Pharmacists Support Women’s Health

Pharmacists can help provide optimal health care to women to improve the quality of their lives by offering advice and education on important areas. Among these are cancer, chronic respiratory disease, depression, diabetes, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, pregnancy, and smoking.

In this issue of Pharmacy Times®, we focus on women’s health, including the cover feature article by Kathleen Kenny, PharmD, RPh, that explores how women may experience heart disease differently than men. Although heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women, she reports that just 56% of women recognize that it can be as deadly for them as it can be for men, according to the CDC.¹ Kenny provides information on risk factors for the disease and how to help patients take steps to maintain cardiovascular health.

In terms of family planning, pharmacists can help women take control of their reproductive health. Ashley Walsh, PharmD, writes in this issue’s Patient Focus article that pharmacists ready to exercise prescriptive authority have the education and tools to successfully provide birth control to women. In fact, 49 states have awarded some form of prescriptive authority to pharmacists with variable prescriber oversight and restrictions.²

For more essential and timely coverage of women’s health issues, visit the resource center on the Pharmacy Times® website (https://www.pharmacytimes.com/clinical/womens-health).

Meanwhile, on the COVID-19 front, though infection rates are still high in many countries, notably India and Malaysia, there is light at the end of the tunnel in the United States. About half of all US adults had been vaccinated as of May 25, 2021, according to the Biden administration.³ Nearly 130 million adults have completed their COVID-19 vaccine regimens, and another 700 million vaccine doses are in the distribution pipeline, according to the CDC.⁴

The agency now says that “fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.”⁵

Jeannette Y. Wick, MBA, RPh, FASCP, in this issue’s Rx Focus article, provides an update on the COVID-19 vaccines and urges pharmacists to expect changes related to the vaccines as new ones are approved, vial sizes change, storage conditions improve, and data sets accumulate.

We wish you a great start to summer. Thanks for reading!

REFERENCES

1. Women and heart disease. CDC. Updated January 31, 2020. Accessed May 8, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/women.htm
2. Adams AJ, Weaver KK. The continuum of pharmacist prescriptive authority. Ann Pharmacother. 2016;50(9):778-784. doi:10.1177/1060028016653608
3. Chappell B. Half of all U.S. adults are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. NPR. May 25, 2021. Accessed May 26, 2021. https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/05/25/1000171685/half-of-all-u-s-adults-will-be-fully-vaccinated-against-covid-19-as-of-tuesday
4. COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States. CDC. Updated May 25, 2021. Accessed May 26, 2021. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations
5. When you’ve been fully vaccinated. CDC. Updated May 16, 2021. Accessed May 26, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html