Barry Baines

I have a simple question, and it's to everybody. On the issue of pharmacy deserts, I think the implications of it have been pretty clear from our conversation this morning. My simple question is, who is working on this in our state? this issue of pharmacy deserts? I mean, I don't know. So I'm sort of asking, who is having this bull by the horns, so to speak, and trying to impact this?

Good question.

Good question.

Barry. Well, you know, I'm going to, you know, kind of side with Clarence here. And I think it's, you know, this reveals that right now, pharmacy deserts and the creation of those are serving an economic end and not an end for helping improve people's health care. So I'll say that. I'm a little bit pessimistic. I mean, this was great to unpack this very complex topic.

Barry. Well, you know, I'm going to, you know, kind of side with Clarence here. And I think it's, you know, this reveals that right now, pharmacy deserts and the creation of those are serving an economic end and not an end for helping improve people's health care. So I'll say that. I'm a little bit pessimistic. I mean, this was great to unpack this very complex topic.

And it's really helped me to understand it a lot better. And I don't know, maybe it's because it's gray outside, but I'm feeling a bit pessimistic that we have not seen the bottom yet of the desert with pharmacy deserts just because of the systems we have in place. And the reality is that every system is designed to produce the outcomes it gets.

And it's really helped me to understand it a lot better. And I don't know, maybe it's because it's gray outside, but I'm feeling a bit pessimistic that we have not seen the bottom yet of the desert with pharmacy deserts just because of the systems we have in place. And the reality is that every system is designed to produce the outcomes it gets.

And pharmacy deserts is one of the outcomes that the systems we have in place is set to create. And we know who's going to bear the brunt of this.

And pharmacy deserts is one of the outcomes that the systems we have in place is set to create. And we know who's going to bear the brunt of this.

it's usually people who are disadvantaged in one of any number of number of ways and so food for thought you know for me not to mention food deserts as well you know talked about you know also but it was just helpful to have the conversation and I know we don't have solutions but you can't develop solutions till you have more knowledge about it and

it's usually people who are disadvantaged in one of any number of number of ways and so food for thought you know for me not to mention food deserts as well you know talked about you know also but it was just helpful to have the conversation and I know we don't have solutions but you can't develop solutions till you have more knowledge about it and

this has really expanded my perspective of the complexity of what goes into creating pharmacy deserts. And hopefully, you know, we can increase awareness and maybe hope to move this forward. So thank you, Christian. It was great to meet you and have you on the show from my perspective.

this has really expanded my perspective of the complexity of what goes into creating pharmacy deserts. And hopefully, you know, we can increase awareness and maybe hope to move this forward. So thank you, Christian. It was great to meet you and have you on the show from my perspective.

Barry. Thanks. Yeah, I want to try and create just a little bridge here between some things that Clarence was talking about and the information that Allison was presenting and Tom, you as well. A lot of these recommendations, to me, they're sort of like the gold standard and they have a great... you know, research base behind it, great evidence base behind it.

And oftentimes, I've always had a conundrum between, well, what's going to be, again, from the time and money piece that, you know, I think of that in terms of operationally how you do it, and then, and I How much does it cost to do that? In the recommendations and in the community guide and even back to the Community Preventive Service Task Force work, is there ever a prioritization

about sort of like, you know, the likelihood of success of operationalizing something that from a financial perspective, from a money perspective, it just could never be done. In other words, we have the answer, you know, if we could buy, you know, Vaxavans and send them around to every community knocking on every door, we can get a lot more people, you know, immunized.

But that's not going to be practical because of, workforce issues and financial issues. So I'm just trying to reflect that from a community hat perspective and even a clinician in an office. Are there some of these recommendations, do they get ranked in any way in terms of likelihood of success or ease of implementation so that you can sort of make that impact

but in a more efficient way, recognizing limitations on our time and money. I hope that makes sense.

Yeah, a little medical insight. This is just such the community guide in particular is such an excellent resource to have in a community and a clinician's toolbox. What I like about it is that it's pretty comprehensive. It doesn't tell you what to do because oftentimes community interests

lean in one direction or another, but I think it really points you in the right direction so that you're not totally wandering in the wilderness to try and figure out what to do. I was also glad to hear that review process because that's one of the things is that in medicine and science, we know that things oftentimes don't stay the same, they're always changing.