Integrating pharmacists into Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (IPAC project): Protocol for an interventional, non-randomised study to improve chronic disease outcomes

The IPAC project will determine if including a non-dispensing registered pharmacist as part of the primary health care (PHC) team within ACCHSs (the intervention) leads to improvements in the quality of the care received by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with chronic diseases. The IPAC project is a pragmatic, non-randomized, prospective, pre and post quasi-experimental study (Trial Registration Number andRegister: ACTRN12618002002268). The intervention is the integration of a registered pharmacist within the ACCHS primary healthcare teamfor a 15-month period. Up to 22 ACCHS sites will be recruited for the project across three jurisdictions: Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory to ensure a sampling frame that best informs external validity of the outcomes across varied services and patient populations.