BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy
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IVIG for Alzheimer’s: Potentially Helpful for Some Patients
When it comes to Alzheimer’s disease, treatment options remain scarce. This is why – when early results with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) showed promise for delaying disease progression – the scientific community anxiously awaited study results from a large IVIG Alzheimer’s study. Last year, a phase II clinical trial with IVIG showed promise for stabilizing Alzheimer’s … Continue reading
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The second annual national Hepatitis Testing Day arrives in just a few days, on May 19, 2013. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spearheads this event as a call to action for health care providers and the public about testing for hepatitis infection. Who Should Get Tested for Hepatitis C? Anyone age 40 … Continue reading
Hemophilia is a bleeding disorder that interferes with the blood clotting process. Hemophilia A, also known as classic hemophilia, is the most common type – affecting one in 5,000 to 10,000 males worldwide. This condition is treated with infusions of clotting factor, which can either be derived from plasma or as a genetically engineered clotting … Continue reading
Health care costs for patients, including prescription medications, continue to rise. Out-of-pocket costs for prescriptions reached $45 billion for Americans in 2011 (the most recent year data is available). For a growing number of people, Rx costs simply exceed their ability to pay. Overburdened Americans rely on two less-than-healthy methods to stretch their health care … Continue reading
Guest Blog: Tracy Siler, Senior Rx Coordinator at BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy Now is the perfect time to think about the immune system: not only is April National Primary Immunodeficiency Awareness Month but this week (April 22-29) is also World PI Week, both of which have the goal of earlier diagnoses and optimal treatment for these … Continue reading
Chemotherapy, while necessary for the treatment of many types of cancer, is known to increase the later risk of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a rare but often fatal cancer. A new study from researchers at the National Cancer Institute clarifies this risk of AML, in terms of different patient populations. Over the past three decades, … Continue reading
As if getting a diagnosis for a complex or chronic disease wasn’t tough enough, some patients discover serious shortfalls in their insurance. In some cases, patients can’t start treatment because they are unable to financially bridge the difference of a very high deductible. This is where the Patient Foundation Assistance program at BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy … Continue reading
Guest Blog: Monica Morgan, Pharm.D., Clinical Pharmacy Specialist at BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy As if the aches and pains of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) weren’t trouble enough, people with this autoimmune disease also develop shingles (herpes zoster) infections more often than the general population. An increasingly popular rheumatoid arthritis treatment – anti-tumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) medications – … Continue reading
Hepatitis C medications – while being the best game in town for treating this life-threatening disease – admittedly come with a significant burden in side effects for most patients. Medication combinations that can shorten treatment time and cure more cases of acute hepatitis C infections are welcome news to both patients and physicians. Dr. Daniel … Continue reading
Like ripples in a pond, every single hepatitis C-infected injection drug user is likely to infect an additional 20 people with this disease. Time is of the essence in stopping this disease spread, since about half of these transmissions happen in the first two years after the drug user’s initial infection. Not surprisingly, these drug … Continue reading
Did you catch last Monday’s landmark study in the New England Journal of Medicine showing that nuts in the diet can protect against heart disease? Usually, I’m fairly critical of nutritional studies that are related to health, since so many are poorly designed and biased. This study, known as the PREDIMED trial and led by … Continue reading
Who doesn’t want to keep health care costs down? It’s not just prudent, but increasingly a necessity in these tight economic times. And when there’s a way to lower costs without a big initial investment, all the better. That’s exactly what University of Oregon researchers say they have found with the idea of “patient activation.” … Continue reading
Guest Blog: Amanda Brown, Director of Rx Coordinators at BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy Navigating through cancer treatment tends to go better for patients when healthcare professionals offer adherence-promoting tools and proactively manage side effects, concludes a study this month in the journal Cancer Nursing by Sandra Spoelstra, Ph.D. and fellow researchers from Michigan State University. Not … Continue reading
