Community Practice Innovation Center

About the Center

CPIC brings together faculty, students, researchers and practitioners to lead change within community practice through innovative community engagement and partnerships, research and education and training with a focus on access to care, population health and health outcomes.

Mission

To lead innovation in community practice through education, transformation and entrepreneurship.

Vision

To become an internationally recognized Center that advances pharmacy practice and specializes in developing innovative and sustainable community-based programs.

What We Do

  • Develop and offer training programs.
  • Drive innovation and transformation by inspiring health care practitioners and students through our courses, research, presentations and service to the community and the profession.
  • Identify, Engage and Partner with organizations within our community, the nation and across the globe to help foster learning and dissemination of our work.
  • Apply our broad practice and research expertise to help our local, national and global communities enhance their patient care services and approach to care.
  • Enhance access to care and health outcomes of patients through various projects with the help of our partners.

Featured CPIC News

Pappas and Schweitzer
Community Practice Innovation Center team grows to complete grant-funded work
The Community Practice Innovation Center recently added two new team members to assist with research grant-related projects.

Sarah Schweitzer and Keri Pappas, both recent graduates of South Dakota State University’s Master of Public Health program, joined the Community Practice Innovation Center team in November. Schweitzer joined the team as a community care coordinator, focusing on the center’s diabetes, heart disease and stroke program, while Pappas joined as a community clinic specialist on work completed through the BIRTH-SD-AIM project.
Schweitzer with poser START-SD
SDSU grads present substance use disorder research at APHA annual meeting
Two graduates of the Master of Public Health program at South Dakota State University recently presented research posters at the American Public Health Association 2023 Annual Meeting and Expo. The event took place in Atlanta, Georgia, Nov. 12-15.

Sarah Schweitzer and Cedric Cogdill, 2023 graduates of the program, presented on research related to stigma surrounding substance use disorder, utilizing survey data.
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SDSU begins first BIRTH-SD program to improve perinatal health in South Dakota
South Dakota State University will begin a four-year program to improve perinatal health outcomes through the implementation of Alliance for Innovation and Maternal Health patient safety bundles at hospitals and birthing centers across South Dakota.

Stephanie Hanson, principal investigator and a population health instructor at SDSU, and her team were awarded an $800,000 grant from the Health Services and Research Administration to complete the work.
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START-SD program begins new work to reduce overdose rates
South Dakota State University’s program to address substance use disorder in South Dakota has received additional funding to combat substance use overdose.

A new award of $300,000 from the Health Resources and Services Administration will result in a one-year program titled START-SD: Overdose Response (START-SD-OR), which will increase access to naloxone and fentanyl test strips, provide education and training on naloxone use and distribution, develop an anti-stigma campaign and expand access to peer recovery coaches.

START-SD—short for Stigma, Treatment, Avoidance and Recovery in Time for South Dakota—is a HRSA grant-funded program that has been working to address substance use disorder in South Dakota since 2019.

Previously, START-SD work has focused on prevention, treatment and recovery services for opioid use disorder and psychostimulant use disorder. Through this new funding, the START-SD work will expand to specifically address substance overdose in South Dakota.
Amanda Reed, a licensed clinical psychologist in Sioux Falls, speaks on traumatic stress and emergency services at a first responder summit held Aug. 25 in Chamberlain.
START-SD program hosts first responder summit on addiction, mental health
The START-SD team from South Dakota State University hosted a first responder summit Aug. 25 in Chamberlain.

The free event, “First Responder Summit: Addiction and Mental Health in South Dakota,” was an opportunity for health care professionals and first responders to learn more about mental health as it relates to addiction and substance use disorder and the important role that first responders play.

Thirty-two individuals attended and participated in events including a keynote speaker, a panel discussion, an interactive lunch session, a patient testimonial and a session on peer recovery.

The event was hosted by SDSU’s START-SD program. START-SD—which stands for Stigma, Treatment, Avoidance and Recovery in time for South Dakota—is a federal grant-funded program that has been working to combat substance use disorder in South Dakota since 2019.
Professor Sharrel Pinto showing a client how to use an inhaler
The Community Practice Innovation Center’s history and future characterized by growth and meeting the needs of South Dakotans
The Community Practice Innovation Center (CPIC) is a resource and collaboration center that has seen remarkable growth over the last five years. The center, which is housed in the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions at South Dakota State University, brings together faculty, staff, students, researchers, practitioners, and collaborators from across the state to “lead change within community practice.”

Today, CPIC has brought in around 8.5 million dollars to the state, is made up of more than fifteen faculty and staff, and is actively engaged in four major grant-funded projects that address topics including increasing awareness and resources for care of patients with diabetes and CVD, work to increase access to and effectiveness of care for patients with substance use disorders, and work to strengthen and grow the respiratory therapy and public health workforce in South Dakota.

