Continuing education sessions highlight diabetes care, changing pharmaceutical market
SAN DIEGO — The focus on education at McKesson’s ideaShare 2015 didn’t stop when the exhibit hall opened Thursday evening. Friday and Saturday in San Diego saw a robust lineup of Continuing Education and Lunch & Learn sessions that aimed to keep independent pharmacy owners and pharmacists apprised of the latest developments in patient care and the current state of the business. Three topics that drew a great deal of attention revolved around new techniques in insulin injection therapy, managing diabetes patients and a look ahead at some of the biggest changes expected to occur in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry.
Updates in insulin injection techniques
Thursday’s Lunch & Learn session featured Thomas Fillman, senior medical science liaison for BD Medical Diabetes Care, who talked about some of the biggest changes in insulin injection techniques and the ways BD is attempting to prevent common practices that pose daily challenges for the 6 million patients who have to inject their own insulin. Fillman utilized the McKesson ideaShare 2015 mobile app to engage attendees and to gauge their knowledge of best practices for demonstrating injection therapy to patients — an area in which many pharmacists need more education, Fillman noted.
Fillman also addressed recent advancements in injection technology that were helping to address patient concerns regarding the pain of injecting insulin and how best to avoid leakage. One best practice Fillman shared was the importance of rotating injection sites, which helps prevent the formation of extra fat deposits or lumps in a preferred injection site that can affect insulin absorption and decrease the efficacy of the medication. BD’s single-use pen needles can help patients’ practice better injection technique, particularly for those who are prone to re-using needles, Fillman said.
“Because this product is single-use, it forces really good technique and behavior in your patients. It’s a great teaching tool for patients who are new to insulin, as well as those who perhaps have bad reuse habits,” Fillman said.
Managing diabetes patients
Stacey Irving, VP Channel Marketing, introduced Bill Polonsky, co-founder and president of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute and presenter of Friday’s McKesson ideaShare Lunch & Learn, sponsored by McKesson Patient Relationship Solutions. “As we’ve heard all throughout the conference thus far, we are facing unprecedented changes in the U.S. healthcare system,” Irving said. “And it is this focus on controlling cost and improving quality that’s all happening at once that’s really pushing pharmacy to the forefront of caring for patients in a new and differentiated way.”
McKesson’s Behavioral Coaching program gets to the heart of that issue, driving up to a 40% increase in adherence over a 24-month period with 1.5 interventions per patient. Polonsky explored the behavioral profile of the diabetes patient to help pharmacists better counsel their diabetes patients more effectively. “Living well with diabetes is a balancing act,” Polonsky said. “And it is a balancing act that takes effort and requires a certain amount of vigilance all the time.”
The U.S. Pharmaceutical Market: Looking back and looking forward
IMS Health VP industry relations Doug Long was on hand at McKesson ideaShare 2015, providing attendees an overview of the current state of the U.S. pharmacy market. Long looked back at some of the more significant developments in the past year and looked forward to some of the big changes expected in the months ahead.
In 2014, the U.S. pharmaceutical market saw a 13.9% increase, Long told attendees, and more of the same is anticipated for 2015. While dollars were up considerably, prescription growth was a bit more conservative, up some 3% last year, with 1.9% growth predicted for this year.
Looking ahead, Long pointed to specialty drugs as a segment that will continue to deliver the greatest proportion of the growth, despite the smaller patient populations. Beyond that, diabetes, statin therapy and anticoagulants, as well as specialty cholesterol medications — PCSK9 inhibitors — will be areas to watch as 2015 wears on. While the long-standing issue of nonadherence is one that will persist as a major contributor to spiraling healthcare costs and unnecessary upstream medical spending, Long also noted that the new trend of collaborations between primary care providers and community pharmacists, as well patients and payers, is a growing trend that by 2020 will likely be the norm.
“Everybody’s role in the future, no matter where you are in the healthcare continuum, is going to be: Can you demonstrate outcomes?” Long said. “Outcomes equals income, no outcomes equals no income — I think that is going to be the watch word.”