Pharmacists Guide Pneumonia Treatment, Safety, and Vaccination

When it comes to treating hospital- or community-acquired pneumonia, pharmacists are playing an increasingly important role in managing the disease as it becomes more prevalent and as vaccines to prevent it are further developed. Especially with their unique positioning for patients as well as their knowledge of vaccines, pharmacists have a myriad of opportunities for doing more in the pneumonia space.

In part 2 of our interview with Steve Leonard, PharmD, BCIDP, professor of pharmacy practice at Ohio Northern University, he focused on pharmacists’ roles in managing pneumonia types and their increasingly notable place in administering pneumococcal vaccines. Amid constant vaccine developments and continuous interactions with patients in the community, pharmacists may be the premier providers in making a difference toward population-wide pneumonia and pneumococcal vaccine rates.

“When you're giving a flu or a COVID vaccine, that's the perfect opportunity to ask somebody, ‘Hey, have you had a pneumonia vaccine?’—probably what they know of it as,” Leonard told Drug Topics. “The landscape for pneumonia vaccines is complicated and it's challenging. The recommendations for pneumonia vaccines are convoluted.”

As a pharmacist and certified infectious disease expert, Leonard has a myriad of insights into what he’s seen in pharmacy practice, the things he teaches in pharmacy school, and the common occurrences regarding pneumonia diseases in his community.

Find out why he believes, along with many other experts and stakeholders in the pharmacy industry, that pharmacists are ideal providers when it comes to handling patients’ pneumonia outcomes and pneumococcal vaccine concerns.

Leonard joined Drug Topics to celebrate World Pneumonia Day on November 12, 2025. For more from our interview with him, check out part 1 and explore more of our pneumococcal resource center for information on pharmacists’ roles in managing the disease as well as administering vaccines.

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