Where CPIC began, however, is far from where it is today.
Pharmacy customer service
Community Practice Innovation Center team publishes manuscript on awareness of pharmacy services in South Dakota, gets featured in Pharmacy Times
A team from the Community Practice Innovation Center (CPIC) at SDSU has recently published a manuscript detailing the results of a campaign to raise awareness of pharmacist and pharmacy-related services for patients with diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Soon after being published, the manuscript was featured in a story in the online publication Pharmacy Times.

The manuscript, titled “Impact of a Public Health Awareness Campaign on Patients’ Perceptions of Expanded Pharmacy Services in South Dakota Using the Theory of Planned Behavior,” is a result of work completed through a five-year CDC-grant funded project. Through The 1815 Project, the CPIC team is conducting work in response to a CDC call-to-action to address health disparities among Americans with diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. The project is currently in its fifth and final year, and the CPIC team has already begun planning for the next cycle of the project.
Jennifer Ball
Ball, Miller honored for home-study publication
Jennifer Ball and Erin Miller were recognized by the American College of Clinical Pharmacy for their work toward the publication of a home-study series for ambulatory care pharmacists.

Ball, an associate professor in pharmacy practice, and Miller, an assistant professor in allied and population health, were selected to write a book chapter of the association’s Ambulatory Care Self-Assessment Program on "Opioid Overdose Prevention" for its neurology book. It is an area Ball and Miller both focus on through their work with the START-SD project, which focuses on opioid use disorder and psychostimulant use disorder.
PharmD
SDSU to lead $1.545 million project in partnership with area hospitals to strengthen public health, respiratory therapy workforce
South Dakota State University is partnering with hospitals in Brookings, Huron and Madison to expand the public health and respiratory therapy workforce.

The Community Practice Innovation Center within the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions at SDSU has received a three-year, $1.545 million federal grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration.

The project aims to increase workforce awareness and provide educational opportunities through recruitment, training and job placement for respiratory therapists in rural South Dakota communities. Dr. Sharrel Pinto, department head of Allied and Population Health at SDSU, is director of BREATHE-SD — “Bringing Resources, Education, Awareness, Training, Holistic care, and Empowerment to South Dakota.”
Dr. Erin Miller on the phone
SDSU to lead $1M fight against opioid misuse
South Dakota State University has been awarded a $1 million federal grant to implement a three-year project as part of the Rural Communities Opioid Program. Funding comes from the Health Resources and Services Administration, which is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The project is co-directed by Aaron Hunt and Erin Miller, both with the SDSU College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions.

Our Projects

START-SD banner logo

Working to increase access to and effectiveness of prevention,
treatment, and recovery services for substance use disorders in South Dakota.

START-SD is a federal program funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) through four Rural Communities Opioid Response Program (RCORP) grants to complete work to increase access to and effectiveness of prevention, treatment, and recovery services for substance use disorders in South Dakota. Following the initial planning grant, START-SD has grown to become a three-pronged project: with focuses on support for opioid use disorder, support for psychostimulant use disorder and overdose response.

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BREATHE-SD

Expanding public health capacity by supporting respiratory care recruitment, training, placement, and job development in rural communities in South Dakota.

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The innovative BREATHE-SD program works to meet that need. BREATHE-SD (Bringing Resources, Education, Awareness, Training, Holistic care, and Empowerment to South Dakota) will leverage respiratory therapists, public health professionals, and other allied healthcare professionals to meet rural public health workforce needs and expand South Dakota’s public health capacity by supporting recruitment, job placement, training, and worker development in rural communities.
BREATHE-SD
BIRTH-SD logo

Bridging Information and Resources to Transform Health for South Dakota parents (BIRTH-SD) seeks to improve perinatal health outcomes for South Dakota's parents.

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The BIRTH-SD-AIM program seeks to improve the state of perinatal health in South Dakota by conducting research and implementing Alliance for Innovation in Maternal Health patient safety bundles at hospitals and birthing centers across South Dakota.
BIRTH-SD-AIM
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Mobile Clinic Program

The South Dakota Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program is the South Dakota Department of Health’s newest program focused on preventing cardiovascular disease and stroke in South Dakota. CPIC is partnering with the SD-DOH on this program by developing and implementing a mobile clinic that will improve access to care resources for cardiovascular disease and diabetes in South Dakota’s rural communities. The Mobile Clinic Program will launch in Summer 2024.

Learn more about the South Dakota Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Program and 
SDSU's Mobile Clinic Program

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CPIC Partners and Publications

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Interim Center Director

Erin Miller

Interim Center Director, Community Practice Innovation Center (CPIC), Assistant Professor, Department of Allied and Population Health
Erin E. Miller
Department of Allied and Population Health
Community Practice Innovation Center
College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions
SDSU - Sioux Falls