December 2023

Health system specialty pharmacy (HSSP) expert, Amanda Hickman, PharmD, MPH, MSCS, tells Pharmacy Times how HSSP teams can improve population health management for patients living with migraines.

"It's an open world for what pharmacy can do, and it's so exciting when we find philosophies and theories about how we can care for patients in new ways."

That's what Dr. Amanda Hickman recently had to say to Pharmacy Times about her team's poster, "Clinical Assessment to Lower Migraines (CALM): Implementing Population Health Management for Migraine Patients in a Health System Specialty Pharmacy (HSSP) Setting."

"It's an open world for what pharmacy can do, and it's so exciting when we find philosophies and theories about how we can care for patients in new ways."

Presented at this year's ASHP Midyear meeting, the research helps to establish a protocol to guide HSSP teams' care for patients living with migraines. It's intended to fill a practice gap Dr. Hickman and her team noticed having worked with patients living with similar neurological conditions.

"At CPS, our HSSP teams manage a variety of neurological conditions like multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's Disease, and epilepsy," she told Pharmacy Times. Through clinical outcomes research, we've found our efforts and high-touch care models can make a significant impact on clinical outcomes for these patients.

"We've applied an HSSP-led population health management philosophy and protocols in disease states like diabetes, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It's worked well," Dr. Hickman said.

HSSP-led risk stratification through care management technology and high-touch engagement strategies meant staff could spend time focusing on the patients needing it the most. Dr. Hickman's team hypothesized individuals living with migraines and severe headaches could also benefit from the approach.

"We really didn't see many people applying population health management protocols to manage migraine patients and determine which services they got," she told Pharmacy Times. And so the idea for the study was born.

What were the outcomes, and how does that change our care for patients living with migraines? Well, you'll have to see for yourself.

Check out Dr. Hickman's full interview with Pharmacy Times here.

You can also view the study here.

Special thanks to all of the authors and contributors for the poster: Sydney Kisala; Amanda Hickman, PharmD, MPH, MSCS; and Ana Lopez Medina, PharmD.

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