Interviews

Jody L. Miller, CEO Reliance Rx, states that an active pharmacy benefit manager (PBMs) relays good benchmarking data on performance.

Patrick P. Gleason, PharmD, Director of Clinical Outcomes Assessment, Prime Therapeutics, states that the fear of adverse events, cost-sharing and patient education are all factors that keep patients from complying with medication regimens.

In this video, Dr. David Valle, Professor and Director of the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, discusses the advancement of evolutionary medicine and also speaks about the Johns Hopkins Individualized Medicine Program.

In this segment, Dr. Farzad Mostashari highlights both the financial and non-financial challenges providers face when implementing electronic medical records.

In this video, Dr. Stephan talks about key components to advancing the field of personalized medicine and also discusses the opportunities that lay ahead for the private sector.

In this video, Felix Frueh, PhD, President, Medco Research Institute, talks about what Medco is doing to advance the field of personalized medicine, and also speaks about some of the costs and concerns.

Patrick P. Gleason, PharmD, Director of Clinical Outcomes Assessment, Prime Therapeutics, discusses the rates at which patients will not follow a prescribed therapeutic plan due to cost-sharing. Specifically, patients starting multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and oral oncology medication regimens with more than a $100 cost-share will be less likely to start the drug therapy.

All human disease has a genetic component; therefore, genetic testing is a powerful tool that can help to truly personalize care. However, without the proper groundwork to make this delivery of health care affordable, not much can be done. In this video, Dr. Stephan discusses the progress that is being made in this area and how he believes personalized medicine will revolutionize the delivery of health care.

In this video, Dr. Michael Sherman, Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Harvard Pilgrim Heath Care, discusses the evolution of companion diagnostic testing, and some of the concerns with cost and coding.

Dr. Richard Rainey, Executive Medical Director at Regence Blue Shield in Idaho, talks about some of the factors that go into coverage decisions as they relate to genetic testing.

Brenda Motheral, BPharm, MBA, PhD, Executive Director, PBMI, addresses the gap between what plan sponsors say is important and what is actually being monitored within specialty pharmacy. She notes the issues sponsors have on monitoring spending, as well as the problems pharmacy benefit managers face when monitoring medication adherence with specialty patients.

Randell "RJ" Correia, PharmD, Senior Vice President, Pharmacy Services, Optum Rx, addresses the rapid rise of specialty pharmacy spending. Dr. Correia discusses the possible complications health reform exchanges may cause and the impact they will have on the future of pharmacy benefit drug management.

Bimal Patel, PharmD, MS, Director, Health Outcomes Research, MedImpact Healthcare Systems, Inc., discusses MedImpact's work to identify, analyze, and evaluate generic medications that have become significantly expensive, and effective strategies for managing these costs.

Marcus D. Wilson, PharmD, President, HealthCore, states that there is variability within and between different organizations that utilize comparative effectiveness research.

Aaron S. Kesselheim, MD, JD, MPH, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and Women's Hospital, explains that academic detailing is the best way to deliver evidence-based information to various parties.

Joshua D. Lenchus, DO, RPh, FACP, FHM, discusses the lack of impact comparative effectiveness research (CER) has had on patient safety. In addition, he speaks about the need for more comparisons that study safety and efficacy in patient populations.