The Rural Health Program is currently being launched in Tennessee, and it has a couple of different components. The first component is focused on the community by looking at ways to promote pharmacy practice in rural areas. The second component is focused on pharmacy students; exposing them to rural healthcare and engaging them in the delivery of quality healthcare in a rural setting. We are having that conversation with Tyler Melton, Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Education & Rural Health, at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, College of Pharmacy.

“There are rural pharmacies anywhere you go in America and I think they’re underutilized.”

~Tyler Melton

Tyler Melton is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Translational Science at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), College of Pharmacy. He has nine years of pharmacy practice experience including inpatient and outpatient pharmacy in rural environments. Tyler joined UTHSC in September of 2020, after completing a postdoctoral research fellowship in Community Pharmacy Practice and Prescription Drug Abuse and earning his Master of Public Health from East Tennessee State University. His areas of research expertise include community pharmacy practice, rural health, health disparities, and prescription drug abuse.