Background

• Health system specialty pharmacy (HSSP) embeds pharmacists directly into clinics to ensure patients with chronic and complex diseases receive personalized, high-touch care.
• Ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD) are subsets of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that, if left untreated, pose a significant risk of complications.
• Despite the availability of treatment options, non-adherence and medication discontinuation to IBD treatment remains a challenge that is associated with increased disease activity, hospitalizations, and healthcare costs.
• A national finding demonstrated 30% of patients with IBD stopped biologic therapy within 18 months, with loss of response being the most common reason.
• Embedded HSSPs have demonstrated advancement in patient adherence in other disease states, but little is known about their influence on medication persistence in patients diagnosed with IBD.

Objectives

To determine the discontinuation rates and reasons of specialty therapies used to treat IBD for patients managed within the HSSP.

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