Investigating Health Disparities Between Demographics in a Pharmaceutical Setting

Presenter: Abigail Collins, Physiology & Neurobiology, Global Public Health Scholars

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    For my practicum, I completed an internship at the Walgreens Pharmacy of Severna Park in Anne Arundel County, MD. As a company, Walgreens strives to create an equitable, safe, cost-effective way to give patients life-saving medicine. I worked as a pharmacy technician performing a variety of duties, including filling, dispensing, and selling medications. My internship connects with public health through my additional work in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic by booking vaccination appointments and performing COVID-19 testing. Working as a pharmacy technician was so eye-opening as a pharmaceutical setting is the perfect intersection between medicine, public health, and society. Through my work, I have learned that there is still much to be done. Specifically, I saw insurance companies often refuse to cover life saving insurance or saw pharmaceutical companies raise their prices exponentially, all for profit and without focus on the lives they were affecting. There must be a call to action by public health officials to governmental bodies to help control and regulate these companies that try to take advantage of everyday people.