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The aim of this paper is to review pharmacy laws and regulations, pharmacist training, clinic considerations, and patient care outcomes regarding pharmacy-based travel health services in the United States. Pharmacists and pharmacies in the United States are highly visible and accessible to the public, and have long been regarded as a source for immunization services. As international travel continues to increase and grow in popularity in this country, there is a pressing need for expanded access to preventative health services, including routine and travel vaccinations, as well as medications for prophylaxis or self-treatment of conditions that may be acquired overseas. In the United States, the scope of pharmacy practice continues to expand and incorporate these preventable health services to varying degrees on a state-by-state level. A literature review was undertaken to identify published articles on pharmacist- or pharmacy-based travel health services or care in the United States. The results of this paper show that pharmacists can help to increase access to and awareness of the need for these services to ensure that patients remain healthy while traveling abroad, and that they do not acquire a travel-related disease while on their trip. For those pharmacists interested in starting a travel health service, considerations should be made to ensure that they have the necessary training, education, and skill set in order to provide this specialty level of care, and that their practice setting is optimally designed to facilitate the service. While there is little published work available on pharmacy or pharmacist-provided travel health services in the United States, outcomes from published studies are positive, which further supports the role of the pharmacist in this setting.

Health disparity is defined as a type of health difference that is closely linked with social, economic and/or environmental disadvantage. Over the past two decades, major efforts have been undertaken to mitigate health disparities and promote health equity in the United States. Within pharmacy practice, health disparities have also been identified to play a role in influencing pharmacists' practice across various clinical settings. However, well-characterized solutions to address such disparities, particularly within pharmacy practice, are lacking in the literature. Recognizing that a significant amount of work will be necessary to reduce or eliminate health disparities, the University of California, Irvine (UCI) School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences held a webinar in June 2021 to explore pertinent issues related to this topic. During the session, participants were given the opportunity to propose and discuss innovative solutions to overcome health disparities in pharmacy practice. The goal of this perspective article is to distill the essence of the presentations and discussions from this interactive session, and to synthesize ideas for practical solutions that can be translated to practice to address this public health problem.

Pharmacists and pharmacies are highly visible and accessible to the public and have long been regarded as a source for immunization services in the United States. As international travel continues to increase and grow in popularity in this country, there is a pressing need for expanded access to preventative health services including routine and travel vaccinations and medications for prophylaxis or self-treatment of conditions that may be acquired overseas. In the United States, the scope of pharmacy practice continues to expand and incorporate these preventable health services to varying degrees on a state-by-state level. As a result, pharmacists can help to increase access to and awareness of the need for these services to insure that patients remain healthy while traveling abroad and that they do not acquire a travel-related disease while on their trip. For those pharmacists interested in starting a travel health service, considerations should be undertaken that ensures that they have the necessary training, education, and skill set in order to provide this specialty level of care and that their practice setting is optimally designed to facilitate this service. Outcomes from studies that have evaluated pharmacy-based travel health services are positive, which further supports the role of the pharmacist in this setting. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to highlight United States pharmacy laws and regulations, pharmacist training, travel clinic considerations, and patient care outcomes from pharmacy-based travel health services.

Health disparities in outcomes are ubiquitous and must be addressed. Pharmacist-led clinical services have been shown to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs.However, their involvement in addressing health disparities has not been well documented. We conducted a literature review to summarize worldwide pharmacistinvolved interventions that contributed to reducing health disparities. The overarching goal is to provide guidance on future directions to advance health equity.PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and CINAHL were searched from inception to October 2021. Studies included were those that evaluated pharmacist-involved interventions contributing to the mitigation of health disparities. Pilot or preliminary studies and those published in non-English languages were excluded. Study characteristics, clinical areas, targeted patient population, types of interventions, and outcomes were evaluated. A total of 151 studies were included, of which 27% were randomized controlled trials. The majority of studies (82%) conducted in high-income countries targeted cardiometabolic conditions (49%). Infectious diseases were commonly managed conditions among studies (56%) conducted in low-/middle-income countries.Most pharmacist-involved interventions were delivered to rural communities (45%), followed by patients with low income (33%) and racial/ethnic minorities (24%). A minimal number of studies (1%) addressed gender-or disability-related interventions.Multidisciplinary team care (70%) and medication management (64%) were the most prevalent care models reported among the studies, followed by education (49%) and screenings/health fairs (21%). Commonly reported outcome measures included laboratory values (38%), medication utilization (29%), and medication adherence (16%). Only 7% and 9% of the studies reported humanistic and economic outcomes, respectively. Pharmacists have been involved in a variety of clinical interventions targeting a diverse range of patient populations, which unveiled pharmacists' roles in contributing to reducing health disparities. Variability of implemented interventions exists geographically and in certain groups for whom few interventions have been implemented, highlighting the need for further efforts to achieve equity in health care.