The University of Houston College of Pharmacy is developing a Texas-based community pharmacy research hub designed to help policymakers, providers and communities better understand the barriers, needs, and opportunities to improve pharmaceutical care for patients across the state.
Led by the Prescription Drug Misuse Education and Research (PREMIER) Center at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy, the PREMIER Center Community Pharmacy Research Network (PC-CPRN) is recruiting community pharmacies across Texas to serve as research partners. Participating pharmacies will help identify practice-relevant research questions, test patient-care interventions, contribute data on real-world implementation challenges, and translate findings into practical tools for pharmacists and patients.
The network is currently anchored by the founding partner, Lufkin-based Brookshire Brothers Pharmacy, which operates 71 community pharmacy locations across Texas and Louisiana.
PC-CPRN is a practice-based research infrastructure that includes urban, rural, and semi-rural community pharmacies. Its rural and semi-rural component serves as the Texas Hub of the Rural Research Alliance of Community Pharmacies (RURAL-CP), a multistate practice-based research network.
Launched by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), RURAL-CP now includes
eight schools and colleges of pharmacy and more than 180 rural community pharmacies
across Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee,
and Texas. RURAL-CP is a U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-recognized
practice-based research network focused on reducing rural health disparities by supporting
high-quality research and implementation with rural community pharmacies.
PREMIER Center Director Douglas Thornton, Pharm.D., Ph.D., BCPS, said the network's research agenda will be shaped by the needs and priorities identified by participating communities and pharmacies. The goal is to build durable research infrastructure that can support multiple studies over time, rather than a one-time project or survey.
"This network will help us understand both the barriers patients face at the pharmacy counter and the practical solutions already working in communities across Texas," Thornton said.
Thornton noted that in many rural and underserved communities, pharmacists are among the most accessible healthcare professionals and often have longstanding relationships with patients.
"I see opportunities to engage our partners in studies addressing vaccine confidence, medication affordability and access, mental health treatment capacity, and tools that enhance implementation of clinical guidance," he said. "One early focus is understanding how community pharmacies can better implement evidence-based guidance for dispensing buprenorphine and supporting people with opioid use disorder. By working directly with pharmacies and communities, we can develop and test practical approaches that strengthen pharmacy-based services and improve patient health."
By establishing the PC-CPRN, PREMIER aims to create a durable platform for collaborative studies across community pharmacy settings, including those that are often underrepresented in traditional clinical research.