Latest / Pharmacy Podcast Network / inSPire 2026 Rewind; The Hub of Specialty Pharmacy | Part One

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inSPire 2026 Rewind; The Hub of Specialty Pharmacy | Part One · Pharmacy Podcast Network

0:00
Speaker 1: A special thank you to our sponsors for this year's
0:02
Speaker 1: coverage of Inspire 2026. Your support makes our coverage possible.
0:08
Speaker 1: And now, a quick message before this episode begins. Healthcare
0:14
Speaker 1: innovation moves quickly, but innovation is only valuable when clinicians
0:19
Speaker 1: can trust the information behind it. That is where FDB,
0:23
Speaker 1: or First Data Bank, makes the difference. FDB provides trusted,
0:27
Speaker 1: clinically validated medication knowledge and clinical decision support designed for
0:31
Speaker 1: integration into modern healthcare technology. From electronic health records and
0:35
Speaker 1: pharmacy systems to e-prescribing networks, artificial intelligence, payer platforms, and
0:40
Speaker 1: patient-facing solutions, FDB helps turn complex drug data into actionable guidance.
0:45
Speaker 1: FDB is also advancing the future of medication intelligence by
0:49
Speaker 1: enabling AI-powered workflows to draw from reliable, expert-curated clinical content,
0:55
Speaker 1: helping technology move beyond information towards safer, more useful action.
0:59
Speaker 1: For pharmacists and clinicians, that means more relevant medication alerts,
1:03
Speaker 1: stronger clinical decision support, improved reconciliation, clearer patient instructions. and
1:09
Speaker 1: information that fits naturally into the workflow. For healthcare technology companies,
1:13
Speaker 1: it means access to proven drug knowledge that can strengthen products,
1:17
Speaker 1: support responsible innovation, and improve the decisions made at every
1:20
Speaker 1: point of care. Learn how FDB is connecting trusted drug knowledge,
1:25
Speaker 1: intelligent technology, and patient-centered care. Visit fdbhealth.com. First Data Bank,
1:31
Speaker 1: powering the medication decisions that move healthcare forward every single day, worldwide.
1:45
Speaker 2: You are listening to the Global Network of Podcasters dedicated
1:49
Speaker 2: to the pharmacy profession.
1:50
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
1:53
Speaker 4: Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
2:07
Speaker 5: It's that time of year where the Pharmacy Podcast Network's
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Speaker 5: founder and CEO, Todd Urie, lands where the hub of
2:14
Speaker 5: specialty pharmacy hosts their annual meeting. Introducing the Inspire 2026
2:21
Speaker 5: Annual Expo. That's right. Specialty pharmacy is evolving, and so
2:26
Speaker 5: is the name of its largest annual meeting. The NASP
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Speaker 5: Annual Meeting and Expo got an upgrade. innovation, networking, specialty
2:34
Speaker 5: pharmacy expertise, insights, research, and education come together to empower, educate,
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Speaker 5: and connect our community. Live in National Harbor, Maryland, tune
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Speaker 5: in as Todd roams the showroom floor, bringing you the
2:47
Speaker 5: inside coverage of this year's event.
2:52
Speaker 6: Dr.
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Speaker 7: Stephen Miller here from First Data Bank. I have been
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Speaker 7: looking forward to this interview with you, Stephen. Introduce yourself
3:00
Speaker 7: and what you do and your unique role at FDB.
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Speaker 6: So I'm Steve Miller. Thanks a lot, Todd, for having
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Speaker 6: me on. So I'm a pediatric gastroenterologist. I got into
3:12
Speaker 6: this whole pharmacy informatics space because Initially, because I, as
3:19
Speaker 6: a pediatric GI doctor, was essentially functioning as a specialty
3:24
Speaker 6: pharmacy prior orthologist. That was my whole life, was trying
3:29
Speaker 6: to get patients access to these, you know, life-saving medications,
3:34
Speaker 6: mostly kids with inflammatory bowel disease. And I'm an informatician,
3:38
Speaker 6: and I got real obsessed with sort of healthcare human factors.
3:43
Speaker 6: And the workflows in specialty pharmacy. And that eventually took
3:48
Speaker 6: me to working with First Data Bank, this amazing health
3:52
Speaker 6: IT company. And I think what I'm looking at in
3:56
Speaker 6: terms of future state in pharmacy and in specialty pharmacy
4:03
Speaker 6: is ways in which we're seeing that AI and particularly
4:10
Speaker 6: agentic AI is going to really heavily impact pharmacy workflows.
