Documentation, Collaboration Are Key to Managing Toxicities: David Awad, PharmD, BCOP

David Awad, PharmD, BCOP, oncology pharmacy manager, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, emphasizes the importance of documentation and communication in supporting seamless collaboration between pharmacists and oncology providers. By tracking medication-related interventions and maintaining transparency across cycles of therapy, he says pharmacists can help ensure patients can safely continue beneficial treatments while avoiding unnecessary drug holds or changes.

This transcript has been lightly edited; captions were auto-generated.

Transcript

What are some of the key communication strategies that facilitate seamless collaboration between pharmacists and other members of the oncology care team in managing toxicities?

Documentation is very important. If a pharmacist responded to an emergency or if a pharmacist provided a consult, I think it's very important that they document that either internally through whatever means that they have, or through a progress note just like everyone else does, to make sure that everyone else can see it. In addition to specifically like bispecific therapies, patients can be on these therapies for multiple months. If they had a specific toxicity that might be unique or if it was managed a certain way cycle 1 and now it reappears cycle 6, it might be useful to know, well, it's not from that therapy; it could be from this drug that we've actually dose reduced, but now this other consultant or other specialist has now reintroduced the drug that we've already addressed this problem.

Additionally, drug-drug interactions with herbal drugs and herbal interactions, I think, are also very valuable to be documented. But also just being present, having those consults with the oncologists or with the providers that are asking their opinion I think is also still valuable to document, just to let everyone know that the conversation was had [and] this is what we talked about, so we're all on the same page as to what the plan is.

What has typically been your experience as a pharmacist on a multidisciplinary team?

I think pharmacists are able to provide lots of value to a team; they're able to provide value from a very different perspective than other people on the team. I don't think that there are tensions, per se. I think everyone is trying to help the patient in the end. But most of the time, I think the pharmacist is valued on the team and people—providers, nurses, advanced practice providers—will all go to the pharmacy to get their opinion on a certain situation if it involves a medication.

And again, I want to stress the goal is to keep the patient on the medication if it's helping them. And if that assessment is not made properly, then you might be pulling the medication or holding it from the patient, which might be doing them a disservice in the end if it's not truly from that medication.