Background: This 12-month appointment is an initiative from the Touro College of Pharmacy Center of Excellence. It is designed to prepare the pharmacy professional who is interested in becoming a leading researcher and advocate for reducing health disparities via pharmacist-provided community-based interventions in the United States.
Fellowship Goals: With the training and experiences provided as part of this fellowship, the Fellow will:
Gain valuable experience in conducting research on health disparities and community-based pharmacist interventions that are directed towards improving patient outcomes.
Obtain considerable experience in learning about pharmacist-provided services and their impact on patient outcomes.
Engage with community-based preceptors to identify the nature of services provided, to appreciate the barriers and facilitators to the provision of those services, and to help design interventions to reduce health disparities in those communities.
Work with student pharmacist and health professions organizations to create community-based interventions and evaluate the impact of those interventions.
Fellowship Outcomes: At the end of the fellowship, the Fellow will achieve:
Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of pervasive health disparities in the United States and the different approaches to address them.
Demonstrated capabilities in research and scholarship in Health Outcomes with a focus on disparities.
Demonstrated expertise in providing pharmacist care services that improve patient outcomes.
A Certificate in Teaching.
A Certificate in Leadership.
Learning Experiences:
The Outcomes will be achieved through the following learning experiences:
Didactic Learning
Goal: To introduce and develop competencies in areas that the Fellow will require for teaching, service, and scholarship.
Courses:
Minority Pharmacist Workforce and Health Disparities Research (SBAN 659) – This course is designed to provide the Fellow with a skill set of basic techniques used in community-based participatory research and how to apply those techniques to conducting research on the intersectionality of minority pharmacist workforce and health disparities.
Timeline: Fall
Psychometric theory (PSGN 612) – This course will introduce the Fellow to basic and advanced concepts in psychometric theory, including technical principles of psychological testing, reliability, validity, and test item considerations. Emphasis will be placed on the application of psychometric theory to measurement problems in applied settings. Statistical concepts related to test theory, such as correlation and regression, will also be reviewed.
Timeline: Fall
AACP DEI Institute – This institute will provide an opportunity for the Fellow to collaborate with faculty from TCOP and other pharmacy schools and with staff from the academy to understand the importance of DEI in pharmacy education and healthcare. The Fellow will come to understand the various strategies that can be used to incorporate DEI into curriculum and assessment activities.
Timeline: Spring
Touro College of Pharmacy Teaching Certificate Program – This program will introduce the Fellow to various aspects involved in teaching and learning, including both didactic and clinical instruction. The Fellow will attend various seminars to learn about: designing effective instructional materials; teaching effectively to large and small groups; civility and academic integrity in classrooms; developing a teaching philosophy; developing a course syllabus; and course mapping, scholarship, and being an effective preceptor in the clinic. The Fellow also will be directly involved in teaching recitations and/or labs as assigned.
Timeline: Fall & Spring
Touro College of Pharmacy Leadership Certificate Program– This program will introduce the Fellow to the salient domains of pharmacy leadership to develop the knowledge and skills necessary for personal and professional growth. The Fellow will participate in the leadership certificate program offered by the Touro College of Pharmacy and attend various seminars that cover the following topics: collaborative leadership; leading with diversity and inclusion; self-awareness and emotional intelligence; communication skills including feedback and mentoring; decision making skills; negotiation and conflict resolution; trust building; ethical leadership; resilience and work life integration; and advocacy for pharmacy leaders.
Timeline: Fall
Experiential Learning
Active participation in Touro College of Pharmacy Faculty Research Projects
Goal: To train the Fellow in the essential elements of being an independent researcher, including designing a research project; obtaining IRB approval for human subjects protection; and undertaking data collection and analysis with the intent to publish and/or present the results of the research.
Timeline: Longitudinal. The Fellow will work with different faculty members on different projects under the supervision of the Fellowship Director.
Policy Development in Health Disparities
Goal: To make the Fellow knowledgeable about the various stakeholders in policy making and the policy process. This will involve understanding the significance of evidence in policy development with an emphasis on policies that affect health disparities and population health.
Timeline: Fall
Collaboration with American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP)
Goal: To help the Fellow gain an understanding of how academia and community pharmacies can collaborate to reduce health disparities and the need to train the next generation of pharmacists in this type of collaboration. The Fellow will work with an assigned AACP designee on a specific health disparities project.
Timeline: Fall & Spring
Community Outreach
Goal: To engage the Fellow in interacting with the surrounding communities including educational institutions and healthcare systems to build relationships and develop and implement programs to reduce health disparities directly and indirectly via influencing the pipeline of minority students entering the health professional degree programs. This will be achieved by having the Fellow work with the Touro College of Pharmacy Community Outreach Program and the Touro College of Pharmacy Admissions Office, attending various health fairs and Admissions outreach programs. While working at the various health fairs, the Fellow will collect data to understand the trends in health disparities in those communities. The Fellow also will work with the Admissions office to make presentations at schools and colleges as part of TCOP recruitment efforts, especially those with minority populations.
Timeline: Longitudinal
HealthCare System
Goal: To familiarize the Fellow with the health disparities challenges faced by healthcare systems and the strategies they employ to reduce the disparities. This will involve the Fellow shadowing the pharmacy director of one of the large healthcare systems in New York City.
Timeline: Fall – 2 weeks
Conference(s)
Goal: To provide the opportunity for the fellow to present work and to network with and learn from peers. This will include attending national conferences such as the American Pharmacists Association Annual Meeting, American Public Health Association Annual Meeting; and local conferences such as the NYSCHP Annual Assembly and the Eastern States Residency Conference.
Timeline: Fall & Spring
You must meet the following requirements to apply for the Health Disparities Fellowship:
Doctor of Pharmacy degree from an ACPE-accredited College of Pharmacy
Licensure or eligible for licensure in the State of New York
Individuals who have completed a PGY1 pharmacy residency or PGY2 specialty residency are preferred.
This fellowship is an initiative from the Touro College of Pharmacy Center of Excellence, a federally funded project dedicated to researching and addressing healthcare disparities and outcomes in underserved communities.
Interested candidates should submit the following materials to Elizabeth Unni, PhD, MBA, BPharm, elizabeth.unni@touro.edu:
a letter of intent
curriculum vitae
official pharmacy school transcripts
three letters of recommendation (these should be sent directly from the reference)