The Pharmacist's Role in Transitioning Patients from Infusion to Oral Chemotherapy

At the 2018 National Community Oncology Dispensing Association (NCODA) Spring Summit, Julianne Orr, PharmD, from the Indiana University Health Simon Cancer Center, discusses how pharmacists can help patients who are transitioning from an infusion product to an oral chemotherapy.

"If they're transitioning from an infusion product, typically their physician hasn't changed. Usually we kind of count on the physician and the clinical team in the cancer center to navigate that process and then my role and my team comes in when the oral chemotherapy is prescribed. They've been on an infusion product before, so that kind of helps us give us an idea of how they handled that treatment, what kind of side effects they had, what sort of things I need to be cognizant of going into that treatment with an oral treatment, and navigating their understanding of the differences between and IV product and an oral product. And then, as a pharmacist, hitting home with adherence and making sure they're staying on these medications and taking them the way that they should is a key component of transitioning. Understanding that no one is going to be checking in on them on a daily basis, so they need to understand how to take these drugs and take them as prescribed."