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1st
appeared 20 January 1999
Pharmacy Students Offer Free Diabetes Screening
On Saturday, January 23, pharmacy students across the state will be raising community
awareness about diabetes while also enhancing the public perception of their future
profession.
Students from four California pharmacy schools, including UCSF, will provide free diabetes
screenings and preliminary assessments of the disease at sites in San Francisco, Buena
Park, Pasadena, and Stockton. Licensed pharmacists will also be on hand to answer
questions about medications.
In San Francisco, the screening site will be located at Walgreen's Pharmacy, 825 Market
Street near 4th Street, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The project, called "Talk to Your Pharmacist about Diabetes," was developed by
the Academy of Students of Pharmacy (ASP) at UCSF. UCSF-ASP President Scott Ayres said the
goal of the project is to provide a preliminary assessment and screening to over 1000
patients across the state, and in doing so, "provide an opportunity for the community
to become aware of the expanding roles of the pharmacist in disease state management and
to become more comfortable talking to their pharmacists, instead of just picking up their
medications."
"As the most accessible health care provider, pharmacists are in the unique position
to act as a strong advocate of health promotion and disease prevention," Ayres said.
The idea for this project, said Ayres, began during National Pharmacy Week two Octobers
ago when the ASP hosted a health fair on campus in which students provided, among other
services, free diabetes screenings. A School of Pharmacy faculty member had a diabetes
screening performed at the health fair and exhibited signs of the disease. The faculty
member was referred to a physician who discovered that the faculty member had Type II
diabetes.
"I was surprised that a faculty member was unaware of having this disease, so I began
to do research about diabetes," Ayres said. "I soon discovered that an estimated
16 million individuals in this nation have diabetes; however, nearly six million people
have not been diagnosed and are unaware that they have the disease. It was then that I
realized that is an excellent opportunity for us as future pharmacists and health care
providers to help the community and prevent the further progression of this disease by
informing the patients about diabetes and refer to physician care when appropriate."
The "Talk to Your Pharmacist about Diabetes" project is endorsed by the American
Diabetes Association, California Pharmacists Association, Golden Gate Society of
Health-System Pharmacists, and the UCSF Pharmacy Alumni Association.
For more information, contact UCSF-ASP President Scott Ayres at 415/566-3271 or email ps96049@itsa.ucsf.edu.
Links:
UCSF School of
Pharmacy
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