in race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. In particular, she remembers the way her mother was treated as an Asian American woman. In response to the racism she faced, her mother learned to keep quiet in work and social settings, and her lack of communication carried over to her visits with healthcare providers. As Quyen sees it, this behavior is common with many immigrants who share her mother’s identity. Quyen imagines a new screening portal app that would take into consideration the background, experiences, and health history of the patient and give the patient access to a translator specialized in medical terminology as well as an ability to submit questions in their own language. Patients looking for community could also find it by using the app to connect with others going through similar experiences.
Tanita Thomas
Tuskegee University, Class of 2025
Tanita has seen firsthand how people of color in her community have had terrible healthcare experiences, including the propagation of medical fallacies about Black people. Pharmacists can help resolve this issue by educating themselves of these fallacies and adjusting their everyday routine for such, like when they are reviewing prescriptions made to patients. Similarly, pharmacy technicians should be required to know of these fallacies and adjust their job duties accordingly.
One falsehood, for instance, is that Black people have higher pain tolerance. An informed pharmacist or technician would know this and treat patients with the same care as they would any other patient when administering a vaccine or pain medication.
Tanita believes that by becoming informed, pharmacists and technicians can help improve health outcomes for people of color.
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If you’re an aspiring healthcare provider and interested in applying for our scholarships, visit our scholarships page.
GoodRx, Inc. proudly ran scholarship programs for healthcare students from 2019 to 2021. Since 2022, GoodRx Helps, an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, has funded and operated scholarships for healthcare students from underrepresented groups. Learn more here.
