How Specialty Pharmacists Support Health Care Team, Patients

Nick Calla, RPh, vice president of Industry Relations at Cardinal Health Specialty Solutions, discusses the key role of specialty pharmacy in supporting patients and the health care team.

Transcript

The specialty pharmacies support services, things like side effect management, compliance to therapy, reimbursement management, helping the patient afford their medication. Specialty pharmacy plays a key role there. You know, you think about it from a specific example like in the oncology community. With many of the targeted oncologic therapies that are now oral in nature, I look at the pharmacy as being made part of that care team now. The pharmacy is there for all of the pieces that we mentioned prior in order to support the doctor and to intervene if they need, if a side effect is happening. Patients are very reluctant to go to their doctor, they don’t want to bother them. They’re more open to speaking to the pharmacist. So when you’re doing that, again you can really intervene and help to ward off the negative effects.