The Oncology Pharmacist Advocacy Tool Kit: Real-World Scripts, Hill Day Strategies, and Policy Insights

Pharmacy Times: In your Policy & Practice presentation at Tandem, you focused on the oncology pharmacist’s role in shaping cancer care through advocacy. What were some key messages you hoped attendees would take away from your session?

LeAnne Kennedy, PharmD, BCOP, CPP, FHOPA, FASTCT: I think the first…way I started the presentation and then wrapped it up as well, is that really advocacy is available for everyone. We can be advocates for our patients. We should be advocates for our profession and then…for issues that relate to our profession and our patients. But the No. 1 key thing behind all of this is that we need to be able to advocate for ourselves and help people understand what we do, so really helping to expand other people’s understanding of what a pharmacist [who] takes care of cancer patients is.

I was even thinking about this earlier today, that oftentimes they say I’m an oncology pharmacist, but even that to the layperson may not really mean anything. And so I really want to be sure that people understand I’m a pharmacist [who] takes care of cancer patients. I really tried to talk to the people who were attending my session to help [them] think about how [they] would create an elevator speech; just 30 seconds to a minute of how you would tell somebody what you do.

Hey,…what do you do? I’m a pharmacist [who] takes care of [patients with] cancer, and I really help to maximize their care and whatever decision they make. I help to manage their [adverse] effects, and I help our providers in taking care [of them] and making those decisions, something like that. Then that can expand our conversations, but I think we really need to work hard to help other people know what we do as pharmacists taking care of [patients with] cancer or oncology pharmacists.

Pharmacy Times: For pharmacists who may be interested in advocacy but aren’t sure where to begin, what are some practical ways they can get involved on behalf of their patients?

Kennedy: Again, I think advocating for ourselves as professionals is one way of easily doing that, but I think other ways are to be able to get involved with organizations that can help them in their advocacy. ASHP, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and HOPA, the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association, both have advocacy tool kits or advocacy sites on their web pages that…allow you to look at those and…be able to help with that and to reach out to the advocacy committees in those organizations to say you’re interested in that.

Pharmacy Times: You discussed several avenues for advocacy, including engaging with policy makers and helping patients advocate for themselves. How can pharmacists balance these efforts with their day-to-day clinical responsibilities?

Kennedy: Oftentimes, when we think about going to Capitol Hill to advocate for our patients, that’s overwhelming. A lot of us don’t have the time or the ability to …be able to go to Washington, [DC,] to do that. So one way…to do that is…to do a Hill Day virtually. HOPA has that ability. Usually it’s done in the spring, when you get to stay in your office or at home and be able to meet with different members of Congress virtually.

This was something that came out of our time [during] COVID, when we couldn’t travel to Washington, DC, and we actually found that it was a good way of being able to reach those different members of Congress or their staffers and…share those stories. I think it is definitely a good,…easy way to break into those virtual or in-person visits to the Hill.

I think that’s a way to…see those impacts when we bring our patients with us, either to the virtual visits or those in-person Hill Day visits. Having those Congress members or their staffers be able to hear our patient stories just [lets them know] how [patients are] struggling with getting their cancer treatment paid for and how they struggle with being able to have access to oral therapies, and…how that has really affected them. It really does help to tell that story, so we are really helping to empower our patients to speak on their behalf and even…to talk about how great their pharmacist is.

Pharmacy Times: Why do you believe oncology pharmacists are uniquely positioned to influence health policy and improve access to cancer care?

Kennedy: I think we help our patients every day as we are improving access to care, as we are helping to advocate for the right therapy, and as we’re helping to advocate for them to be able to afford their therapy, whether that means we’re doing prior authorizations or we’re doing peer-to-peers. We are doing that and advocating for them on a day-to-day basis. So sometimes we undersell ourselves, and we need to help our patients understand that as we’re doing that, we are really advocating. It’s not all about policy and legislature. Yes, those are helpful, but [they are] another way of being an advocate for our patients and our profession.

I think oncology pharmacists are key…to [doing] that. We have those skills, and we’re able to help build and tell the stories to help our patients get the right therapy in the most affordable way possible. I think also when it comes to officially talking about policy, such as drug shortages, that’s another way to advocate. There are a lot of people talking about drug shortages and what those mean, but I think as pharmacists, and specifically for us in oncology, we are the ones who really understand how impactful those drug shortages were. We can talk about some of the strategies that we used to minimize those, but also the hardships when we had to decide who could get carboplatin and who could get cisplatin, and really try to help other people know what was done at that point and how we can help to not ever get back to that point again.

Pharmacy Times: What advice would you give to early-career pharmacists who want to use their voices to help shape the future of oncology practice?

Kennedy: I think for an early-career pharmacist, it is really, again, trying to help promote what you do as a pharmacist. A lot of us travel,…so as you’re sitting on the plane or the bus or the train, as you sit down next to someone and they say, “Hey, what do you do?” or maybe don’t pop in your earbuds right away, have a conversation and…help share…our stories. I think that’s one way of doing that.

I think early-career pharmacists can also reach out to someone who’s been in practice longer…to ask them how they have been able to promote our profession and how they may have been involved in advocacy. I think that’s definitely something that I have enjoyed doing. I work with our new pharmacy students, our residents, and even young practitioners, helping them to see that it’s not so scary. It really does come about by just talking about what we do, and that’s talking to our family, talking to our friends, and helping them better understand what we do.

Pharmacy Times: Looking ahead, how do you see pharmacist-led advocacy continuing to impact cancer care and patient outcomes?

Kennedy: I think there are so many things that can be done to really impact patient care. We’ve been working for years to…have pharmacists recognized as providers. I think it’s sometimes discouraging, but also encouraging, to know that it took 20 years for nurse practitioners and physician assistants to be recognized as providers by Medicare. We’ve been working on this for 10 years, so I think…we definitely need to continue to work on this.

I do think that pharmacists can help lead that story by telling what we can do, but also showing and creating data [on] how we can save money. There’s a great project up in Michigan that has talked about the benefits of pharmacists being providers and how they’ve helped save the state money, both in internal medicine ambulatory patients and also in cancer patients. We’re taking that data and information to Capitol Hill and trying to get a demonstration project submitted so we can show that in a wider range for oncology patients.

So being willing to ask questions and…able to say, “Hey, I’m willing to help,” or “I’m willing to go and talk about what we do on a day-to-day basis,” helps share our story. That also can come from just talking to people…we live with and…work with day by day—our nurses, our physicians, and our patients—and helping them help tell our story.

Pharmacy Times: Would you like to add anything else?

Kennedy: Another way we can be involved is through organizations. Oftentimes, they…send us emails to ask us to help them when they’re trying to reach out to Congress to get something passed. Sometimes they…send an email and say, “Hey, will you fill out this email and contact your legislator?” What that means is that you don’t have to draft the letter. They’ve already drafted it. You can tailor it to what you want to say, but you can simply put in your name and your address, and it will select your House of Representatives member, select your 2 state senators, and send that letter to them on your behalf. I think that’s an easy way to get involved.

I actually sent that to another one of our congressmen, even though I wasn’t one of their constituents. I said, “Hey, this is something I feel is really important….” He [said], “Well, I have signed on to that, and I was able to sponsor that.” So it’s easier than a lot of people think. I think many feel like we have to spend a lot of time working on that email, but fortunately, we’ve been able to find easy ways to help with [it]. Those letters to Congress really do make a difference, and they will reply….