What Barriers Inhibit Oral Anticancer Medication Use?

Medication access barriers and nonadherence significantly impact medication underuse in the United States. This issue is estimated to cost the country’s healthcare system between $100 to $290 billion annually, as patients who underuse medication are more likely to have complications, which can result in costly healthcare utilization.

Recently, The Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) and National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC) announced 2 research grants funding studies of patients’ real-world medication access barriers. Leveraging the framework devised by the PQA and NPC released in March 2019, researchers at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and University of Rhode Island will investigate this problem and release their findings in 2021.

Oral anticancer therapies have become popular alternatives to more traditional care, such as chemotherapy. However, research shows that adherence to oral anti-cancer therapies can range from 20% to 100%. Several factors contribute to medication non-adherence and access barriers. To learn more, we spoke with Ami Vyas, PhD, an assistant professor of pharmacy practice, specializing in health outcomes research, at The University of Rhode Island.

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