A UMass Medical School clinical consultant pharmacist says in a Specialty Pharmacy Times video that focusing on the best outcomes for patients, making recommendations to health care providers and working with patients to optimize their therapy are the primary components of successful medication therapy management (MTM).
The primary element of an optimal medication therapy management program is “to be focused on getting the best outcomes for our patients, whether that’s through counseling or focusing on adherence to high-cost drugs,” said Mark Tesell, PharmD, BCPS, a clinical consultant pharmacist in UMass Medical School’s Clinical Pharmacy Services unit, in the video.
“I think we need to be focused on getting those outcomes, documenting them and working with patients to optimize their therapy,” Tesell said in the video. “In addition I think that we need to make sure that we’re focusing on communication, making sure that when, during the process of MTM, we make recommendations they’re not only reaching the patient, they’re also reaching the health care provider.”
“We need to be focused on disseminating our outcomes overall, keeping track of when we’re making interventions how we are improving health care and I think that will help in the long run to increase the viability, increase the return on investment of MTM programs,” Tesell said.
Tesell was interviewed at Asembia’s 2016 Specialty Pharmacy Summit in May in Las Vegas, where he presented on using proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors, a new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs, to manage uncontrolled cholesterol.
A national leader in clinical pharmacy support, Clinical Pharmacy Services provides results-oriented solutions to containing pharmacy costs and improving patient outcomes. Its relationship with UMass Medical School enables it to provide direct access to clinical resources and the latest research, data and trends.