4:16
Speaker 6: In terms of what's happening right now with AI, the
4:19
Speaker 6: main like actually real world used use case is ambient
4:24
Speaker 6: listening and billing and coding of like diagnoses and like
4:32
Speaker 6: CPT codes in treatments. It's heavily impacting doctor workflows in
4:37
Speaker 6: that way. And I think there's this great promise in pharmacy,
4:43
Speaker 6: but I don't know that it's really all been realized
4:46
Speaker 6: quite yet. But I think very proximally, there's a bunch
4:51
Speaker 6: of ways that agentic AI in general is going to
4:55
Speaker 6: have major impacts on actual pharmacy workflows. And I think
5:02
Speaker 6: my company, FDB, is going to be involved in some
5:06
Speaker 6: of these, but not necessarily all of them. And I
5:09
Speaker 6: want to talk about a few of them.
5:12
Speaker 8: Is that a reasonable.
5:13
Speaker 9: Absolutely.
5:14
Speaker 7: Okay.
5:14
Speaker 9: We want to hear about them.
5:15
Speaker 6: And I think there's other vendors here who are doing
5:18
Speaker 6: some of this stuff. But when you think about the
5:23
Speaker 6: sort of pharmacy... ordering drug life cycle you know a
5:30
Speaker 6: doctor I guess is the initiator a patient comes in
5:33
Speaker 6: they're the initiator they're sick then the doctor or some
5:37
Speaker 6: kind of clinician sometimes a pharmacist PA whatever places an
5:42
Speaker 6: order and then there's this whole orchestrated stream of downstream
5:49
Speaker 6: events that happen that screw up the process and would
5:57
Speaker 6: have been great for the doctor to know initially. Prior
6:03
Speaker 6: auth issues, errors in the writing of prescriptions, the right
6:09
Speaker 6: drug in terms of institutional policy, payer policy, clinically correct drug,
6:18
Speaker 6: and then information about cost and and patient-specific counseling. It
6:25
Speaker 6: would be great if a lot of this stuff could
6:28
Speaker 6: happen much more proximally in the workflow. Things like this
6:33
Speaker 6: have happened, real-time prescription benefits. There's a lot of different
6:37
Speaker 6: tools in the market that accomplish this, but I think
6:40
Speaker 6: what we're going to see is less talk and more
6:44
Speaker 6: action in this area. FDB has a bunch of tools
6:50
Speaker 6: that are beginning to and could potentially impact that. We
6:53
Speaker 6: have an e-prescribing network. We have this, you know, Vela,
6:56
Speaker 6: which can hit and figure out, you know, payer preference
7:01
Speaker 6: as to formulary and drugs. Many other vendors have information
7:06
Speaker 6: related to that. I think the future is a.
7:11
Speaker 9: State of.
7:16
Speaker 6: Agents that have access to all of that downstream information
7:21
Speaker 6: and can bring it either into the doctor-prescriber workflow or
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Speaker 6: potentially the pertinent piece is what's in the warehouse into
7:31
Speaker 6: the pharmacy workflow to reduce the post-calling and fixing and
7:39
Speaker 6: re-entering and cost to the patient and get the prescriber
7:46
Speaker 6: to correctly prescribe the right drug for the right indication
7:49
Speaker 6: for the right patient at the right time, which will
7:52
Speaker 6: have downstream impacts on the pharmacist and ultimately a lot
7:56
Speaker 6: of big impacts on the patient. So that's the future
8:00
Speaker 6: state that we're looking at. And I think every smart
8:04
Speaker 6: vendor in this space, along with health systems, PBMs, everybody
8:10
Speaker 6: is trying to figure out how we can work together
8:14
Speaker 6: to accomplish that goal of making sure everything's just right
8:20
Speaker 6: as early and as often as we can.
8:22
Speaker 7: Based on the commands, we start with the physician. The
8:26
Speaker 7: patient comes in, like you said. The order's established. It
8:30
Speaker 7: goes through its process. There's so many pitfalls of where
8:32
Speaker 7: it could be lost. Back in the day, when I
8:38
Speaker 7: started in pharmacy 20-plus years ago, there was very little
8:43
Speaker 7: if zero integration between the pharmacy management system and the
8:47
Speaker 7: EHR system. How has First Data Bank assured that the
8:52
Speaker 7: information that the physician is commanding and or kicking off
8:57
Speaker 7: comes full circle and goes through the pharmacy management system
9:01
Speaker 7: as well? Like, where does the baton get handed off?
