Strategies for Improving Adherence to Oral Oncolytics

At the National Community Oncology Dispensing Association's (NCODA) 2018 Spring Summit, Julianne Orr, PharmD, from Indiana University Health Simon Cancer Center, discusses the pharmacist's role in managing adherence to oral treatment regimens for patients with cancer.

Transcript: "At IU Health, we speak to patients at initial education, so before they start the medication, and then we follow up with every cycle. So depending on the oral agent they're on, that may be 3 weeks or it may be 6 weeks, it depends on the patient. And our role in that is making sure we're assessing adherence, so answering any questions that they may have, reiterating how they should take the drug (with or without food), and then assessing obviously any medication changes, interactions, and adverse events. We do that on a cycle basis right now, so that is a pharmacist speaking to those patients."