LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Pharmacy announced Monday that professor Geoffrey M. Curran, Ph.D. is a principal investigator on a National Institutes of Health-funded project aimed at addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in rural areas.

According to the news release the project, “Addressing COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Rural Community Pharmacies Reducing Disparities Through an Implementation Science Approach,” received $1.8 million in funding from the NIH.

The amount will be over three years.

His work on research design and method has majorly influenced the field.

The project will study sustainable ways to support rural pharmacists as they implement COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy counseling practices to mitigate the negative impact of the virus in underserved rural populations.

The research shows that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is higher in rural populations and has some of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation.

A major goal of the project is to test how well virtual implementation helps pharmacists deliver vaccine counseling, and to what degree that enables more patients to receive the vaccine.

The team will perform a cost assessment and determine how sustainable these methods can be.

Read the full article from KATV here.