9:05
Speaker 4: Yeah.
9:07
Speaker 1: I mean.
9:08
Speaker 6: Boy, it's an amazing question and a broad one. I
9:15
Speaker 6: guess we can think of it— there' s a few different ways
9:17
Speaker 6: to think of it. One way to think of it
9:19
Speaker 6: is in terms of that middle layer of the messaging. So,
9:24
Speaker 6: you know, whatever, some doctor or nurse practitioner writes a
9:28
Speaker 6: script and then it flows— somehow to a pharmacy, there's
9:33
Speaker 6: a few ways that can happen. One is NCPDP message
9:36
Speaker 6: that goes through FDB Vela or SureScripts or that's pretty
9:40
Speaker 6: much who it could flow through. And the problem with
9:45
Speaker 6: that NCPDP standard, I hope I'm not talking trash on anybody,
9:49
Speaker 6: but is that it doesn't, it's missing a lot of stuff.
9:52
Speaker 6: It could be missing the actual indication. It's missing super
9:56
Speaker 6: key information for like prior auth and pharmacists knowing what's
10:00
Speaker 6: going on it's missing the labs so that a pharmacist
10:03
Speaker 6: when they're doing dur or or med rec at a
10:06
Speaker 6: pharmacy can make sure that everything's safe it's missing lots
10:10
Speaker 6: of info so globally there's a problem with integration between
10:16
Speaker 6: systems that it's difficult to solve. There's also the rise
10:23
Speaker 6: of intra-EHR prescribing networks, Willow Pharmacy as an example, where
10:30
Speaker 6: a given site will have both the prescriber and the
10:38
Speaker 6: pharmacy dispense system within the same system and therefore have
10:41
Speaker 6: a much more data-rich, integrated kind of environment and not
10:47
Speaker 6: be reliant upon the limitations of NCPDP messaging. At FDB,
10:54
Speaker 6: we are often the provider of both sides. We're providing
10:58
Speaker 6: the data that's integrated into the HR for ordering and e-prescribing, CPOE, whatever,
11:04
Speaker 6: and then also at the dispense level. And so that
11:10
Speaker 6: reduces friction in some ways by having the same data set, same.
11:13
Speaker 3: Codes, and all of that information.
11:16
Speaker 6: What we're looking to do over time, and again with
11:20
Speaker 6: these agentic processes, is to have a central hub where
11:28
Speaker 6: information from each system is collated. and then can provide
11:34
Speaker 6: outputs to give what is really clinical decision support, but
11:39
Speaker 6: it's not decision support in terms of just choosing the
11:42
Speaker 6: right drug for indication, but decision support in terms of
11:45
Speaker 6: situational awareness for everybody in the system to know what
11:49
Speaker 6: the right medication is for economic, policy, and clinical and
11:56
Speaker 6: patient preference reasons. It's about getting all of that data
12:01
Speaker 6: collated and presented in a cogent way. And the final
12:05
Speaker 6: mile of that may be via EHRs. It may be
12:09
Speaker 6: from or pharmacy equivalent systems. It may be through patient portals,
12:17
Speaker 6: transparent patient view of it. And it may be through
12:21
Speaker 6: some kind of external app that we would own. Over time,
12:26
Speaker 6: I think that's going to become the norm where these
12:29
Speaker 6: siloed information systems with electronic messages that flow between them,
12:35
Speaker 6: where all of the separation in those systems is reduced.
12:41
Speaker 6: And again, I think the way to do that is
12:44
Speaker 6: going to be through regulations that support if patients are
12:49
Speaker 6: willing access to multiple layers in the system by agents
12:54
Speaker 6: that can pull data, collate it, and present it to
12:56
Speaker 6: everybody in a cogent, combined format.
12:59
Speaker 7: We really have to have you back, Steve. And I
13:03
Speaker 7: want to bring on some other members of the FDB
13:06
Speaker 7: team and kind of unpack some of this. But you've
13:09
Speaker 7: really staged some excellent talking points, especially around the complexity
13:14
Speaker 7: that specialty pharmacy brings.
13:15
Speaker 9: It's a whole other layer.
13:17
Speaker 7: Promise me you're coming back to Pharmacy Podcast Network and
13:20
Speaker 7: we can actually dig a little.
13:22
Speaker 9: Deeper into this.
13:22
Speaker 10: Awesome.
13:23
Speaker 9: Thanks a lot. Appreciate your time. Thank you.
13:29
Speaker 11: Hi, this is Angela.
13:30
Speaker 12: Johnston with First Data Bank, and you're listening to the
13:32
Speaker 12: Pharmacy Podcast Network.
13:35
Speaker 9: Angela, welcome to the show.
13:37
Speaker 7: We're at Inspire 2026 at the NASP podcast.
13:41
Speaker 9: It's great to have you on the show.
13:43
Speaker 8: It's wonderful to be here. Thank you, Todd.
13:45
Speaker 7: Shout out to FDB. You guys have been a huge supporter.
13:48
Speaker 7: We got to spend time with you at the NACDS
13:51
Speaker 7: Total Store Expo. We're now talking about specialty pharmacy. What
13:55
Speaker 7: do you like about the differences? There's such mass differences.
13:59
Speaker 7: Of course, if you're not inside the industry, you don't
14:01
Speaker 7: really understand that. But what do you like about coming
14:03
Speaker 7: to the NASP?
14:05
Speaker 8: You know, I'm fortunate. This is my very first NASP.
14:08
Speaker 9: Oh, congratulations.
14:09
Speaker 3: Thank you.
14:09
Speaker 12: So this is all fresh to me. I've been attending
14:12
Speaker 12: NACDS for years, but this is my first time. FDB
14:15
Speaker 12: has been coming here for a long time, but I
14:17
Speaker 12: personally have not been to the show before.
14:18
Speaker 8: So far, it's wonderful. I love it. Everyone's been very engaging.
14:23
Speaker 8: I love the space. I love all the topics of
14:25
Speaker 8: conversation going on. It's very exciting.
14:28
Speaker 7: So it's not as overwhelming as the Total Store Expo
14:31
Speaker 7: because Total Store Expo has more of that front-end vibe
14:35
Speaker 7: versus this is more of like, hey.
14:36
Speaker 9: This is almost like a club feeling.
14:38
Speaker 8: Yeah, and I feel like it's much more conversational.
14:41
Speaker 12: I mean, I love any CDS too, but just the
14:43
Speaker 12: general feeling here is you can approach booths and everyone
14:48
Speaker 12: is open to conversation.
14:49
Speaker 8: It's been great.
14:50
Speaker 4: All right.
14:51
Speaker 7: Tell us, what is DUR in the space of First
14:55
Speaker 7: Data Bank and what are you doing with it specifically
14:58
Speaker 7: within the specialty pharmacy space?
15:00
Speaker 12: Sure. So drug utilization review, we have sought and successfully
15:05
Speaker 12: created a tool that is sort of next generation DUR,
15:09
Speaker 12: as we like to think of it. So it is
15:12
Speaker 12: really solving for just the problem of alert fatigue, which
15:15
Speaker 12: is so real and prevalent, as I'm sure you know,
15:18
Speaker 12: and you speak to pharmacists all the time and people
15:21
Speaker 12: experiencing this problem. As pharmacists continue to practice at the
15:25
Speaker 12: top of their license and they're asked to do more,
15:28
Speaker 12: sometimes with less, less hours, you know, less, you know,
15:32
Speaker 12: increased demands.
15:33
Speaker 8: It becomes difficult for them.
15:36
Speaker 12: To always have the quality patient engagements they want to have. And,
15:43
Speaker 12: you know, one thing when I came into this industry,
15:45
Speaker 12: I am not a pharmacist, but when I.
15:47
Speaker 9: Came in the industry.
15:48
Speaker 7: Me either.
15:48
Speaker 9: I pretend.
15:49
Speaker 8: There we go.
15:50
Speaker 12: When I began speaking to pharmacists on a regular basis,
15:52
Speaker 12: this topic of alert fatigue kept coming up.
15:55
Speaker 8: And what is alert fatigue?
15:57
Speaker 12: And just the idea that they're constantly getting these alerts
16:00
Speaker 12: pinged to them. And some of them are very important
16:02
Speaker 12: and some of them are not needed to be brought
16:05
Speaker 12: up because they're issues that have already been addressed or
16:08
Speaker 12: they're things that have already been handled. But they're getting
16:10
Speaker 12: these alerts and they're having to sort of manage that
16:13
Speaker 12: while managing a patient interaction. And Navigo really solves for that.