Guest Blog: Elvin Montanez, Pharm.D., Senior Vice President at BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently added a boxed warning to some of the newer treatments for hepatitis C, warning patients to stop treatment if a systemic or progressive rash develops. Some media outlets treated this information as if it were … Continue reading
As Hurricane Sandy made landfall, many hospitals throughout the region faced the difficult decision of whether to care in place for their patients after their generators failed or evacuate patients to other locations. Likewise, some individual households with chronically ill family members faced the same dilemma. The successful evacuation of the 700 patients from Bellevue … Continue reading
IgG therapy treats a wide variety of health conditions, including “Bubble Boy disease.” Bubble Boy disease refers to severe combined immune deficiency syndrome; the alliterative name was coined by the media after a boy who had lived in a plastic isolation ward in the 1970s. At the time, there were no treatments available, but today … Continue reading
A faster, easier, and more complete flow of information between health insurers and healthcare providers will result in more effective therapeutic outcomes for patients – and a better bottom line, notes the recent study “Advancing Healthcare Informatics: The Power of Partnerships” which was developed by the consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers. Here at BioPlus we agree completely … Continue reading
The patient holds the center piece of the health care puzzle – which is a big change from a few decades ago, when the system and doctors held all the cards. Today, patients have a bigger role in the decision-making process and also a bigger responsibility for the choices they make: from prevention through diagnosis … Continue reading
Guest Blog: Nick Maroulis, Pharm.D., Director of Pharmacy at BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy The fallout from Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t stop at the destruction of the patient’s mind, but spills over to everyone who loves that person. I’ve seen this heartache with my friend Linda’s family. Her mother, Fidelina, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease 10 years ago … Continue reading
In last week’s blog, I discussed a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) that reviewed evidence from 68 scientific articles in an effort to determine which interventions are most effective in improving medication adherence. This report noted that effective interventions include case management education, reminders, pharmacist-led approaches, decision aids, reducing … Continue reading
While everyone agrees that better medication adherence would improve treatment outcomes and save money—what isn’t so clear-cut is which methods are the most effective to achieve this goal. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which is part of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, recently stepped into this discussion. Reports released … Continue reading
Guest Blog: Kathy Norris, Patient Care Manager at BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy “You care because you ask.” This response came to me from a patient who I had just scheduled for her monthly medication delivery. The medication treated her chronic disease, but unfortunately, the side effects from this medication can be almost as difficult to deal … Continue reading
As politicians ramp up efforts for greater voter turnout in next month’s election, it turns out that a little trick from cognitive psychology applied in get-out-the-vote drives might also work to increase medication compliance in patients. So what’s this intersection of voting behavior and medication adherence all about? Todd Rogers, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor of … Continue reading
Guest Blog: Sharon O. Ferrer, Director of Pharmaceutical Contracting The specialty pharmacy market is a competitive and growing industry due to the dynamics of the pharmaceutical industry’s shifting focus from traditional brand-name drugs to specialty drugs. In 2011, according to a drug trend report from Express Scripts, specialty drug spending increased to 17.6 percent of … Continue reading
Have you heard the buzz lately about vitamin B12 and hepatitis C? After a pilot study reported that vitamin B12 improved hepatitis cure rates, some of my patients have been asking whether vitamin B12 injections could up their chances of curing their hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The recent study I mentioned, which was published … Continue reading
Guest Blog: Barbara Weller, Vice President of Finance When a loved one is sick with a life-threatening illness, knowing that there are treatments available is comforting. Life-saving treatments priced out of the budget however, is less than comforting. Many chronic and life-threatening diseases require medications costing thousands of dollars. Most families find that their insurance … Continue reading
