Early electronic health record (EHR) collaboration, scalable clinical infrastructure, and payer strategy planning are essential for pharmacists as cell and gene therapies expand across disease states.
In an interview with Pharmacy Times, Anthony Boyd, PharmD, BCPS, senior director of pharmacy, oncology, and infusion services from Cleveland Clinic, discussed the growing operational and clinical complexities associated with implementing advanced therapies, particularly cell and gene therapies, and the critical role pharmacists play in ensuring safe, scalable adoption across health systems.
Boyd emphasized that early and proactive engagement with electronic health record (EHR) teams is essential as novel therapies enter the market. Given the intricacies of multi-component products, variable dosing across pediatric and adult populations, and regimens spanning multiple days of therapy, pharmacists must help guide thoughtful EHR builds that support safe ordering, charging, and administration. He noted that partnering early with manufacturers and leveraging EHR build guides can mitigate errors and streamline implementation, while collaboration with peer institutions allows organizations to learn from shared experiences and best practices.
Beyond informatics, Boyd highlighted the importance of preparing health systems for the expanding reach of advanced therapies beyond traditional hematology-oncology settings. As these treatments move into new disease states, pharmacists must help establish the necessary clinical infrastructure, clarify care ownership, and develop referral pathways that ensure patients receive therapy in appropriate settings. For multisite organizations, this includes identifying how specialized expertise can be scaled across locations to meet growing demand.
Boyd also underscored the mounting administrative burden associated with payer engagement for high-cost therapies. He encouraged pharmacy leaders to begin strategic discussions now to improve efficiency in payer negotiations and authorization workflows, noting that current processes are time- and resource-intensive. Overall, Boyd stressed that sustained collaboration across pharmacy teams, health systems, manufacturers, and payers will be critical as the therapeutic landscape continues to evolve and pharmacists take on an increasingly central role in navigating this new frontier of care.
Previous coverage from Boyd can be found
