Patients are recommend to receive all necessary vaccines prior to starting immunosuppressive specialty DMARD therapy. This quality improvement project developed a vaccine screening protocol for patients initiating new specialty medications at an outpatient rheumatology clinic. This protocol was effective in delivering patient-specific vaccine recommendations and was rated as efficient by specialty pharmacists.

This evaluation assessed the impact of a pharmacist-managed lithium consult service. Implementation of this service resulted in an increase in obtaining a serum lithium level within 24 hours of hospitalization as well as time savings to providers.

The purpose of this initiative was to develop a tool to assess quality in the use of TKIs to manage NSCLC and ultimately track variables such as proper medication use, patient safety and healthcare resource utilization.

This study evaluated how specialty pharmacists manage prescription cannabidiol. Pharmacists play an integral role in medication access, resulting in a high approval rate and all patients being able to access therapy. Due to multiple drug interactions with prescription cannabidiol, pharmacists commonly changed the dose of interacting medications. Patient counseling and support for AE management was also a pharmacists key role found in this study.

This study evaluated medication access rates in patients prescribed a PCSK9 inhibitor at a healthcare system with integrated specialty pharmacy services. Overall, 96% of prescriptions resulted in access to a PCSK9 inhibitor, with a median time to approval of 8 days. This high level of access supports this model as a best practice for prescribing PCSK9 inhibitor therapy.

This article discusses development of a quality measures tool to track outcomes for self-injectable biologic therapy used in the management of inflammatory bowel disease. Through a collaborative initiative, a set of clinical and specialty pharmacy quality measures was developed to assess outcomes such as patient safety, disease status, treatment efficacy, and healthcare resource utilization.

This study evaluated access and affordability of HIV PrEP in patients seen at a multidisciplinary PrEP clinic. In this cohort of mostly commercially insured men, the majority were able to access PrEP with low out-of-pocket costs facilitated by manufacturer assistance. Although generalizability beyond this population is limited, these results contradict perceived financial barriers to PrEP access.

In the Southern US, HIV prevalence is disproportionately high and PrEP use is disproportionately low. This cross-sectional survey study assessed Tennessee primary care providers’ current PrEP knowledge, attitudes, and prescribing practices with the aim to determine barriers to PrEP provision specific to TN providers.

While historical treatments combining interferon and ribavirin were less efficacious in HIV/HCV coinfection, modern direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapies have shown similar clinical efficacy in HIV/HCV coinfection as in HCV monoinfection. In light of these findings, HIV/HCVcoinfected patients may benefit even more from new HCV treatment approaches. This article reviews the many therapeutic options for HIV/HCV coinfected patients with emphasis on avoiding drug-drug interactions.

This study describes a real world cohort of HIV/HCV co-infected patients in an outpatient infectious diseases clinic with a focus on the frequency and impact of HIV antiretroviral adjustments required prior to HCV direct acting antiviral initiation.