Clinical pharmacists from UMass Medical School’s Commonwealth Medicine division have been honored with a platinum medal for their presentation on hepatitis C medication monitoring at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy’s Nexus 2014: Connecting Health Care and Innovation.
“Overview of a Hepatitis C Medication Monitoring Program in a State Medicaid Program” was presented Oct. 8 by Pavel Lavitas, PharmD, BCPS, Clinical Consultant Pharmacist in Clinical Pharmacy Services. The awards were based on five criteria: relevance, originality, quality, bias and clarity.
In his presentation, Lavitas discussed a successful hepatitis C medication monitoring program instituted by Clinical Pharmacy Services for MassHealth, the Massachusetts Medicaid program. The program used outreach and education strategies to communicate with prescribers about regimens that were the most effective in treating the virus and containing costs. Member adherence to the regimen was monitored and hepatitis C cure rates were tracked through the program.
Kimberly Lenz, PharmD, Clinical Pharmacy Manager in Commonwealth Medicine’s Office of Clinical Affairs, also presented at the conference. Her poster, “Therapeutic Class Management: A Multidisciplinary Process with a Quality Approach,” detailed the process Clinical Pharmacy Services and the Office of Clinical Affairs used to establish an opioid management multidisciplinary work group for MassHealth to manage fraud, abuse and misuse.
The conference was held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.