16:16
Speaker 12: So Navigo is able to provide smart alerts, aggregated alerts
16:22
Speaker 12: that are deterministic and allow for the pharmacist to really
16:26
Speaker 12: see what alerts are most important.
16:28
Speaker 8: And help them to take action on those alerts.
16:31
Speaker 12: And specific to your question about specialty pharmacy, Todd, we
16:34
Speaker 12: have really expanded into the specialty pharmacy space. making sure
16:38
Speaker 12: that we have information on specialty drugs and that we
16:42
Speaker 12: are able to help those patients that are getting specialty meds.
16:47
Speaker 7: When I started in pharmacy long, long ago, 2004, the
16:52
Speaker 7: use of mobile technology wasn't really that much of a
16:55
Speaker 7: thing in workflow. So when I think of our pharmacists
16:59
Speaker 7: who are in hospital systems, when I think of our
17:01
Speaker 7: consultant pharmacists who are out and about actually visiting hospitals, patients,
17:05
Speaker 7: especially around some rare disease situations. Talk to me about
17:09
Speaker 7: those alerts in the realm of mobile.
17:12
Speaker 12: Well, you know, right now we're partnering with specifically, well,
17:18
Speaker 12: anyone who wants to have a conversation with us, we
17:20
Speaker 12: welcome it, certainly. But we're looking for vendor partnerships that
17:25
Speaker 12: will allow us to be able to integrate Navigo into
17:28
Speaker 12: their systems. We're available to self-programmers who want to talk
17:32
Speaker 12: about being able to have The ability to, as you said, Todd,
17:36
Speaker 12: I think that's a great call out on the go,
17:38
Speaker 12: sort of dispensing, going to the patient's home or whatever
17:43
Speaker 12: that might look like.
17:43
Speaker 8: I think that's really interesting.
17:45
Speaker 12: But right now it's for, and I want to be clear,
17:48
Speaker 12: it's for dispensive meds presently. But yeah, that's really an
17:53
Speaker 12: exciting thing you bring up.
17:55
Speaker 7: Yeah, I always want to talk about innovation and kind
17:57
Speaker 7: of like the future.
17:58
Speaker 9: Us too.
17:59
Speaker 7: We've talked about things on the NASP podcast. that haven't
18:03
Speaker 7: happened for two or three years, but then we'll reference
18:06
Speaker 7: it and be like, do you remember when I talked to.
18:08
Speaker 3: You about that? You're telling the future.
18:09
Speaker 9: That's right.
18:10
Speaker 7: So FDB is part of that future. So that's why
18:12
Speaker 7: we always want to talk about what might be coming in.
18:16
Speaker 7: And we're excited to have FDB as our podcast press sponsor.
18:21
Speaker 7: And I want to say thank you to the FDB team.
18:23
Speaker 7: It helps us to actually build our programming and promote
18:27
Speaker 7: our programming. I want to give a shout out to
18:29
Speaker 7: our specialty pharmacists. I want you to reach out to
18:31
Speaker 7: the FDB team about this product and about this opportunity.
18:38
Speaker 9: Give us a place to go.
18:39
Speaker 7: Of where our listeners can learn more about this.
18:42
Speaker 12: You know, well, you can certainly reach out to me directly, angela.johnston
18:46
Speaker 12: at fdbhealth.com. You can reach out to our CS department
18:51
Speaker 12: at cs at fdbhealth.com.
18:53
Speaker 8: They'll get you to the right place.
18:55
Speaker 12: We're so passionate about helping pharmacists do what they do
18:58
Speaker 12: best and helping them to prescribe safely and to help
19:03
Speaker 12: patients safely adhere to their medications.
19:07
Speaker 7: We so much appreciate you being on the NESP podcast
19:09
Speaker 7: here at Inspire 2026. And we can't wait to talk
19:13
Speaker 7: with you next. I can't remember which one we're going
19:16
Speaker 7: to next to run into you.
19:17
Speaker 8: But it'll be one of them.
19:18
Speaker 9: So many.
19:19
Speaker 8: I love it, Todd. Thank you so much for your time.
19:25
Speaker 10: Hi, this is Bonnie Doogie with Vital One, and you're
19:28
Speaker 10: listening to the Pharmacy Podcast.
19:32
Speaker 7: Hey, Bonnie, here at Inspire 2026. Great to finally meet
19:37
Speaker 7: you and understand the evolution of Vital One.
