SR0201 104TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0201 LRB104 12578 ECR 23133 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Pharmacoequity, a term introduced by Dr. Utibe Essien, is defined as eliminating treatment disparities in healthcare and ensuring that all individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, have access to the highest-quality medications required to manage their health needs; and

WHEREAS, Pharmacoequity has eluded our healthcare system for decades; to eliminate this barrier to healthcare access and treatment, we must place equity at the center of the therapeutic continuum; and

WHEREAS, The therapeutic continuum refers to the process through which a prescription drug makes its way to a patient; this process is made up of five steps, including drug development, drug trials and testing, drug prescription, drug receipt, and drug adherence, and each step offers a chance to advance equity; and

WHEREAS, Improving access to care is important in creating policy to eliminate treatment disparities; this can be addressed by decreasing the dearth of pharmacies in communities of color, now referred to as pharmacy deserts, and by advocating for improved health and language literacy, such as engaging patient pharmacy navigators who can aid with dosing instructions, managing multiple prescriptions, and more; and

WHEREAS, Although implicit bias training now fills medical curricula across the country, systemic solutions are also needed to address bias in care; conducting data audits of provider prescribing practices through health equity dashboards and creating electronic, medical record-based innovations that make the right choice the easy choice for physicians to prescribe therapies are two system-level strategies to reduce the harm of health care bias; and

WHEREAS, Additionally, the cost of care needs to be studied and addressed as prescription drug costs can be as much as three times higher in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that to eliminate alarming racial disparities in healthcare, we must strive to create policies that have a broad approach and encompass access, bias, and cost in order to move healthcare closer to achieving pharmacoequity to pave the way for better health outcomes.