Innovations-Magazine-April-2023 - 12

FEATURE NEWS
Mobile Units Seek to
Increase Patient Access
to Medications
For more than a decade, mobile pharmacies have largely been used
to respond to natural disasters or other emergencies as a temporary
way to provide pharmacy services when brick-and-mortar options
are not viable or are unable to meet demand.
Recently, however, propelled by the public health crisis of drug
overdose deaths and facilitated by recent changes in federal law,
a different type of mobile pharmacy is garnering attention: the
long-term or permanent deployment of mobile units providing
medications - specifically, medications used in treating opioid use
disorder (OUD) - to underserved populations. States have begun
10 | APRIL 2023
adjusting their regulations to allow the expanded use of mobile
pharmacies, and while not all state boards of pharmacy have or
share jurisdiction over OUD programs, many boards of pharmacy
either are or will be part of these changes.
A record-breaking 107,622 individuals are estimated to
have died from a drug overdose in 2021, with nearly 81,000

Innovations-Magazine-April-2023

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