How Can Stakeholders Improve Outcomes, Reduce Oncology Spend?

Montanez: I think stakeholders in specialty pharmacies—one, we can invest more in really getting to know more about the patient and their medical history, collecting data around what we are getting ready to engage in around their care plan.

I think all that data—when it’s presented in a meaningful way—creates information on why patients are responding, why they’re able to stay on therapy, why they’re coming off of therapy, what works, and what doesn’t work.

In 2015 and 2016, we really learned that real-world evidence that we collect on a regular basis is very important to understanding the patient journey around the oncology prescription and if health care isn’t provided in an effective way and a quality way, the spend starts to increase and you can see a lot of wasteful utilization.

All of that is mitigated when you’re really looking at the patient and the engagement process. Getting to know what we’re treating, how we’re treating it, what are the expectations, what’s the patient’s journey been leading up to their engagement with your specialty pharmacy, and what are the expectations and outcomes around that treatment.