On 11th of April 2021, Ms. Amal Yousif Abdalla, GMU Master in Clinical Pharmacy Graduate participated and won second place in the 4th Annual Student Research Competition hosted by the American University in the Emirates (AUESRC). Ms. Amal presented part of her master’s thesis; Budget Impact of Community Pharmacist-Administered Influenza Vaccine in the UAE. From over 150 research submissions 32 research projects from different regional Universities were selected to the final round of online oral presentations.
This is the first study of its kind in the UAE to analyze the budget impact of pharmacist-administered influenza vaccination in the UAE. One of the main highlights of this study is that if we introduce pharmacist-administered flu vaccines service in the country can shift influenza-related costs down to 20% in 3 years with increased vaccination with lower costs in administration. Based on the conducted analysis, pharmacists-administered flu vaccination is more affordable compared to the current practice of doctors-administered or nurses-administered flu vaccine in the country.
Supervisors of the research include Dr. Dixon Thomas and Prof. Sherief Khalifa from Gulf Medical University, and Dr. Kimberly McKeirnan from Washington State University, USA.
Dr. Dixon Thomas commented; Pharmacist-administered Flu vaccination is a milestone project carried out at Gulf Medical University by Ms. Amal and is now being expanded to COVID-19 vaccination. This will help drive the advocacy towards more affordable healthcare delivery by pharmacists in UAE.
Chancellor Prof. Hossam Hamdy appreciated the research team in performing a socially relevant research and winning an award in multi-disciplinary research competition.