Cultural Competence

ATLANTA — The philanthropic arm of the Coca-Cola Co. is donating nearly $9 million to organizations focused on well-being, community development and environmental protection.

Of all the policies to come out of the Obama administration, few have caused more controversy and greater uncertainty than healthcare reform.

Passed and signed into law in 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is designed to address the tens of millions of Americans who lack healthcare coverage, and it is expected to add more than 30 million new patients when it takes full effect. Following a legal challenge to the law, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that one of its key elements, the individual mandate, did not violate the Constitution.

Ask any of the roughly 900 people who work for Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy what the company is best known for, and you might get a variety of answers: creating a patient-centric, information-driven business model that merges effective clinical care and patient outcomes with lower costs for patients and payers; giving retail pharmacies the resources to compete in the specialty pharmacy arena; or boosting average patient adherence rates to 90% and above through effective management of patients, drug utilization data and out-of-pocket costs.

WASHINGTON — Data released this week by federal health officials showed that between 2008 and 2011, the obesity rates of low-income preschoolers declined in 19-of-43 states and territories, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's website.

BRONX, N.Y. — Community-based pharmacies can be effective locations for offering rapid HIV testing, diagnosing HIV and quickly connecting those who test positive with medical care, according to researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.

The study is in the August issue of the journal AIDS Patient Care and STDs.

Audio Q&A: David Houle sometimes brings up a quote from the famed cyberpunk fiction author William Gibson: "The future is already here. It just hasn't been evenly distributed yet." Houle recently talked with DSN about how this applies to health care, noting that "We won't call it health care. We'll call it health management."

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — Accardi Clinical Pharmacy, an independent community pharmacy in Orange City, Fla., is this year’s recipient of the Good Neighbor Pharmacy of the Year award, AmerisourceBergen announced Monday. Accardi was honored for delivering exceptional patient care and being a leader in its local community, as well as executing innovative marketing and branding practices and successful business operations that help deliver a better bottom line. 

BOSTON — A nutrition-education group is promoting health and wellness in African-American communities by teaching about traditional African cuisine.

Oldways announced Wednesday the launch of "A Taste of African Heritage," which it said would help communities reconnect with the ways of eating and living of early Africans and African-Americans in Africa, the South, the Caribbean and South America.