Q&A: Heba Awadallah, Director, Clinical Pharmacy, MedAdvisor Solutions

RamaOnHealthcare August 28, 2024

The Easy Pill to Swallow: Digital Tools Simplify Pharmacy Care

Today, RamaOnHealthcare talks with Heba Awadallah, Director of Clinical Pharmacy, MedAdvisor Solutions.

Some background: Pharmacists gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the frontline care team, they vaccinated patients and provided other primary care diagnostic and testing services. Many people weren’t familiar with Pharmacists practicing at the top of their licenses.

As primary care physician shortages grew, Pharmacists stepped up to provide some essential healthcare services and expanded pharmacies’ role in patients’ lives. That’s important, as 90% of people in the U.S. live less than five miles from a community pharmacy, and pharmacists are the third-most trusted medical professionals.

A shortage of pharmacists requires pharmacies to reexamine their roles and methods to provide valuable and effective healthcare services to patients despite challenges. Digital pharmacy solutions are one way to accomplish this.

RamaOnHealthcare (ROH): What do consumers want at the pharmacy that they’re not getting now?

Heba Awadallah (HA): While it sounds obvious, patients want to know what to expect in terms of how and when we can help them. They are not getting that now. Pharmacies need to be proactive about accurately setting those expectations.

When a prescription is called in, patients want to know when it will be ready and available when they arrive. This is more challenging than it sounds! Multiple parties are involved in sending and receiving the prescription and notifications, and these different tech systems don’t always communicate with each other.

I have seen how patients’ needs and wants are changing. At one point, I managed a 24-hour pharmacy with 10 technicians and five pharmacists. We averaged 700 prescriptions per day while serving many patients with questions and/or wanted their medications as quickly as possible. There are hundreds of opportunities daily to build loyalty and trust or to lose it.

Messages to patients should be accurate and sent in the channel the patient wants to receive, whether a text, email, automated call, or portal message – and not all modes at once. Technology integration is improving, but we must do better. In short, pharmacy patients need personal attention.

ROH: What’s available to consumers now in digital pharmacy solutions?

HA: Most pharmacies have user-friendly apps. Even if patients are not using text messaging, they can check the app to find out when a medication will be ready. Some apps also offer appointment scheduling for vaccinations and prescription refill options. These are valuable tools to simplify patient processes. Patients want a customized approach. They want healthcare providers to customize and coordinate their communications.

ROH: How else does the digitizing process help patients?

HA: Patients are not looking for a digital experience. They are looking for their pharmacy to improve or maintain their health in the easiest way possible. Digitization can help with that, especially with the challenges of medication nonadherence.

Studies show nonadherence can lead to $500 billion in avoidable healthcare costs, and 50% of Americans don’t follow prescription information for their chronic medications. That’s a problem because 60% of U.S. adults have at least one chronic condition.

Patients know they should take their medications, but many still don’t do it properly. Whether due to cost, timing issues requesting refills or pickups, misunderstanding directions, or other reasons – simple and regular reminders from pharmacies can help a lot.

Other digital pharmacy solutions can help patients via education. The personalized links to pharmacy and health information are great, but patients want more access points, and that’s where chat assistants come in.

I love providing education to my patients, but pharmacists are also busy on the job. Virtual assistants successfully respond to baseline patient questions using closed-loop information, meaning they only draw from vetted expert resources. AI assistants, in general, have proven successful in many customer service roles when focusing on more basic questions. Providing this service frees up the experts, in this case pharmacists, giving them more time to engage with patients in higher-level discussions.

ROH: How would streamlining pharmacists’ work allow them to provide higher-level services?

HA: Retail pharmacies are measured on and compensated for medication therapy management. This is a great service for people on multiple medications or with complex medical issues. Pharmacists research the patient’s medications and conditions in advance to discuss and counsel the patient in person or on the telephone.

Sometimes, this involves follow-up with the patient or their provider. The service can help optimize the patient’s medications and improve better adherence and health. Patients who are on multiple medications may have a difficult time tracking and remembering when they last took their medications. A digital app can help them remember, improve adherence by sending reminders when they are late, and offer encouragement when they take their medications on time.

Finding time to identify opportunities for medication therapy management is challenging and time-consuming. It requires the pharmacist to log in to the proper portal and review patient records. Then, it requires time to research the medications and conditions, talk with the patient, and potentially follow up.

If pharmacists’ work was more streamlined, there would be more time for us to better engage and develop our pharmacy teams and even walk through the over-the-counter aisles, offering consumers help. This would give patients the chance to ask questions and build strong relationships.

ROH: Why should pharmacies pay attention to digital trends now?

HA: I know the difficulty of being asked to do more with less. Pharmacists are overwhelmed while customers are becoming less patient. Patients are accustomed to waiting for their drugs, but it shouldn’t be that way.

Pharmacies that excel at customer service will stand out. One way to do that is to give patients information the way they want it. Depending on the patient’s needs, that can be on their devices or paper. While pharmacies are already working with different technologies, they are not “all in.” Technology is integral to streamlining pharmacy operations, making them more efficient and making patients happier and healthier.

Pharmacies face labor shortages, pharmacist burnout, and increasing prescription numbers. The current situation will only improve by adding a new ingredient, and digital is that something. Providing digital services that enhance the customer experience creates loyalty and trust, strengthening the importance of the pharmacy in the patient’s healthcare journey. It allows a pharmacy to stand out over its competitors while improving adherence and patient outcomes.

ROH: How does digital technology help the pharmacist?

HA: Pharmacists should practice at the top of their licenses so they can best help the patient. That is an integral initiative that digital pharmacy solutions support. While the top-of-license concept has been around for a long time, state-level initiatives are working to expand pharmacists’ ability to be acknowledged as providers and offer patients broader access to healthcare.

Digital solutions allow pharmacists to allocate some of their current tasks so they can expand their services as providers, helping patients with certain acute conditions. Ultimately, this would provide patients with more sites of care to receive medical care and provide a streamlined solution to get their medications, if needed, at the same time and place as their diagnosis—and often, this would be closer to home.

Myriad digital solutions can help, including integrating pharmacy systems with physician portals and electronic prescription records. Having the option to sustainably share prescription drug information with patients electronically also helps pharmacists.

The healthcare field is ever-changing. While there is a perceived risk in adopting technology too rapidly, I’d argue that waiting is a bigger risk. Pharmacies are nervous about using AI, including conversational AI assistants, and providing more information to patients digitally. But it’s important we engage patients in their healthcare in ways that patients want to be engaged, making it convenient for them so they can invest in their own healthcare journey.

For more information about MedAdvisor Solutions’ Digital Pharmacy solution, visit medadvisorsolutions.com.

More about Heba Awadallah

Heba Awadallah is an award-winning, multi-state licensed, and board-certified pharmacist with more than 15 years of experience in people and pharmacy leadership across various settings, including retail, specialty, pharma, and academia. She currently works as the Director of Clinical Pharmacy Solutions at MedAdvisor Solutions. A subject matter expert in specialty pharmacy, she focuses on oncology, multiple sclerosis, and rare diseases. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy and is certified by the Board of Pharmacy Specialties, the Specialty Pharmacy Certification Board, and the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers.