White Paper Available! Telehealth Solutions Enhance Health Outcomes and Reduce Healthcare Costs

White paper: Can we enhance health outcomes with telehealth?

There is intense pressure for the life sciences industry to demonstrate that treatments enhance health outcomes and decrease healthcare costs. Life science companies need tools to track patient outcomes, and gather data that demonstrates the impact a treatment has on health outcomes.

Telehealth solutions can be customized to gather patient vital signs and interview data based on the patient’s health condition. This information can be used in many ways to enhance health outcomes and reduce costs.

This white paper provides an overview of what telehealth is, factors driving the healthcare industry to focus on increasing outcomes and reducing costs, how telehealth solutions can enhance health outcomes and reduce costs, benefits life science companies can expect from telehealth solutions, as well as share results from two key studies of telehealth solutions.

If you’d like a copy of the white paper titled “Telehealth Solutions Enhance Health Outcomes and Reduce Healthcare Costs”, please click to request it. I’d love to hear what you think of this latest white paper—is it helpful or not? Also, please share with me areas you’d like to see more information and recommendations on.

Free Podcast: Improve Patient Adherence with Patient Support Programs

 In the latest podcast, I share my thoughts on improving patient adherence through patient support programs. Specifically, I discuss how patient support programs contribute to higher patient compliance rates, better patient health, lower healthcare expenses, and improved patient retention.

If you would like to listen to this podcast, please click to download it now. After you listen to the podcast, let me know what you think of it—is it helpful? Are you currently providing patient support programs? If so, please share your experiences and insights on these programs. This area is evolving quickly, and we can all learn from one another.

We also recently published a free white paper titled “Increase Patient Adherence and Do More with Less”. We encourage you to download this companion piece to the podcast.

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Fact: Healthcare Is Changing

Efforts to reform healthcare are moving forward as it is clear that as a nation we must decrease healthcare costs. Right now there are more questions than answers about the impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that the US Supreme Court recently upheld. One thing is clear—the US healthcare system is changing. Below are my thoughts on three key areas the life science industry must prepare for.

Articulate the value of your product.

Conventional end points of safety, efficacy, and quality of life are no longer sufficient. Be prepared to demonstrate cost-effectiveness or cost-avoidance.

Implementation tips...

1) Work collaboratively with your colleagues in marketing, managed care marketing, pharmacoeconomics, clinical affairs, medical affairs, and regulatory to understand the data that is desired by various stakeholders when they are determining if a product is valuable or not. Develop plans to obtain the needed data.

2) Determine which patients are most likely to benefit from your product. Communicate to healthcare providers the patients that are most likely to benefit from treatment. Additionally, assist with screening and referring appropriate patients to local physicians or study sites.

Plan for government rebate plans and pricing controls.

If your treatment is expensive, be prepared for limitations on its use compared to less expensive alternatives.

Implementation tips...

1) Adjust your forecasts

2) Begin working on how to articulate the value of your product (see above for insights)

Provide programs that enhance outcomes for individual patients.

Shift your focus to taking care of patients and improving their outcomes. Patients will stay on treatment and future healthcare expenses resulting from patient non-adherence will decrease.

Implementation tips...

1) Plan and implement programs that support patients on their treatment journey.

2) Understand the barriers patients face in remaining adherent and compliant with therapy.

3) Develop and implement patient support programs that are a resource and guide for patients during their treatment journey. This can include offering access to healthcare-trained representatives for questions or providing educational materials to help patients continue with treatment.

There are many ways you can articulate the value of your product. Additionally there are many options for providing programs that enhance patient outcomes. As a pharmaceutical call center, we provide as needed call-in support for patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers to answer questions about a product and its side effects, enroll patients in a support program, connect patients with healthcare providers in their local area, and connect patients with co-pay assistance resources. Our experiences show that within 6 months of implementing a patient support program patient adherence increases 10% to 15%. Patient adherence to treatment decreases future healthcare costs related to treating complications from earlier non-adherence.

The June 2012 issue of PharmaVOICE magazine has an article on healthcare reform and the potential impacts of it on the life science industry. If you are interested in additional perspectives on the impact of healthcare reform you can access the article here.

I’d like to hear from you. How are you preparing for the impact of the ACA? What areas have you identified as opportunities? What kinds of initiatives and programs are you planning? Please join the conversation and share your thoughts, challenges, and questions on the ACA implementation. We can all learn from each other.

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White Paper - Do More with Less—Invest in Patient and Caregiver Support Programs

A successful model

Patient adherence is a hot issue for all players (ie, payers, healthcare providers, life science companies, and patients) in the healthcare industry. Unfortunately all chronic conditions have low rates of patient compliance to therapy with the average being between 50% and 65%. Patient noncompliance is a significant problem, and for the life science industry it is particularly problematic as patients that start a therapy are not likely to continue it for the needed duration. This has a significant financial impact for life science companies as it costs six times more to attract new patients than it does to retain existing ones.

We have seen adherence rates increase by 10% to 15% after a patient and caregiver support program is implemented and maintained for one year. Increasing patient adherence is a win:win:win situation. Patients gain better health and enhanced quality of life, payers decrease expenses treating future healthcare issues that arise from non-compliance, and life science companies retain patients on therapy.

In our patient and caregiver support programs we have seen significant demand from patients for personalized experiences and information. The days of developing and disseminating materials for the masses are ending. Rather, patients want information specific to them, their condition, and needs.

Opportunities for providing patients with personalized information abound, and I have recently published a white paper on how to develop successful patient and caregiver support programs, as well as emerging trends being used to deliver customized and personalized experiences for patients. Patient and caregiver support programs can help life science companies retain patients on treatment and create real value for patients, healthcare providers, and payers.

