Navigating the Patient Journey in Specialty Pharmacy- From Evaluation Through Treatment | NASP

Podcast Participants: Mike Baldzicki (AscellaHealth), Randy Falkenrath (President, Onco360), Justin Manning, PharmD (Group Vice President, Business Development, Vivid Clear Rx) Summary: The specialty pharmacy patient journey is a process, and it starts at the point of care with patient and prescriber, and it goes all the way through the treatment of therapy. Specialty Pharmacy is defined as the service created to manage the handling and service requirements of specialty pharmaceuticals, including dispensing, distribution, reimbursement, case-management and other services specific to patients with rare and/or chronic diseases. There are a lot of extra steps in dispensing a specialty medication, so there's a lot of work to be done by pharmacists and care coordination teams before the specialty drug is given to the patient. Obviously, there’s a higher cost, and so it takes more personnel and systems, so there is more patient coordination needed prior to the pharmacy to dispense that specialty medication. The value of the specialty pharmacist in helping patients to access treatment, adhere to treatment, and really get the best possible outcome of treatment really cannot be overstressed as specialty pharmacist are often responsible for selecting the most appropriate therapy based on the patient's clinical and financial profile or reviewing that prescribed medication to ensure access for the patient. The Specialty Pharmacy Care Teams provide significant mentoring to patients to ensure not only safety but also effectiveness and being proactive and changing therapy so that patients are really getting the best possible benefit or changing to a different medication that may give them a better effect. The specialty pharmacists are an anchor during therapy that they can rely on to make sure that they are helping them deal with complex, challenging, and sometimes lifelong therapies as the specialty care teams play an important role in the patient care journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices