The theme of the Thought Interaction Pod roundtable discussions held during ECRM’s recent Specialty Pharmacy EPPS was identifying, addressing and overcoming key challenges in specialty pharmacy. Topics ranged from therapeutic categories impacted by specialty generic and biosimilars, to outcome reporting, to implementing successful patient satisfaction surveys.

For those of you not familiar with the TIP discussions, they are part of our educational programming in which we have several roundtables set up, each dedicated to a specific industry issue with a session participant serving as moderator of each table. Attendees are notified of the topics in advance, and pick the topic table of their choice on a first-come, first-served basis.

The first round of discussions lasts approximately 30 minutes, after which there is a 5-minute refreshment break, and then one more round of discussions for which attendees chose a second table in which to participate. So each attendee participates in discussions on two different topics during the program.

“The interaction was fantastic,” says Pharmacy Advantage Specialty Pharmacy’s Doug Samojedny, who moderated one of the roundtables. “I loved the casual conversations between the participants.”

Following are video interviews conducted by Scott Porter, ECRM Senior Director of Channel Development - Pharmacy, with several of the TIP roundtable moderators, who discussed key takeaways from each of their discussion pods.

Therapeutic Categories Impacted by Specialty Generic/Biosimilar

Moderator: Cheryl Allen, VP of Industry Relations, Diplomat Pharmacy

This roundtable discussion focused on two case studies: generics for prostate cancer and a biosilmilar for rheumatoid arthritis, and how they are looking for savings across the healthcare space and ways to support the patients, prescribers and payers with conversion opportunities.

Deploying Effective Patient Satisfaction Surveys

Moderator: Mike Cook, Director of Sales, MarkeTouch Media

While there are a lot of different methods and frequencies in which specialty pharmacies conduct patient satisfaction surveys, the key for their success is coming away with actionable data that can be used to improve the operation, as the participants in this roundtable discussed.

The Value of Accreditation in an Evolving Specialty Pharmacy Market

Moderator: Timothy Safley, Director of Specialty Programs, Accreditation Commission for Health Care 

This roundtable focused on how accreditation sets the benchmark for the level of care by validating the process and procedures used to deliver products and services to the patient, as well as the accreditation process for various types of specialty pharmacy operations.

The Role of the Integrated Delivery Network in Specialty Agent Distribution for Specialty Pharmacy

Co-Moderators: Doug Samojedny, Director of Operations, Pharmacy Advantage Specialty Pharmacy & Mike Resvick, Regional Operations Manager, Specialty and Mail Order, Fairview Pharmacy Services

 This roundtable discussed how to get patient data through the system quickly and seamlessly via integrated delivery networks for enhanced patient care and outcomes.