Graduate student Daniyal Khan hopes his research will lead to more people with diabetes getting a pneumococcal vaccine

Daniyal Khan. Image supplied.

Daniyal Khan is a master of science student in the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Alberta. His research involves a review of pharmacists’ actions and opinions in regard to administering medications by injection at community pharmacies. He hopes the results of his research will help increase uptake of pneumococcal vaccines by people with diabetes.

We caught up with Daniyal during Diabetes Awareness Month to find out more about his research.

What is your research project?
We started my research project by noticing that people with diabetes have a lower uptake of pneumococcal vaccines in Alberta (Gilani, 2020). To understand this low uptake, we wanted to understand how pharmacists are able to provide pneumococcal vaccines to their patients and what barriers and facilitators they encounter. We employed an online survey of pharmacists to understand their experiences in providing injection services at community pharmacies and are currently performing a systematic review of interventions that target pharmacy-based vaccination services.

What impact will your research make in treating diabetes?
We hope that understanding the barriers that pharmacists face in providing vaccination services and reviewing the type of intervention programs that impact vaccination services will lead to a greater uptake of pneumococcal vaccines by people with diabetes and reduce the burden of disease in this population.

What inspired you to choose diabetes as a research stream?
I always wanted to understand how we can improve health outcomes for people with chronic conditions using currently available resources and provide linkage to care for these individuals.

Where do you hope to see diabetes research in the next 10 years?
I would like to see our research propose and implement pharmacy-based intervention programs to increase pneumococcal vaccine uptake amongst Albertans, particularly amongst those with chronic diseases such as diabetes.