Promoting transitions of care, safety, and medication adherence for patients taking fingolimod in community pharmacies.

PURPOSE

The development and dissemination of a specialty pharmacy service to optimize fingolimod therapy management are described.

SUMMARY

Fingolimod was the first oral therapy developed to counter relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Pharmacovigilance measures and individualized support are strongly recommended due to associated safety concerns. The Fingolimod Patient Support Program (F-PSP) was developed and disseminated within a community pharmacy network. The F-PSP aims to ensure responsible use of fingolimod and patient empowerment by promoting medication adherence and patient safety through a person-centered and integrated care approach. It complements basic pharmacy services through 2 interventions: medication adherence support and pharmacovigilance tailored to fingolimod. The adherence intervention combines motivational interviewing with longitudinal electronic medication adherence monitoring. The pharmacovigilance component consists of informing patients of fingolimod recommendations, reminding patients of recommended medical tests, and tracking and monitoring symptoms, especially those of potential serious adverse fingolimod reactions. A secure Web platform guides the pharmacist in conducting interviews and enables collection of patient-reported outcome data. A transition care pharmacist proposes program participation to all patients initiated on fingolimod, performs enrollment, and coordinates transfers to patient-designated community pharmacies for ongoing care.

CONCLUSION

The F-PSP enables support of individual patients, and also provides real-world data, helping to bridge the gap between practice and research. The F-PSP is intended to be a generic model of a specialty pharmacy service that is transferable to any other healthcare context, specialty drug or disease.