Dr Jeremy Whalen Outlines the Development and Application of Medical Strategies for Efficient Care

Referencing patients as attributable examples of necessary care has assisted in developing strategies for pharmacy and medication benefits, said Jeremey Whalen, PharmD, BCOP, Specialty Clinical Program Director for Oncology at Prime Therapeutics.

Transcript

How has your experience as a pharmacist influenced your perspective toward developing strategies for pharmacy and medication benefits?

Practicing for almost a decade as an oncology pharmacist, when I moved over into managed care, I brought a couple of things with me. The first thing is keeping the patient first. So, having all of those stories and experiences that the patients went through, whether they were success stories or really obstacles through their care, I brought those with me so then when we develop new strategies for programs, keeping that in center and how do we help alleviate some of those burdens or really enhance the care. Then also, having the understanding of how an oncology practice really functions—what are their strengths, what are some of their gaps in care—so, then we can start to develop programs that help augment that and really elevate and provide more benefit to the patients receiving care.

Medication synchronization is key to efficient care. How have emerging programs or strategies promoted advancements in patient care and medication adherence?

One of the things I think is by understanding the complexities of an oncology patient and the care they receive. They require medication, whether that’s medical benefit or IV or oral medications—to kind of complete the regimen. So, understanding that, and then learning how we can do integration of benefits whether that’s through the UN process or really the delivery of care has really helped increase access to care and adherence to care because patients can get medication either directly through the clinic, through a retail pharmacy, through a mail-order pharmacy, or through a medically integrated pharmacy. So, helping coordinate that benefit and putting that all together really has provided a better benefit to the patients.