Pharmacy Focuses on Prevention for the Community in Owasso, Oklahoma

Kathy M. Campbell, PharmD, and her husband, Royce Campbell, are the proud owners of Medicap Owasso Wellness Pharmacy & Compounding in Owasso, Oklahoma. Campbell earned bachelor’s degrees in zoology and pharmacy from the University of Oklahoma in 1992, before earning her PharmD from the University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy in 2005. Campbell began practicing in a grocery store pharmacy in Owasso in 1992, right after graduation. A year later, she transitioned to a managed care pharmacist position, where she worked for the next 7 years. The managed care pharmacy closed in 2000, but Campbell immediately found that the community wanted an independent pharmacy.

“Before this closure, I was contacted by no fewer than 3 people offering to help me open an independent pharmacy. We listened to the demand and opened a Medicap franchise in 6 months,” Campbell said. “My patients were waiting to join me at our new pharmacy, as we opened the store at an incredible 70 prescriptions per day.”

Around the same time, the Campbells had their first daughter, Emma, and 2 years later, they welcomed another daughter, Abby. At the same time, Campbell worked to complete her PharmD degree. Amid that busy time, Campbell maintained her focus on her community.

“My vision and purpose are to assist those around me in having great lives. Health is foundational to a great life. I use my skills and position as a community pharmacist to uniquely support others,” Campbell said. “Over my 32 years as a pharmacist, I have served 4 generations of patients and have known many of these patients longer than I knew my mother.”

Campbell has evolved the pharmacy to a wellness pharmacy, focusing on proactive health.

“We use our pharmacy as a vehicle to provide patients with solutions, so they have the health they [need] to live the life they want and proactively delay the onset and progression of disease,” she explains.

Using an appointment model, Campbell sets up clinical consultations with patients and focuses on assisting patients in not needing medications.

“We actively work to have patients not need medications by personalizing care and optimizing all the chemistries impacting health. Ultimately, my independent practice affords me the clinical autonomy to practice and promote health as I see fit,” Campbell said. “I work for the patient. This clinical autonomy and freedom have been very important to me and [have] allowed me to innovate into the wellness and prevention space.”

When asked about technology, Campbell recalls the days of attending school and working on a typewriter. Now, she utilizes technology in health coaching services, noting that her favorite and most impactful technology is the InBody 570 body composition analyzer, which allows her to assess the effects of therapies on muscle, water, and fat presence. This allows her to empower, educate, and guide patients, Campbell said.

Because many approach Campbell for help and expertise, she has also created a branding initiative, Dr. Kathy Health, incorporating a website, and Dr. Kathy Nourish, a food-focused brand promoting the role nutrients play in health and function. She offers food products, cooking demonstrations, and recipes as a part of this initiative. Dr. Kathy Health includes a private label and a professional supplement line, as well as consulting and speaking initiatives. Campbell has also recently published her first book, Obesity: The Modern Famine, which is a follow-up to her 2018 TEDx Talk of the same name.

Her marketing efforts focus on branding the pharmacist as a critical solution to consumer health needs. Campbell explains that many younger consumers do not view the pharmacist as part of a health solution but rather part of the problem.

“The heavy lift is in having the consumer see the pharmacist as a needed partner in their and their family’s health. We need to rebrand the pharmacist and the profession directly to consumers,” she said.

The Campbells and their staff are involved with Chamber of Commerce activities in Owasso. They also participate in community center activities such as sponsoring bingo and holding monthly health seminars. In her little spare time, Campbell is also in the process of writing clinical papers describing pharmacist-led lifestyle processes and outcomes. In addition, she is leading conversations for change within the profession and at the government level.

“I recently was appointed to [the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education] as a board member in an effort to share and influence the role of pharmacy in a proactive health model,” Campbell said. “This year will have me speak in Kenya and Dubai as I share pharmacist-led proactive health on a more global platform.”

Campbell also credits her family, including Royce, now her husband of 26 years, and her daughters Abby, now 20, and Emma, now 23, as well as Emma’s husband, Bradley. In addition to supporting her family, Campbell enjoys cooking, home improvement, golf, and fishing.