Tessa Hastings, PhD

Tessa Hastings, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences at the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy. Dr. Hastings earned her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, Health Outcomes Research and Policy from Auburn University.

Dr. Hastings’ research is broadly dedicated to reducing preventable infectious diseases and improving health outcomes among underserved populations. Her research focuses on the development, implementation, and dissemination of evidence-based interventions to improve immunization coverage, specifically through pharmacy-based services in rural communities. She received an AHRQ grant (1R36HS026093-01A1) to fund her research on Immunization Information System (IIS) use in community pharmacies, which successfully improved IIS awareness, knowledge, attitudes, and enrollment in a randomized controlled trial. Her current research builds on this to identify, refine, and test multi-faceted implementation strategies to successfully integrate IIS and immunization specific implementation strategies in community settings. Improving IIS use is critical to improving immunization coverage and ensuring that immunizations are provided safely and efficiently, especially in medically underserved rural communities. Her work also examines evidence-based interventions to improve HPV vaccine uptake among rural adolescents; pneumococcal vaccination in high-risk immunocompromised adults; and point-of-care testing services in community pharmacies. Through the implementation of effective evidence-based strategies, she hopes to contribute to the reduction of disparities in the prevention of infectious diseases.