November 2023

Dr. Duong tells us how clinical pharmacist involvement, advanced care management technology, and a standardized clinical intervention approach can help you achieve a 93%+ medication adherence rate (and so much more).

Earlier this year, our chief clinical officer,  Lily Duong, Pharm.D., represented Team CPS at the 2023
Bleeding Disorders Conference held by the National Bleeding Disorders Foundation, formerly NHF. 
There, she presented some exciting findings from our clinical outcomes research for patients living with hemophilia and bleeding disorders: Impact of a Clinical Pharmacist Led Care Program on Patients with Hemophilia A, Utilizing TherigySTM ^SM. The poster was also presented at NASP's 2023 Annual Meeting & Expo.

In short: The study found patient care management programs (PCMP) with active clinical pharmacist participation and advanced care management technology reduce drug costs and improve outcomes.  

We just had to sit down with Dr. Duong to learn more. Here's an excerpt of our discussion and a summary of the team's impressive findings.

CPS: What were you hoping to learn from this research?

DR. DUONG: We wanted to evaluate the impact of a hemophilia A PCMP on clinical outcomes, patient-reported outcomes, medication adherence, and pharmacist interventions. Specifically, we looked at patients prescribed emicizumab-kxwh utilizing TherigySTM, a clinical care management and reporting technology platform.

Traditionally, clinical pharmacists have the knowledge and skills to standardize patient care and optimize outcomes within hemophilia treatment centers. We hypothesized that assigning a dedicated clinical care management role to clinical pharmacist within a hemophilia care team would improve outcomes and drug-related costs. We were delighted to see our findings supported this approach.

Our study helps to verify that Patient Care Management Programs equipped with clinical pharmacists could benefit patients living with hemophilia A. 

The findings of the study show the value that clinical and specialty pharmacy teams bring to care teams, patients, and communities.

CPS: What did the study reveal?

DR. DUONG: The findings of this study (and many other clinical outcomes studies from our team) continue to show the significant value that clinical pharmacists bring to care teams, patients, and communities. Clinical and specialty pharmacy teams are often ideal to conduct clinical interventions to manage patients to targeted outcomes. In fact, we found integrating clinical pharmacists into hemophilia treatment teams helps to:

• Maximize medication adherence
• Minimize patient absenteeism
• Prevent unnecessary hospitalizations, acute care, or readmissions
  
  

The study's findings also reveal how important it is for hospitals and health systems to utilize advanced technology, such as TherigySTM, for managing these patients' treatment journeys. 

The platform made it easy for us to facilitate the structured data collection and outcome reporting we needed to monitor and manage care for patients living with hemophilia/bleeding disorders. We're also well-equipped to continue observing outcome trends for these populations, which will help us all improve our practice.

It is important for hospitals and pharmacy teams to utilize advanced care management technology like TherigySTM. 

CPS: How can people use the findings to improve hemophilia care? 

DR. DUONG: I strongly recommend hospitals and health systems evaluate their care management for patients living with hemophilia/bleeding disorders. They should ask themselves these kinds of questions:

1. How are we systematically identifying hemophilia/bleeding disorder patients who are not at goal for a particular outcome? 
2. Do we have the right approaches and triggers to appropriately intervene at the ideal time?
3. Are we satisfied with the clinical outcomes we're observing for our patients living with hemophilia or bleeding disorders?

Although each patient and their circumstances are unique, the findings from our study show hospitals and health systems would benefit from having a care management program with scalable processes to help care teams follow key steps consistently. Continuous monitoring of clinical outcomes, patient-reported outcomes, and medication adherence, is also important.

Clinical pharmacy teams improve care for patients living with hemophilia and bleeding disorders.

CPS: What do you feel are the takeaways for clinical pharmacists?

DR. DUONG: Clinical pharmacy teams and technology have a proven impact on care for patients living with hemophilia and bleeding disorders. Moving forward, we see many opportunities to continue to expand upon this conclusion by studying things like:

• Reasons and root causes of declined interventions
• Proactive patient monitoring
• The ideal timing for patient interactions, especially for individuals with active bleeding events
• Patient engagement options like text messaging

Our findings show that technology could help clinical pharmacists have more time to designate to patient care.

CPS: Why are you excited about the findings?

DR. DUONG: I'm always ecstatic when we find ways to make patients' and care teams' lives better.
I'm most excited about the fact that the patient care management program is performed at the pharmacy within the hemophilia treatment center. It's also exciting to utilize TherigySTM
to structure data and promote consistency in administering these programs that prompt clinical decisioning and intervention performance.

Indeed, our findings show that technology could help clinical pharmacists have more time to devote to patient care. The study also helps to prove the benefit of having clinical pharmacists be more actively involved in patient care management programs.

The 93% medication adherence rate we achieved in the study is impressive: It means intervention opportunities are being identified consistently. And then an 86% success rate afterwards in helping patients to overcome their clinical challenges, which is an incredibly measurable outcome the technology platform quantifies and reports. That shows us this is an approach that works well to improve outcomes for patients living with hemophilia and bleeding disorders. That's certainly something everyone should celebrate!