Pharmacists Are Essential in Advancing Modern Approaches to Diabetes Care

With emerging technology and unprecedented new drug developments, diabetes care is evolving at a pace that would have been unimaginable just a decade ago, and pharmacists are increasingly at the center of this monumental transformation.

“The other game changer that I see happening, specifically within the pharmacy practice, is the continual expansion of the role of the pharmacist,” Susan Cornell, PharmD, CDCES, FAPhA, FADCES, clinical pharmacist and diabetes care and educational specialist at the Bolingbrook Christian Health and Will-Grundy Medical Clinics in Illinois, told Drug Topics®. “Whether you’re in community, primary care, hospital, [it] doesn't matter where you're practicing; your role as a pharmacist within the space of diabetes is going to be more than ever before.”

In this week’s episode of the Over the Counter podcast, host Brian Nowosielski sits down with Cornell and her colleague, Staci-Marie Norman, PharmD, CDCES, FAPhA, a recently retired pharmacist and diabetes specialist at Martin’s Pharmacy in Indiana, to unpack the full spectrum of what is changing in diabetes management right now. The 2 recently collaborated on a diabetes-focused presentation at the American Pharmacists Association’s 2026 annual meeting, and they bring that same depth of expertise to this wide-ranging conversation.

From the rapid shift toward continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and the challenges of getting patients coverage access, to the misdiagnosis crisis affecting millions of adults with type 1 diabetes, Norman and Cornell cover it all. They also look ahead, discussing the tantalizing possibility of a diabetes vaccine and why the pharmacist’s role in diabetes care is only going to grow in the future.

For any pharmacist looking to sharpen their diabetes knowledge and understand where the field is heading, this conversation is essential.

Stay tuned for weekly podcast episodes of Over the Counter powered by Drug Topics. Check out our most recent episode with Kevin Day, PharmD, who explored the Pharmacist Quality Rewards Program, a partnership between Humana Healthy Horizons in Ohio and CPESN Ohio that empowers independent pharmacists to close care gaps for Medicaid patients living with diabetes and hypertension.

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