19:40
Speaker 9: Welcome to the show.
19:41
Speaker 1: Great.
19:41
Speaker 10: Thanks, Todd.
19:42
Speaker 9: Thanks for having me. Good to be here.
19:44
Speaker 4: All right.
19:44
Speaker 7: Out of the gate, we need to tell the listeners
19:46
Speaker 7: a over 100-year legacy in infrastructure. and company, which was
19:51
Speaker 7: called Maxor, and it's transformed into Vital One.
19:54
Speaker 9: Talk to us a little bit about that.
19:56
Speaker 6: Yes.
19:56
Speaker 9: Maxor is a.
19:57
Speaker 10: Company that started a small pharmacy there in West Texas.
20:01
Speaker 10: We've been around for 100 years, but last summer, we
20:04
Speaker 10: changed our name to Vital One because to better showcase
20:07
Speaker 10: the different pharmacy services that we offer to everyone.
20:11
Speaker 7: Something that's very special about today's interview is a trend
20:16
Speaker 7: that is expanding throughout the entire specialty pharmacy profession, and
20:20
Speaker 7: that is accreditation as infrastructure in messaging and making sure
20:25
Speaker 7: that it's a core priority.
20:27
Speaker 9: Expand upon that, how Vital One's helping.
20:30
Speaker 13: Right.
20:30
Speaker 10: So with Vital One, we work with hospitals and health
20:33
Speaker 10: systems around the country to And we help them with
20:35
Speaker 10: inpatient or outpatient pharmacy, particularly specialty pharmacies in 340B space.
20:41
Speaker 10: And with those specialty pharmacies, oftentimes they are required to
20:44
Speaker 10: have accreditation so that they can get into payer networks
20:47
Speaker 10: or access to limited distribution drugs. And what's important about
20:51
Speaker 10: that is with accreditation, it's not something that you can
20:54
Speaker 10: do once every three years. It's something that needs to
20:57
Speaker 10: become part of your day-to-day operations. And that's something that
21:00
Speaker 10: we do very well at Vital One.
21:02
Speaker 4: And we.
21:03
Speaker 10: support our partners in doing that, and that helps them
21:07
Speaker 10: be successful in the services that they provide to their patients.
21:10
Speaker 7: One of your colleagues has been on our shows throughout
21:13
Speaker 7: the years. A shout out to Jill Passere and the
21:18
Speaker 7: work that she did on a very important survey that
21:20
Speaker 7: you're preparing. It will be coming out as a white paper.
21:23
Speaker 7: Talk to us about that survey and some of the
21:25
Speaker 7: information in it.
21:27
Speaker 9: Yes, so it's very exciting.
21:28
Speaker 10: So back in 2023, Jill did a survey on pharmacy management,
21:33
Speaker 10: project management within the accreditation space. And at that time,
21:37
Speaker 10: she was the first time that the survey was ever done,
21:40
Speaker 10: and she had about 16 respondents. And so it's been
21:45
Speaker 10: three years, and so we got together and we decided
21:47
Speaker 10: this would be great to repeat this survey. So we
21:50
Speaker 10: expanded the questions, and then we partnered with NASP so
21:53
Speaker 10: that we could expand our reach And we actually had
21:56
Speaker 10: 60 respondents on the survey and really provided some very
22:00
Speaker 10: interesting information all about the world of accreditation and what
22:03
Speaker 10: it takes to support it.
22:06
Speaker 7: I love the fact that it's constantly being brought up
22:09
Speaker 7: so that we can continue to refine. There's disease state
22:12
Speaker 7: management expansion. There's new medications that are coming out all
22:15
Speaker 7: the time. There's going to be specifications around specific treatments.
22:19
Speaker 7: So what should pharmacists do when they have access or
22:24
Speaker 7: access to information or they don't have access to information
22:27
Speaker 7: about accreditation, what's the key takeaway?
22:31
Speaker 10: Well, accreditation is something that varies by organization. There are
22:35
Speaker 10: several accrediting organizations out there. There's ACHC, there's URAC, there's NABP,
22:40
Speaker 10: and there's ENCODA. Those are the four primary accrediting organizations
22:44
Speaker 10: for specialty pharmacy. So one of the things that you
22:46
Speaker 10: would need to do is educate yourself on the standards
22:49
Speaker 10: and work with each of those accrediting organizations so that
22:52
Speaker 10: you can meet their requirements and achieve that accreditation. What
22:55
Speaker 10: Vital One does, as well as all of our pharmacy partners,
22:58
Speaker 10: is we help, we build an infrastructure for them so
23:02
Speaker 10: that they can not only achieve initial accreditation, but it
23:05
Speaker 10: becomes part of their day-to-day operations and that they can
23:08
Speaker 10: maintain it more easily through the tools and templates that
23:10
Speaker 10: we provide them.