If you’d like a copy of the white paper titled “Increase Patient Adherence and Do More with Less,” please click to download it. Please let me know what you think of this latest white paper—is it helpful or not? Also, let me know what areas you’d like to see more information and recommendations on.

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ASCO: Celebrate Successes and Prepare to Support Patients in the Future

The annual scientific meeting for the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) starts this weekend in Chicago. This meeting is the premier scientific meeting for new clinical data in oncology. Reflecting on this important meeting I’m reminded of the significant advances that have been made in the last 15 years in treating cancer. Several trends fill me with hope for the future, including…

1) Increasing use of oral therapies
2) Molecularly targeted therapies offer decreased side effects versus traditional chemotherapy
3) The possibility that cancer, in many cases, can be treated as a chronic condition with an emphasis on on-going therapy

Cancer treatment is certainly much more effective, manageable, and tolerable than it was 15 years ago. While there are many advances in oncology treatment to celebrate, significant challenges remain including…  

* Patient adherence to treatment—As more oral treatments are used for treating cancer, patients and their caregivers take on a greater role for ensuring treatments are taken regularly and at prescribed doses. With treatments administered in a physician’s office or medical center the nurses see patients regularly and ensure treatments are administered as prescribed and at appropriate times. 

* Changing needs of patients and caregivers—As patients and caregivers take on more responsibility for administering treatments, they are also taking on more responsibility for monitoring and managing side effects to treatment. This can be a frightening responsibility for caregivers and more can be done to support them in this role.  

* Increased costs for treatment—On average targeted therapies cost significantly more than traditional chemotherapeutic agents. The increased cost is an issue for all stakeholders involved in oncology treatment including patients, caregivers, healthcare providers, payers, and life science companies. Patient co-pay and financial assistance programs are critical in helping many patients pay for their treatment.

For life science companies these challenges are significant, and they are also opportunities to engage with patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers. To begin, ensure you…  

* Understand the patient’s treatment journey, and in particular, the barriers they face in remaining adherent and compliant with treatment 

* Develop and implement comprehensive patient support programs that are a resource and guide for patient’s during their treatment journey  

* Inform and educate healthcare providers on the details of patient and caregiver support programs

As a pharmaceutical call center, we provide as-needed call-in support for patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers to answer questions about a product and its side effects, enroll patients in a support program, and connect patients with co-pay assistance resources. Our Medical Advisory Board works with us to design programs focused on meeting the needs of patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers.

I’d like to hear from you. What challenges does your oncology product(s) face? Please join the conversation and share your thoughts, challenges and questions.

I’ll be in Chicago at the ASCO meeting. If you’ll be at ASCO, please send me an e-mail and we’ll schedule a time to get together. I always enjoy learning about the challenges you're facing.

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Keep it Simple: Focus on the Patient with Adherence Programs

Hi, I'm Moriah Weissman and I'm a Clinical Director at Tunstall AMAC. I work with Lou and our life science company clients to provide clinical insights for the development of patient, caregiver, and healthcare provider support and communication programs. Lou invited me to contribute to the blog, and I look forward to sharing insights and thoughts with you, as well as learning more about your challenges.

In working with our clients there is a lot of interest in life science companies about maintaining patients on a treatment. A number of articles and studies have been published about patient adherence, and I certainly believe patient adherence can be a driver in your business. In looking at many of the patient adherence articles that have been published two thoughts come to my mind…

1. Why do most patient adherence programs seem so complicated?
2. Patient adherence programs are expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to implement!

Many of the patient adherence articles quickly become lost in the data, in analysis paralysis, or in defining whether or not a program is truly patient adherence based solely on whether or not it’s driving “behavior change”.

Perhaps I have over simplified the definition of patient adherence. To me, patient adherence is keeping a patient on a specific treatment. There are many ways this can be done, and certainly I agree that it’s important to embark on a discovery process that helps you to understand the patient journey and a patient’s desire to manage their condition. Without this it’s easy to develop a program that doesn’t drive the right actions. In fact an earlier blog post by Lou Shapiro provided suggestions for understanding the patient journey and resources for understanding a patient’s desire to manage their condition.

I believe two critical success factors for effective patient adherence programs are…

1. Develop meaningful programs that engage patients.
2. Collect feedback and data so the program can be continuously improved.

We offer four straightforward solutions to help our clients build effective patient adherence programs. These include…

1. Our focus is the patient. Start with the patient and keep them, and their needs, at the center of your solution.

2. Our AMAC Medical Advisory Board. We have relationships with healthcare providers in a number of therapeutic areas. We engage these experts to help us understand a particular disease-state/condition, current care delivery models as well as patient needs and challenges. We then work with our Medical Advisory Board to develop custom healthcare communication solutions that meet patients’ needs.

3. Our clinical program directors. They have advanced life science degrees in nursing and pharmacy. We tap into their clinical expertise to understand the patient journey and barriers to treatment as well.

4. Our pharmaceutical call center operators. They talk with healthcare providers and their offices, as well as patients and caregivers each day. They hear first-hand about the challenges patients have in managing their condition. Whether the challenges have to do with side effects, dosing, or cost, our call center operators can describe in detail what the obstacles are that patients face.

To build an effective program we take these insights and evaluate them against the product’s goals and needs. Next, we start putting together solutions that we, as a pharmaceutical call center, can provide. We also work with our clients to integrate other services, such as customized direct mail fulfillment, as appropriate.

Of course, I’ve simplified our development process for the sake of keeping this post brief. And my point is this: patient adherence programs are not rocket science. They can be straightforward and still be effective. I’m willing to bet that if you keep the patient, and their needs, at the center of your solution it will be a success.

Now, I want to hear from you. Do you agree, or do you think my oversimplified approach is wrong? Join the conversation and share your thoughts, challenges and questions.

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