Research Group Issues Call to Nation’s Top Leaders, Experts and Scholars to Join Fast-Track Research Study to Address $528 Billion Medications and Vaccine Challenge

the University of Louisville Center for Health Organization Transformation (CHOT), a National Science Foundation-funded research center, the Frazier Polypharmacy Program at UofL, and the RAPID Alliance Research Consortium announced the launch of the RAPID Alliance Medications 360 Study.

The study will bring together senior leaders, experts and scholars from across the US, the 50 states and DC, to co-create a strategic roadmap and actionable next steps for optimizing use of medications, vaccines and related therapies for US populations.

This study builds on a 2020 research study, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, that identified strategic opportunities to improve health and wellbeing for the US population while reducing spending on likely-avoidable hospitalizations, emergency department and doctor visits by as much as $528 Billion dollars by optimizing medications and vaccine use.

The study design calls for balanced representation from across the US medication use ecosystem, including but not limited to 11 stakeholder groups (e.g., patient advocates, physicians, nurses and clinicians, pharmacists and pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, health systems, aging care providers, health plans and plan sponsors, digital health and interoperability organizations, standards and measures organizations, government and policy leaders and university-based researchers).

Study topics will include health equity and empowerment, value-driven payment and practice models, interoperability, digital technologies, measurement and attribution standards, influenza and COVID-19 vaccine uptake, and national research priorities.

UofL’s Judah Thornewill, PhD, Demetra Antimisiaris, PharmD, Robert Esterhay, MD, William Yasnoff, MD, PhD and Tom Walton, MDiv are the study’s co- investigators.

“We are excited about using new collaboration-science based methods and tools to enable leaders, experts and scholars from across the US to co-create new, actionable strategies to address this important population health challenge,” Thornewill said.

For more information:

Learn more, or apply to join the study, at https://meds360.starstudy.link

The National Science Foundation Center for Health Organization Transformation at the University of Louisville (NSF-CHOT) is a federally awarded industry-university collaborative research center that aims to accelerate applied research and workforce development by integrating health care systems engineering, health services research and health policy. For more information visit http://louisville.edu/sphis/departments/chot.

The RAPID Alliance is a multi-stakeholder, multi-university research consortium administered by NSF-CHOT and the Frazier Polypharmacy Program at UofL. Its mission is to conduct transformational research to optimize medication therapies for US populations. Founding members include leaders from the Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF), American Pharmacists Association (APhA), American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP), American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP), American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA), National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), National Community Pharmacies Association (NCPA), the Community Pharmacy Foundation, CPESN USA, Sanofi and Sanofi Pasteur, and leading researchers from multiple schools of pharmacy and health science centers. For more information visit www.rapidalliance.org.