23:13
Speaker 7: So This is one of our favorite conferences.
23:17
Speaker 9: It's all about specialty pharmacy.
23:21
Speaker 7: Your organization is dedicated to supporting NASP. You've worked with NASP.
23:27
Speaker 7: But what's next? What's the next show that we can
23:30
Speaker 7: meet up with you at?
23:31
Speaker 9: So I'll be at ASHP mid-year.
23:33
Speaker 10: We also go to Assembia every year. That's a big
23:36
Speaker 10: conference for everyone. There's lots of activities throughout the year.
23:41
Speaker 10: I'm getting ready for those conferences and in between those conferences.
23:44
Speaker 10: So you can reach me through Vital One, through NASP.
23:50
Speaker 9: You're also on LinkedIn, too.
23:53
Speaker 10: You can reach me via LinkedIn or Vital One. And
23:57
Speaker 10: happy to contact anyone. You can DM me. Happy to
23:59
Speaker 10: reach out and connect with a lot of folks. What
24:01
Speaker 10: I do really enjoy about meetings like NASP is that
24:05
Speaker 10: it's a great opportunity for folks I might have met
24:08
Speaker 10: on the LinkedIn. But then we get to meet in
24:10
Speaker 10: person and really get to know each other and really
24:12
Speaker 10: deepen those connections and relationships.
24:14
Speaker 8: So I love that about conferences like NASP.
24:16
Speaker 9: I agree, Bonnie.
24:17
Speaker 7: There's only so much Zooming meeting that we can do online.
24:20
Speaker 7: I like to get in person and shake a hand
24:22
Speaker 7: and be able to see somebody in person.
24:25
Speaker 2: Right.
24:25
Speaker 9: It's great.
24:26
Speaker 10: Nothing beats that personal connection.
24:27
Speaker 9: That's right.
24:28
Speaker 7: Hey, Bonnie, thank you so much for being on the
24:30
Speaker 7: NASP's podcast coverage of Inspire 2026. We will have to
24:35
Speaker 7: meet up with you and Jill after your co-presentation at
24:39
Speaker 7: Assembia 2027.
24:41
Speaker 9: Thanks so much. You have a great day.
24:42
Speaker 4: Thank you.
24:45
Speaker 14: Hey, this is Christine Tang-Wilson.
24:47
Speaker 15: I'm the Vice President of Strategy at Lumisera Health Services,
24:50
Speaker 15: and you're listening to the Pharmacy Podcast.
24:54
Speaker 7: Christine is back. This is the Inspire 2026.
24:57
Speaker 9: I almost say NASP.
25:01
Speaker 7: Even though that's the organization that we're serving, this is
25:04
Speaker 7: the NASP podcast. But this is the first celebration to
25:08
Speaker 7: change the dynamic of this conference to inspire 2026 Christine.
25:13
Speaker 7: And we're here and I'm so excited to be here.
25:16
Speaker 15: I am incredibly excited to be here as well.
25:18
Speaker 14: Thanks for having me again. It's always a pleasure.
25:21
Speaker 9: It's a pleasure to see you.
25:23
Speaker 7: Lumicera is a beacon of light within the specialty pharmacy market.
25:28
Speaker 7: You have so many partners that the Pharmacy Podcast Network
25:31
Speaker 7: has worked with. Cassian Rx is one of them. Your
25:34
Speaker 7: role has shifted and has changed. You are now a
25:38
Speaker 7: strategist within the organization, but I'll say this. I am
25:42
Speaker 7: also a strategist in many ways, especially with public relations
25:46
Speaker 7: and positioning of my client's messaging. You started out in
25:52
Speaker 7: tech and technology now within specialty pharmacy is the framework
25:57
Speaker 7: of how we build efficiencies, how we build things that
26:01
Speaker 7: can be repeated, especially with some disease state management. Talk
26:04
Speaker 7: to us about your role and how strategy and technology
26:07
Speaker 7: has been fused together.
26:09
Speaker 14: Yeah, thanks for that.
