Research Projects Page

Because of the growing focus on outcomes research within Vanderbilt Specialty Pharmacy (VSP) and the need for more student research opportunities, VSP developed a student research training program. This report describes the development and outcomes of that program.

Pharmacy technicians facilitate medication refills for patients following transplant by conducting phone calls and scheduling medication shipments. Standard prescribing of these medications required calls to be made every 30 days. However technician’s ability to service an increasing number of patients was limited by high call volume workload. In this study, we found that converting medication supply from 30 to 90-days reduced daily call volume and allowed the technician to service more patients

This study was the first in a multi-phase project to identify rates and reasons for non-adherence and implement programs within VSP to reduce non-adherence. Those clinics with the lowest rates of adherence were likely to have clinically appropriate reasons for disruptions in therapy that may lead to a less than optimal PDC rate based on current calculations.

This report describes VSP's development of an ASHP-accredited community based residency program in the health-system specialty pharmacy setting. ASHP accredited residency program in the health-system specialty pharmacy setting.

In this initiative, we evaluated outcomes following prescription of specialty dermatology medications in biologic-naïve patients. Of the 28 prescriptions evaluated, median time to approval was 9 days, with delays resulting from the need for a pharmacist to ascertain clinical data such as disease severity and treatment history.

This multi-site, cross-sectional, online survey study of specialty clinic healthcare providers at ten academic health-systems with integrated specialty pharmacies was performed with the Vizient Specialty Pharmacy Outcomes and Benchmarking Workgroup. These study results confirm that the health-system integrated specialty pharmacy practice model, implemented at institutions across the US, demonstrates high rates of provider satisfaction with services and perceived benefits.

This article highlights the challenges in standardizing adherence methodologies as well as the key elements to consider when interpreting adherence results. Specialty pharmacies should consider using adherence measures to identify and intervene on non-adherence patients. In addition, integrated specialty pharmacies should work to link adherence to clinical outcomes and healthcare cost savings.