MID Models Foster Patient Trust, Boost Adherence: Kenneth Komorny, PharmD, BCPS

With medically integrated dispensing (MID) models, pharmacists are more embedded in care and engage more frequently with patients, according to Kenneth Komorny, PharmD, BCPS, of Moffitt Cancer Center. He adds that this increased interaction helps build patient trust in pharmacists, which can drive medication adherence.

Watch part 1 to learn more about MID models and how they benefit patients, physicians, and pharmacists across the oncology care continuum.

This transcript was lightly edited; captions were auto-generated.

Transcript

What does the successful implementation of MID look like in practice?

Well, it's a heavy lift. One, you need to have pharmacists who are experts in that field. You need to have subject matter experts in the area of oncology, for us, and you need to follow accreditation standards as well.

There are many different groups that accredit specialty pharmacies and medically integrated pharmacies. We have a URAC accreditation and an ACHC [Accreditation Commission for Health Care] accreditation, with a distinction in oncology. Very few pharmacies have that distinction in oncology, and what that does is it requires you not only to perform the functions necessary for a medically integrated dispensing pharmacy but also the documentation of those functions as well.

Not that we weren't doing those in the past, but it really allowed us, through those accreditations over the past few years, to be able to look at those areas where we could make improvements and drive up some of the types of care that we provide and make improvements to be even better.

How can these models be effectively scaled across both academic and community oncology settings?

It's super important to be able to scale those pharmacies because of the benefits that you receive with them. It's very possible with, as we described, as you're able to perform those functions and hit those top deciles for outcomes, whatever metrics you're tracking.

It’s important to do that in different settings and stuff, and it's possible to do that. So, the growth of medically integrated dispensing pharmacies is very important.

How can MID help address disparities in access, adherence, and outcomes in oncology care?

You mentioned adherence; I think that's a measure that oftentimes is less in vulnerable populations, and there are a lot of factors that go into that: trust in their health care professionals and trust in who's taking care of them.

I think with a medically integrated pharmacy, the pharmacists who are part of that pharmacy are a part of their care. So, as they're coming in and being treated, they're able to interact with and engage with the pharmacist, which is going to help drive that level of trust up and drive that adherence that they would have to the medications, and drive those numbers up as well.

It's a great question. I think, as we look at our data, I think that's maybe a subgroup that we can pull out and start to look at some vulnerable populations and see if those differences are even greater than the overall benefit that we achieve but if there are benefits specifically in those spaces.