UB PharmD students help local community reduce hypertension

SNPhA is a national educational and service association of pharmacy students dedicated to the pharmacy profession and serving the underserved.

On April 21, the UB chapter of SNPhA hosted a public outreach event, Hypertension Pacemakers, at Neighborhood Health Center Mattina in Buffalo. The event aimed to support underserved populations in managing hypertension. At the event, UB PharmD students screened community members for hypertension risk and provided education on risk reduction strategies, emphasizing nonpharmacologic approaches to blood pressure management.

“To screen for hypertension is important, but to give the tools that help people take action is even more important,” said Dimah Alani, PharmD ’27, president, UB chapter of SNPhA. “As future pharmacists, we are taught about nonpharmacologic steps before progressing to medications. That is our first line of therapy, so my chapter and I tried to implement that within our community.”

During the event, pharmacy students provided community members with blood pressure screenings and discussed hypertension risk management strategies, including proper hydration, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet recipes and shopping guides to encourage healthy eating habits. They screened 80 community members for hypertension and discussed risk management strategies with more than 50 individuals. Students also distributed nearly 100 hypertension kits to the community, with blood pressure monitors able to record and log results for two individuals. 

The hypertension kits were generously sponsored by Walgreens, thanks to Alani’s and the UB chapter of SNPhA’s joint efforts securing $5,000 in funding for the event with support from Gregory Gotie, PharmD ’10, district pharmacy supervisor at Walgreens.

“This experience helped my business understanding, strengthened my leadership and showed me how to support my community as a student pharmacist,” Alani said. “Our mission at SNPhA is ‘serving the underserved,’ and I’m so proud of what we accomplished in the community.”

Alani thanks UB chapter of SNPhA officers Lauriana Beras Burgos, PharmD ’29, Sarah Dodge, PharmD ’29, Emily Cohen, PharmD ’29, Liem Nguyen, PharmD ’27, and Mia Muniz, PharmD ’28, for their support in coordinating the event.