NASP Challenges Specialty Pharmacy Stakeholders to Innovate for Medication Adherence

The National Association of Specialty Pharmacy (NASP) is launching a new competition to encourage innovation in specialty pharmacy. The NASP Challenge is an unique opportunity to identify innovative ideas and creative solutions focused on enhancing the specialty pharmacy patient jouney by overcoming barriers to medication adherence and improving clinical and economical patient outcomes.

The challenge begins May 18, 2020, with submissions due by August 1, 2020. A winner will be announced later this year, during the NASP Annual Meeting & Expo in Washington, DC; September 14-17, 2020.

Sheila M. Arquette, RPh, executive director, NASP, said the challenge is designed to foster connectivity amongst specialty pharmacy industry stakeholders and encourage the exploration of additional partnerships and synergies.

“The specialty pharmacy patient journey can be incredibly complex. Any opportunity to improve the patient experience and enhance outcomes is incredibly valuable. This challenge provides a formal opportunity to showcase innovative ideas and solutions that focus on enhancing the specialty pharmacy patient care journey and providing benefit to all industry stakeholders,” said Arquette, in an email to Pharmacy Times®.

Please visit the NASP Challenge website to submit ideas and view the competition rules. An explanation of the idea is needed for the challenge, and candidates do not need to have created a business or prototype at this stage. Ideas for innovative solutions should consider how they can benefit all stakeholders, including patients, specialty pharmacies, clinicians, manufacturers, and payers.

Three challenge finalists will be chosen by a combination of crowd sourcing and a panel of judges. Voting will be open to the public on the NASP Challenge website. Public votes will be combined with judges’ scoring to determine these three finalists.

Additionally, two finalists will be selected at the sole discretion of NASP.

All five finalists will have an opportunity to pitch their ideas before a panel of judges on September 17, 2020, during the NASP Annual Meeting & Expo. The winner will be selected and officially recognized during this meeting.

At stake are opportunities for the winner to be featured on a NASP webinar that will be offered by the organization to its 2000+ members, and the winner will be featured on the NASP Podcast, which is distributed through the NASP Podcast Channel and the Pharmacy Podcast Nation. In addition, the winner will be acknowledged in this year’s post-meeting marketing materials; and will receive two complimentary passes to the 2021 NASP Annual Meeting & Expo, as well as a 10% discount on an exhibit booth at next year’s meeting.

Arquette said the organization is looking forward to recognizing the challenge’s winner and other participants at the 2020 NASP Annual Meeting & Expo.

“We are excited to provide this unique opportunity to the industry to highlight innovation and creativity,” she said in an email. “The NASP Challenge supports NASP’s strategic goal of increasing collaboration, fostering connectivity, sharing best practices and exploring synergies and partnerships with the ultimate goal of positively impacting patient care.”