Research Projects Page

This study evaluated the specialty pharmacist's role in medication access, treatment monitoring, and reducing maribavir waste. Pharmacists facilitated maribavir access by obtaining timely insurance prior authorizations (median = 1 day) and intervened to reduce 28 fills across 94 dispenses to avoid waste. Maribavir quantity was reduced in 10 dispenses during the final treatment course, based on CMV levels and time until next lab appointment, which resulted in $119,517 - $149,396 in avoided costs.

This multisite national effort aims to identify measures deemed important and usable by various stakeholders that can be standardized and implemented in specialty pharmacy practice to ensure the safe, appropriate, and effective use of specialty medications in patients with RA. This poster describes the study methodology and response rate.

This study compared the number, type, and time spent on interventions for patients filling non-MS neurology specialty medications at IHSSPs versus non-IHSSP pharmacies. IHSSP patients experienced greater variety and frequency of clinical interventions, including a third of interventions related to therapy changes which could impact patient outcomes. Financial assistance recommendations were more necessary for non-IHSSP patients.

This prospective randomized study evaluated the implementation and effectiveness of using an electronic early treatment assessment and monitoring questionnaire for oral anticancer medication. The questionnaire was well received by pharmacists and patients. Patients who responded to the questionnaire were significantly more likely to have a pharmacist intervention related to adverse effects, demonstrating the effectiveness of using this technology tool for early monitoring.

This commentary provides practical recommendations for managing VMAT2 inhibitors. With limited clinical trial and real world data on this topic, the case examples and firsthand experience described are useful to clinicians and pharmacists who manage VMAT2 inhibitors.

This survey study presents results from a national survey evaluating barrier, needed support and program goals for implementing long-acting injectable ART. This work was performed under the larger Accelerating Implementation of Multilevel Strategies to Advance Long-Acting Injectable for Underserved Populations (ALAI UP Project).

It is unexpected that patients with stable lymphocytes on one fumarate would experience significant changes when switching to another fumarate; however, this was being observed in clinical practice. We wanted to identify the frequency and severity of lymphopenia after switching from dimethyl fumarate to either diroximel fumarate (DRF) or monomethyl fumarate (MMF). Our study determined that patients switching to DRF were more likely to have decreased lymphocyte counts post switch compared to MMF.

This qualitative study used focus groups of pharmacy leadership and clinical pharmacists and semi-structured interviews with physician champions to evaluate the development and implementation of CPPAs in an IHSSP. Results demonstrated that implementation of a CPPA in a specialty clinic was thought to improve the quality and efficiency of patient care and was favorably accepted by clinic staff. The IHSSP structure allows CPPAs to be easily integrated in workflow.

We compared turnaround time, secondary adherence, and persistence between patients filling their specialty medication with Vanderbilt Specialty Pharmacy to those using external specialty pharmacies. Patients who filled with the HSSP had higher adherence. Patients with inflammatory conditions who filled with the HSSP had shorter turnaround time and higher persistence compared to patients with inflammatory conditions who filled at non-HSSP. Patients with MS who filled with the HSSP had higher PDC.

This study assessed patients' satisfaction and barriers to their current UC or IBD treatment, their perceived quality of life, and pill burden associated with their current treatment. Patients are open to deprescribing their 5-ASA but would have several questions for their prescribing physician including assurance of continued symptom management or ease of returning to the 5-ASA if needed.