Opportunities and responsibilities for pharmacists to improve their effectiveness in addressing medication adherence through culturally sensitive collaborations with community health workers.

Objectives: Despite progress in addressing health disparities among vulnerable populations, minority populations are at risk for chronic health conditions associated with multiple determinants of health, which affects their health status and access to care. We offer a potential solution, which creates an unconventional medical team between a pharmacist and a community health worker (CHW). We explore weaknesses and challenges in our medication use system in the context of adherence as a drug therapy problem, the role of culture in shaping medication use, and finally offer a unique paradigm for a collaborative interprofessional team consisting of CHWs and pharmacists.