Summer 2024 at CPS: 5 Pharmacy Insights for Hospital Leaders

As Q3 arrives, here are the latest conversations, clinical research, and trends you need to know to help your pharmacy power growth and high-quality outcomes.

July 2024

Goodbye Q2, and hello summer. Has it been busy for you, too? 

We've spent several weeks on the road this quarter, attending and presenting at several healthcare and pharmacy events. With so much more ahead, let us catch you up on the latest happenings, events, and clinical outcomes research from Team CPS. Here's what you'll learn:

• 5+ clinical outcomes studies: Data-driven health system specialty pharmacies (HSSPs) improve patient care.
• Award-winning research: CPS study showing HSSPs' cost impact wins best poster at PQA's Annual Meeting. 
• Advancing health equity: HSSP teams address unmet health-related social needs (HRSNs).
• Elevating pharmacy's role: What hospital leaders need to do to drive growth.
• The future of pharmacy: What's ahead for Q3 2024.

5+ clinical outcomes presentations show specialty pharmacy impact

The summer kicked off in Atlanta, where the CPS team presented several posters about impactful clinical outcomes at the American Conference for the Treatment of HIV (ACTHIV) and ISPOR. Advit Shah, BSc., BSc., Pharmacy, RPh, SCS, presented “Quality of Life in HIV Care: Implementing PozQoL in Specialty Pharmacy Practice” at ACTHIV. It's notable because:

1. The study found HSSP teams are making a difference in caring for people living with HIV. They discovered an emerging quality of life scale—PozQoL—is effective in helping health system specialty pharmacy (HSSP) teams better evaluate the quality of life for patients living with HIV. 
2. The idea for the study was conceived at last year’s ACTHIV conference. After learning about PozQoL's benefits, the authors decided to pilot the tool in several CPS specialty pharmacies.
   

The study was also authored by Khang Tran, PharmD; Andrew Wash, PharmD, PhD; Abbas Dewji, PharmD; Lily Duong, PharmD; Ana Lopez-Medina, PharmD, PhD; Amanda K. Cooper, PharmD.

Advancing health outcomes research at ISPOR

CPS also presented clinical outcomes research at ISPOR, the professional society for health economics and outcomes research. “Enhancing Quality of Life by Transitioning from an Intravenous Infusion Treatment to a Self-Administered Medication in a HSSP” is a must-read as biosimilars hit the market.

The authors found that HSSP teams can effectively help patients transition from provider-administered to self-administered therapies. The findings will enable HSSPs to better support patient adoption of these novel and cost-effective therapies.

Jennifer Nickele, PharmD; Mitchel Riddell; Kathy Canup, PharmD; Amber Skrtic, PharmD, CSP, AAHIVP; Zel Skrtic, PharmD; Jessica Mourani, PharmD; Casey Fitzpatrick, PharmD; Carly Giavatto, PharmD (photographed); Ana Lopez Medina, PharmD, authored the study. 

How HSSPs Advance SDOH

“Identifying and Addressing Social Determinants of Health (SDOH): An HSSP Approach,” also presented at ISPOR, will help HSSP teams better address patients’ unmet HRSNs. The authors found that HSSP pharmacists are well-positioned to give patients the support and resources they need to adhere to therapy. Additionally, standardized SDOH approaches and screening tools are beneficial for HSSP teams as they help patients.

Several weeks later, Drs. Green, Fitzpatrick, and Darin expounded upon the research at PQA 2024 Annual Meeting. Their podium session, “A Health System Specialty Pharmacy Team’s Role in Addressing SDOH,” explored the specialty pharmacy’s important role in addressing patients’ unmet HRSNs.

“HRSNs are found within every category of SDOH. To address challenges, people must move away from linear thinking into systems-based thinking, which shows how SDOH metrics are interconnected.” - Shanece Green PharmD, RPh, MSPH, MBA

Shanece Green, PharmD, RPh, MSPH, MBA (photographed); Casey Fitzpatrick, PharmD, BCPS; Kristin Darin, PharmD, BCPS; Rabiah Dys, PharmD; Karen Lee, PharmD, RPh, BCPS; Carly Giavatto, PharmD; Ana Lopez Medina, PharmD, PhD; Jessica Mourani, PharmD, authored the study.

To learn more about the research, check out a feature story about the work in Pharmacy Times or download the poster: 

Finding Balance at CMSC

Courtney Zitterkopf, PharmD, presented “Finding Balance: A Pharmacist-Driven Fall Prevention Program for Patients with Multiple Sclerosis” during the Consortium of MS Centers (CMSC) Annual Meeting in May.

Falls are a common and complex risk for patients living with multiple sclerosis—nearly 70 percent of patients experience a fall every six months. Our researchers found that HSSP pharmacist-driven fall prevention programs help to decrease patient fall risk.

Amanda Hickman, PharmD, MPH, MSCS; Jessica Mourani, PharmD; Casey Fitzpatrick, PharmD, BCPS, also authored the study.

CPS Wins Gold at PQA

The CPS clinical outcomes team also picked up gold at PQA’s Annual Meeting. 

The clinical outcomes study, “Maximizing Cost Savings: The Impact of Specialty Pharmacist Interventions at a Community Oncology Center,” won the Gold Award for best poster at the event. The findings from the research, as reflected in the poster, demonstrate the value of HSSP teams. 

It's one of the first studies to link HSSPs to medication adherence, safety, and cost improvement outcomes, resulting in $700,503 in total savings for our client.

PQA presented the award to the authors whose poster had the best abstract, presentation, and results. The poster won first place this year out of nearly two dozen studies in healthcare quality improvement. It comes just a year after this poster won its first Best Poster award at the 2023 National Association of Specialty Pharmacy (NASP) Annual Meeting.

Congratulations to the authors: Casey Fitzpatrick, PharmD, BCPS; Carly Giavatto, PharmD; Ana Lopez Medina, PharmD; Jessica Mourani, PharmD; and the entire specialty pharmacy team!

What's next?

We began July in National Harbor, Maryland, to attend the 340B Coalition Summer Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. There, our experts helped covered entities strategize about their 340B Drug Pricing Program participation and performance.

We're eager to get on the road again and continue making this a memorable year. Here's where you can find us next: 

2024 IHES September Meeting XLIV

September 11 – 13, 2024

Join us in Dallas as we explore how healthcare executives are transforming the pharmacy into a revenue-generating and efficient center delivering excellent patient care.

Health Connect Partners' 2024 Fall Hospital Pharmacy Conference

September 30 – October 2, 2024

Visit our team at booth #4002 to learn how a data-driven pharmacy solutions can help your health system improve patient outcomes and results.