Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/247183
Sunday, August 11, 2013 Chain Drugstore Daily ILLICIT USE OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES A SOCIETAL PROBLEM It is not uncommon to find a disturbing newspaper article pertaining to the societal problem of illicit drug use. While controlled substances such as pain relievers clearly serve specific and valid healthcare needs, these products are also prone to abuse. As such, it often becomes very difficult for a healthcare provider to differentiate between legitimate and illicit use of these products. Industry Sanctions One approach toward addressing the abuse issue is being implemented by the DEA: pursue the wholesalers, retailers, and prescribers (among other stakeholders) involved in the distribution, dispensing, and prescribing of controlled substances that may be intended for misuse. As a result, some distribu- tion centers are experiencing suspension of their DEA licenses; some retail stores dispensing controlled substances written by a certain prescriber or for an individual patient are having their licenses to dispense these products revoked; prescribers writing excessively and inappropriately for controlled substances are being arrested and losing their licenses; and all stakeholders are incurring significant fines and public relation gaffes. The Need for Information One dilemma underlying this approach: how does a stakeholder know which orders or prescriptions are normal and which are out of standard bounds? Mining and analyzing internal information may help, but it will never tell the GET YOUR BRAND MESSAGE NOTICED WITH /ALERT /alert is a premiere full-service healthcare communications company providing information and education to healthcare professionals. Programs include cooperative mail, custom mail, and digital communication. /alert's capabilities in healthcare information and communications are designed to deliver your targeted message to a wide or targeted healthcare professional audience using the latest technologies including mobile applications. SURECOMFORT INTRODUCES NEW PACKAGING By Peter Magnuson, Vice President of Sales, Allison Medical I joined Allison Medical, the manufacturer of the SureComfort diabetic product line, in 2008, excited to be a part of a team and a company that is ready to listen to customers regarding product improvements. Understanding that many of our products are used in a fast-paced retail pharmacy, we asked pharmacists what we could do to make their job easier while filling a syringe or pen needle prescription. The answer: easy to identify product specification information (size, length, gauge) and obvious NDC numbers. This year, we introduced new packaging to address these ideas and are getting very positive feedback from our retail partners. The industry has always had a color coding system for the size, or ml, of a syringe, but we took it one step IS YOUR PHARMACY EQUIPPED WITH THE RIGHT ADHERENCE SOLUTIONS? As the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, pharmacies must adopt a model that leverages pharmacy in the key role of improving and changing patient behavior; helping patients achieve better healthcare outcomes. To drive true patient behavior changes, it requires an approach that addresses the fundamental reasons for poor medication adherence. Pharmacy has proven it can affect a patient's behavior through education, intervention, and reminders. The challenge is to find scalable, measureable solutions that fit within the pharmacy's existing workflow. Ateb has developed a suite of pharmacy solutions that do just that. The solutions include analytics and business intelligence that proactively identify patients requiring a pharmacist intervention and furnish reports that help manage how each pharmacy performs with respect to these opportunities. Ateb supplies the management tools and ongoing coaching/consultations to support pharmacy in the transition to patient-centered models. Ateb's solutions allow pharmacy to personalize interactions and interventions with a patient, based on the patient's behavior, condition, and preference. Not all patients respond in the same way; to that end, pharmacy needs a multi-pronged approach that offers alternatives to patients, while at the same time being easy to administer. Ateb offers multiple options to aid pharmacy in the effort to establish good patient behavior and assist patients in continuing with positive behavior. Ateb's tools give pharmacy the opportunity to develop programs requiring minimal intervention with patients, to very sophisticated, high touch intervention programs. Ateb emphasizes proactively whole story. Without the ability to benchmark these orders against the total marketplace or know which scripts are being filled outside of your stores for a certain prescriber, the inferences made off of internal data may be misleading. Partial knowledge, in this case, can be a dangerous thing. In addition, these benchmarks need to be accurate, timely, and specific to the situation. For example, what are the total volumes and trends in the local geography and how do they impact the analysis? How do the prescribing patterns of a physician differ compared to doctors with similar profiles? Is this store getting controlled substances from multiple warehouses, thus creating an abnormal level of inventory? Having the right answers to these questions may help members of the distribution chain thwart illicit use of controlled substances and thus contribute to curtailing this alarming societal problem. Pharm/alert has been part of the /alert portfolio since 1976. Research shows that over 130,000 pharmacists read Pharm/alert each month. In the 2013 Kantar study, Pharm/alert and epharm/alert are ranked No. 1 in total nonjournal readership. Pharm/alert Research has direct access to over 100,000 retail and hospital pharmacists with a project turn-around time of five days or less. /alert is confident that its 37 years of further and assigned color coding for length and gauge as well. The idea is to make it quick and efficient for pharmacy technicians to identify the correct product and fill the prescription accurately. Moving the NDC number to the front of the packaging makes a lot of sense as well. We really appreciate all the feedback from customers! We also took the opportunity to include a Spanish language panel on all the new packaging. This was another suggestion from our customers that just makes sense and fills a need for many reaching patients when their behavior indicates a necessary pharmacy intervention. The goal is to provide the right intervention at the right time to improve a patient's adherence and health. Ateb's solutions increase medication adherence rates, including reminders, education, and awareness; all scripted for pharmacy and patient success. The main objective is to focus on patients with new or existing chronic medications; helping them handle their condition and reinforce the importance of taking their medications as prescribed. Ateb's solutions range from Refill Reminders (minimal touch), to Medication Synchronization (Time My Meds™) and Comprehensive Patient Care solutions (high touch); all focused to ensure patients pick up their prescriptions and take their medications correctly. Not only is it important to get medication into patients' hands, but more importantly, getting patients to understand the 23 IMS Health is committed to helping pharmacies and wholesalers make dispensing decisions that are both informed and expedited. Using data assets that span the nation and reflect physician prescribing patterns, current supply at the outlet level, anonymized and longitudinal patient information, dispensing data, and stakeholder profiles, IMS creates an end-to-end picture of controlled substances from supply through demand within local marketplaces. Utilizing this information can help pharmacies and wholesalers detect outlier activities, and focus their investigative efforts to keep the supply lines open for proper use while potentially ebbing inappropriate behaviors. For more information, visit booth 2125.Contact IMS Health at www.imshealth.com, 610-244-2000, or coloughlin@us.imshealth.com. experience with virtually every Pharmaceutical and/or Biotech Company and recognized brands such as Pharm /alert and M.D. /alert will get your brand message noticed. For more information, visit www.alertmarketing.com, call 800-462-4546 or email dleyeden@alertmarketing.com. Be sure to stop by booth 2826 at the NACDS Total Store Expo. customers, both in the United States and internationally. The new Pen Needle packaging has English, Spanish and also includes a French translation. I think the relationships and the idea sharing we've been able to incorporate into our business plan are a key to successfully growing the business next year and in years to come. For more information, visit booth 4718, go online to www.allison medical.com, call 800-886-1618 or email info@allisonmedical.com. significance of taking their medication, determining if patients stop taking their medication, and influencing patients to better behavior. Ateb provides pharmacy with the opportunity to personalize patient interventions to find the best solution for patients, depending on their therapy. A crucial component of Ateb solutions is the ability to deliver measurements and analytics that display program performance. Pharmacy can have the best solution, but without analytics, they will not know how the program impacts patient behavior or how it can be improved. Now, more than ever, pharmacy needs to position itself to utilize their actions as a resource to improve patient health outcomes. To learn more about Ateb, stop by booth 2212 at the NACDS Total Store Expo or contact the company directly at 877-7762832, email at sales@ateb.com, or visit www.ateb.com.