The Community Pharmacy Foundation has awarded the Ohio Northern University Raabe College of Pharmacy a grant to fund a “Pharmacist Provision of Preconception Care Through Medication Therapy Management (MTM)” study.

The goals of the research are to raise awareness and educate community pharmacists about preconception care and providing preconception care through MTM, and to pilot a proof-of-concept model demonstrating the impact pharmacists can have in providing elements of preconception care through a potentially sustainable reimbursement model.

Natalie DiPietro Mager, ONU associate professor of pharmacy practice, and David Bright, assistant professor at Ferris State University will head up the study. The two believe that there are many preventive care measures where an accessible and well-trained community pharmacist can help to facilitate positive preventive counseling and improve public health. It is hoped that by demonstrating the community pharmacist’s role in preconception care, future implementation of other preventive care measures will be easier following the model developed in this initiative.

The study will focus on three elements of preconception care and include providing interventions to women receiving category D or X medications that may pose a risk to the fetus (i.e., miscarriage, birth defects), recommending daily folic acid intake, and recommending/providing appropriate immunizations.

The goal of the research is to develop educational materials and resources to allow this intervention to be rapidly expanded to any community pharmacy. The hope is that positive results in this project will justify ongoing financial payment for such community pharmacist-provided preconception services. The study also hopes to demonstrate the role of the pharmacist to engage in preconception health counseling.  Through such studies, the role of the community pharmacist may continue to expand to include provision of additional preventive care services that will improve patient-specific and population-based outcomes.

The Community Pharmacy Foundation was established in 2000 by an act of a federal court order emanating out of a settlement on behalf of community pharmacies across the United States through class action litigation against discriminatory pricing issues. Its primary purpose is to assist community pharmacy by providing resources for research and development to encourage new capabilities and continuous improvements in the delivery of patient care.

Link: https://www.onu.edu/node/64773

Ohio Northern University’s quality, student-centered education distinctively combines nationally ranked sciences, arts and professional programs for more than 3,600 students in its five colleges: Arts & Sciences, Business Administration, Engineering, Pharmacy and Law.

For more than 125 years, the nationally recognized Raabe College of Pharmacy has offered distinctive, challenging and comprehensive training for some of the nation’s most talented pharmacists. This University signature program features a six-year Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree accredited by the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education.