Issue 1: The Collaborative Practice

Your go-to monthly resource for all things in population health pharmacy.

Each edition of The Collaborative Practice will celebrate innovations in clinical pharmacy. We’ll interview industry leaders and deliver a roundup of the month’s need-to-know developments in value-based pharmacy.  We’ll also share data and best practices from our own research.

So, why The Collaborative Practice?  The use of collaborative practice arrangements between providers and pharmacists is growing.  But even in states that don’t allow for formal arrangements, pharmacists are expanding their footprint and driving measurable value.

After hundreds of meetings with pharmacists and pharmacy leaders who share our passion for collaboration and innovation, it was clear the time to broaden the conversation was now.

Through The Collaborative Practice, we hope to foster a community of pharmacists, pharmacy leaders, and pharmacy champions who come together to advance an interdisciplinary model for population health in which pharmacists play an important and valuable role.

If you want to join in the conversation and share the work you’re doing on our podcast, we’d love to chat.  Email us: innovations@rxlive.com

If someone forwarded you this email or you found us on the web, be sure to sign up for our newsletter here.

Looking forward –

The team @ RxLive

Expanding the footprint of AmCare pharmacy

This month we spoke with Nilesh Desai, Chief Pharmacy Officer at Baptist Health, about supporting patients throughout the journey from inpatient admission to discharge to outpatient care.

Driving a comprehensive, data-forward health strategy is one way Nilesh sees embedded pharmacists championing transitions of care.

He offers a lot to think about throughout a broad and engaging 24-minute conversation with RxLive co-founder Kristen Engelen.

We especially love his belief in the pharmacist’s role as patient champion. A stand-out example: Nilesh’s research into medication management.

According to an assessment he conducted, four out of 10 medications in high-touch med profiles are inaccurate.

The solution?

Pharmacist-led data-driven medication reconciliation management across the continuum of care.

For more insights about the growing role AmCare pharmacists have to play in delivering value-based care, read the transcript of the full interview here.

Question for the Pharmacists

Each month we will post a clinical pharmacy practice-related question.The results will be listed in next month’s edition of The Collaborative Practice.

his month’s question is related to daily patient volume – please share your response  here.

Stories we’re following

From prescription pricing to supporting pharmacists with overbearing workloads, here are five stories that have our attention with winter – and flu season – just around the corner:

U.S. drug price reform of 2022: What does the Inflation Reduction Act mean for drug manufacturers?

New legislation will let Medicaid negotiate drug prices in 2023 – but only on select drugs. Pharmacists will be essential to help navigate the new laws to ensure patients are prescribed the most affordable version of the drugs they need.

FDA approves Cimerli as the first interchangeable biosimilar to Lucentis for all indications

Cimerli represents a step beyond previous biosimilars like Byooviz, opening the doors for pharmacists to deliver value to a broader panel of patients.

Innovative strategies to manage increased pharmacist workload

Pharmacists are increasingly overworked. Here, pharmacy leaders discuss strategies for managing workloads with flu season underway.

Pharmacies ideal location for community social needs screening

A study published this year in the journal of the American Pharmacists Association explores how pharmacists can support integrating social determinants of health screenings within primary care.

You’ve heard of food deserts. Pharmacy deserts are just as bad

Medication adherence is difficult enough to navigate when patients have access to the drugs they need. Yet significant parts of the country, including both urban and rural locations, lack access to drug stores.

Food as medicine?

That was a hot topic at the White House’s recent conference on health, nutrition, and hunger. We’re particularly interested in the idea of tailoring “prescription” meals for Medicare and Medicaid patients.

Interested in learning more? Check out this executive summary.

And since this is our first month, here’s an eye-catching bonus: if you’re leaving the pharmacy in France, make sure to look up.

Kristen Engelen, PharmD
Kristen Engelen, PharmD, is the chief pharmacy officer of RxLive and a certified consultant pharmacist; she has over a decade of experience in retail pharmacy settings. Kristen became an RxLive co-founder because of her passion for geriatric pharmacy, with a focus on the intersection of pharmacy and aging.