In last week’s blog (The Future of Medication Adherence, Part 1), medication adherence trends affecting the future of medication adherence were examined, including the changing role of pharmacists, emerging technology, and regulations. This week’s blog will continue by rounding out four more trends that will shape patient care in the future. Incentives for Change The … Continue reading
Medication adherence results in an extra $290 billion in costs, due to unnecessary hospital admissions, doctor visits, and lab tests, as well as impacting quality of life for patients. BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy always has our eye to ways to improve patient adherence, since better adherence leads to the best possible treatment outcomes for all of … Continue reading
ATTENTION: Last week’s guest blog, “Never Say Never,” by Murali Sastry posted in Dr. Stephen Vogt’s BioBlog was missing some citations. Please delete the original version of the blog and replace it with this corrected version. Thank you. Murali Sastry Guest Blog: Murali Sastry, Director of Payer Contracting Each month, the average specialty … Continue reading
Patients facing serious, complex, or chronic diseases truly benefit from a team of professionals – as well as family and friends – working and rooting for their best possible health outcome. There are several varieties of team approaches, including one called the “medical home” healthcare model. The goal of all team approaches is to integrate … Continue reading
Over the years, many of my hepatitis C patients have asked if milk thistle would provide additional benefit during treatment of their hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Since this herb doesn’t have any side effects (aside from a mild laxative effect in a small number of people), I’ve been open to my patients using it … Continue reading
Until a cure for hemophilia is discovered, the next best thing is giving clotting factor regularly to prevent bleeding – rather than waiting for “on demand” clotting factor after bleeding starts. This preventive use of clotting factor is known as prophylaxis. Prophylaxis aims to bring hemophilia from a severe state down to a moderate state … Continue reading
At scientific meetings, one of my favorite things is attending the poster sessions and reading the research abstracts. I always find nuggets of information that cause me to think and ponder. Such was the case at this year’s Digestive Disease Week (DDW) meeting in San Diego. DDW is the largest international gathering of physicians and … Continue reading
Surescripts, which is a nationwide network connecting the computer systems of physicians and pharmacies, recently released their annual report on e-prescribing. This survey offers a snapshot of the state of e-prescribing in today’s medical world. The numbers – which are based on the survey’s 2011 data – speak for themselves: 317,000 physicians e-prescribed; this is … Continue reading
Here I am, back on my soapbox, calling for people to get screened for the hepatitis C virus (HCV). More than 3 million Americans are infected with this virus and a majority of these people don’t even know it! It’s to those estimated 1.6 million infected but undiagnosed people that I plead with, once again, … Continue reading
Taking each and every pill at the right time, every time is not as easy as it sounds. Most patients treating a disease find it hard to remember to take their medications completely in accord with the care plan. In fact, forgetfulness is one of the top barriers to compliance, especially for complex or chronic … Continue reading
Guest Blog: Shelley Moore, R.N., National Director of Hemophilia at BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy Last week, I met a young family who just had their first baby boy. He was about six weeks old and as adorable as any other little boy could be. What I knew and the family knew, but others cannot visibly see, … Continue reading
Guest Blog: Nick Maroulis, Pharm.D. It’s only a few days until the first-ever national “Hepatitis Testing Day” in the United States. As this day approaches (May 19th, 2012) I can’t help but think of the millions of Americans who do not know that they have chronic viral hepatitis. I hope that as many of them … Continue reading
In just a few weeks, my son Josh will graduate from medical school and head off to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester to spend three years training in internal medicine. His final clinical rotation in medical school will be hepatology. I may be biased, but I believe he saved the best for last. Last night, … Continue reading
Chronic diseases affect nearly half of the population, yet physician shortages and unbalanced distribution of health care providers mean that as many as 56 million Americans do not have adequate access to primary health care in their communities. An elegant solution to this problem is suggested in a report entitled “Improving Patient and Health System … Continue reading
A trip to the nail salon or the barbershop sounds innocent enough, but a new report shared at last week’s annual scientific meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology warns that bloodborne pathogens such as hepatitis B and C viruses could be transmitted along with your mani/pedi or buzz cut. The problem lies in the potential … Continue reading
