Research Projects Page

Pharmacists play a vital role in specialty care, but intervention practices aren't standardized. This national survey of 24 health-system specialty pharmacies revealed wide variation in defining and documenting interventions, though most were pharmacist-led and recorded in EHRs. Standardizing these practices can improve care quality, highlight pharmacist impact, and strengthen patient outcomes.

By utilizing an automated, electronic alert in the EHR, pharmacists were notified of 65 patients that had a clinically meaningful SIBDQ score drop and were able to intervene and complete 81 pharmacist actions. Patients on a standard dose of specialty medication or who did not have a recent/in process specialty medication change were more likely to receive more than 1 pharmacist action.

Alternative funding programs (AFPs) remove costly drugs from insurance coverage, forcing patients to seek alternative sources. This multisite study showed AFPs delay specialty medication access, reduce likelihood of therapy initiation, and increase treatment gaps and adverse outcomes compared to traditional pharmacy benefits. Non-AFP patients accessed therapy 3.8x more often and 3.4x faster (8 vs. 32 days). AFP patients were 47x more likely to have a treatment gap.

This study describes the frequency of insurance changes and prior authorization burden during the first 6 months of 2024 in patients treated with specialty medications for IBD. 13.8% of patients experienced insurance change with most changes occurring in January (55%). Patients with insurance changes had 5.5 times greater odds of requiring more PAs than those without changes (p0.0001). Insurance changes impacted more than one in eight patients with IBD established on specialty therapy.

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of expanding belzutifan access to VSP on time to first fill from treatment decision, number of gaps in therapy after initiation, and adherence. Patients who filled once VSP gained access to dispense belzutifan, initiated treatment more quickly, had fewer treatment gaps, and improved adherence compared to those who began treatment before VSP gained access to belzutifan. These findings support prior studies showing HSSPs outperform non-HSSPs

This study assessed the impact of pharmacist-led tailored monitoring for patients initiating encorafenib and binimetinib combination therapy. Most patients reported at least 1 AE within 14 days of initiating therapy (pre 78%, post 95%). All post-cohort patients received at least 1 pharmacist intervention. Findings support HOPA recommendations for patient follow-up within 14 days of starting a new oral anticancer therapy.

This dual site retrospective study evaluated deutetrabenazine for the treatment of HD chorea at doses above current FDA approval. Deutetrabenazine >48 mg daily appears safe and well tolerated in patients with uncontrolled HD chorea, though no significant change in total maximal chorea score was found. Psychiatric changes were less commonly reported at doses >48 mg/day, but extrapyramidal symptoms were more common. The median PDC was 0.99 and only 2 patients discontinued due to AEs.