PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Fick, Grace
AU  - Hensle, Tara
AU  - Manasse, Henri R.
AU  - Kulbokas, Victoria
AU  - Kim, Sodam
AU  - Osei, Johnson
AU  - Watterson, Taylor L.
TI  - Mapping Pharmacy Deserts in Chicago
AID  - 10.3368/hopp.67.2.240
DP  - 2026 Jul 01
TA  - History of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals
PG  - 240--274
VI  - 67
IP  - 2
4099  - http://hopp.uwpress.org/content/67/2/240.short
4100  - http://hopp.uwpress.org/content/67/2/240.full
AB  - Pharmacies are critical to public health. After World War II, the accessibility and affordability of pharmacy services in the United States were transformed by the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid, the emergence of pharmacy benefit managers, and the rise of third‐party formularies. These policies and market changes made it challenging for locally owned pharmacies to remain profitable and likely caused independent pharmacies to close en masse. However, across the US, systemic inequities have long shaped the uneven location and distribution of pharmacies. In Chicago, Illinois, these disparities were reinforced initially through Redlining, a discriminatory practice of grading neighborhoods based on racial composition. The systemic exclusion of Redlined neighborhoods from financial investment led to lower pharmacy density and persistent gaps in essential healthcare. Over time, these patterns of disinvestment, along with significant changes in healthcare financing, contributed to the emergence of “pharmacy deserts,” a term first introduced in 2014 to describe low‐income communities with limited access to pharmacy services. This study explores how access to community pharmacies in Chicago changed from 1950 to 2000. The findings and suggestions moving forward emphasize the importance of enacting policies to support the future of pharmacy and counteract historical inequities in healthcare access.