Multiple members of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UBC have been awarded funding from the BC Ministry of Health for three interdisciplinary research projects addressing provincial health priorities: artificial intelligence in healthcare delivery, climate health communication, and improving access to pharmacy-based care for people with opioid use disorder.
AI-enabled Hospital at Home patient selection in BC
The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences is represented on this project by Sean Spina, Clinical Assistant Professor and Adjunct Assistant Professor, and Karen Dahri, Associate Professor.
This interdisciplinary team is developing a harmonized provincial AI strategy to streamline patient identification for Hospital at Home (HaH) programs across British Columbia. A key barrier to HaH efficiency is the time-consuming process of identifying eligible patients, which diverts clinicians from direct care. Led by Dr. Kendall Ho from the Department of Emergency Medicine, the team is collaborating with the BC Ministry of Health and HaH programs across all five health authorities to address the clinical, technical, and economic dimensions of AI implementation. The project will deliver a phased "build once, deploy many times" plan to support equitable, efficient, and standardized patient screening across the province.
Behavioural science for public health: improving climate hazard messaging
The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences is contributing to a $49,850 project applying behavioural science frameworks to improve public health messaging about climate hazards. Mark Harrison, Professor and Director of the Collaboration for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE), leads the project, with Kate Johnson, Assistant Professor at CORE, and Nazafarin Esfandiari, MSc student and trainee at CORE.
Working in partnership with the Ministry of Health, Interior Health, and Vancouver Coastal Health, the team will co-develop and test messaging strategies across climate hazards, with particular focus on at-risk and historically excluded populations. Using a factorial survey design with over 2,000 participants and formative focus groups, the research will provide evidence-based guidance for BC public health agencies to craft effective messaging that reduces health risks and strengthens community resilience.
Improving access and delivery of pharmacy care to people with opioid use disorder
Nazafarin Esfandiari, MSc student from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, is contributing to this $50,000 community-based participatory research project exploring how pharmacy service delivery can be optimized to improve access and retention in care for people with opioid use disorder (OUD).
Led by Dr. Adam Easterbrook from the School of Population and Public Health, the project will explore the experiences of people with OUD accessing care at community pharmacies and develop recommendations for optimizing pharmacy service delivery. Informed throughout by people with lived experience of OUD, findings will be shared with the Ministry to support actionable improvements to pharmacy-based care across the province.
The Faculty congratulates all researchers involved in these important projects and looks forward to the impact their work will have on BC's health system.
Learn more about UBC Health's interdisciplinary research initiatives here.