26:10
Speaker 15: And, you know, it's really funny you say that because
26:13
Speaker 15: I've always been a strategist who's been on the intersection
26:16
Speaker 15: between technology and business and.
26:17
Speaker 14: Also strategy development and delivery.
26:20
Speaker 15: So I'm super excited about my role because what it
26:23
Speaker 15: has really turned into is this year, in terms of
26:26
Speaker 15: our next stage of our multi-year strategy, we're really focused
26:30
Speaker 15: on transformation. And the transformation is really about taking a
26:33
Speaker 15: company that is just around 12 years old, in this era,
26:36
Speaker 15: and really looking at taking advantage of the next generation
26:40
Speaker 15: of the technologies, right, that is offered to us right now.
26:44
Speaker 14: I don't need to name them.
26:45
Speaker 3: I think the audience know what they are.
26:47
Speaker 15: But really looking at how we leverage that to help
26:50
Speaker 15: with business growth, how we enable that business growth, how
26:52
Speaker 15: we better serve our patients, our providers, our clients.
26:57
Speaker 14: And so it's an incredibly exciting time.
27:00
Speaker 7: I want to back up for the listener's perspective and
27:02
Speaker 7: just think about this, the contrast. Let's jump 10 years back.
27:07
Speaker 7: Pharmacy management technology, hub systems that were being built out,
27:12
Speaker 7: programs that were competing with each other. It's not like
27:16
Speaker 7: that anymore. We already know how to database manage. We
27:19
Speaker 7: already know how to take special keywords and marry those
27:23
Speaker 7: keywords with processes, assuring that a disease state is managed
27:27
Speaker 7: in a way that the pharmacist knows what's best, even
27:30
Speaker 7: in titration situations. Now we're in an age where AI
27:34
Speaker 7: comes in and sucks up a lot of the mistakes
27:37
Speaker 7: that we've made as humans from repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.
27:41
Speaker 7: We don't have to worry about some of that repetitive
27:43
Speaker 7: stuff anymore. However, AI can be mispositioned. So how is
27:50
Speaker 7: AI impacting the LumaSara engine in order to deliver a
27:54
Speaker 7: better patient experience?
27:55
Speaker 15: You know, it's really great that you mentioned that. I
27:58
Speaker 15: look at the AI impact in a few different ways.
28:00
Speaker 15: You know, first I look at how is this delivering
28:02
Speaker 15: business value?
28:03
Speaker 14: And second, I look at how.
28:04
Speaker 3: Do we truly own it, right?
28:07
Speaker 15: Truly wrestle it and truly wrangle it so that it
28:09
Speaker 15: does what we want it to do to enable our growth.
28:11
Speaker 15: So the first example is one that I think more
28:15
Speaker 15: audience members are familiar with, such as looking at, I
28:17
Speaker 15: would say, the front third of our operational process. So
28:20
Speaker 15: from when we are getting ready to intake that patient
28:23
Speaker 15: to the intake, to the benefit investigation and verification through to.
28:27
Speaker 7: Your prior authorization, right?
28:29
Speaker 15: That's kind of really the front third and heart, right,
28:32
Speaker 15: of just administratively onboarding that patient. Looking at how AI
28:37
Speaker 15: can help us be much more efficient, do a lot
28:39
Speaker 15: more with much fewer people, right, in terms of where
28:43
Speaker 15: then we can better leverage our people's time to more
28:46
Speaker 15: valuable activities such as patient consults. But the second area
28:49
Speaker 15: that I look at is really how do we wrestle
28:52
Speaker 15: this for the future?
28:53
Speaker 14: Because that is the now that we're talking about.
28:55
Speaker 8: What about the future?
28:56
Speaker 15: In the future, we want to make sure that AI
28:58
Speaker 15: continues to work for us.
29:00
Speaker 9: So how do.
29:01
Speaker 3: We leverage that to really look.
29:02
Speaker 14: At patient-facing activities?
29:05
Speaker 15: You know, it's not just kind of agents reaching out
29:08
Speaker 15: to patients, but it's really about can we help you schedule?
29:11
Speaker 15: Can we be very intelligent about our outreaches to you?
29:14
Speaker 15: Can we know you before you even know the next
29:16
Speaker 15: step action yourself, right? And so really looking at that
29:20
Speaker 15: to say, how can we better delight? So it's not
29:22
Speaker 15: just administrative, but it's how do we make you happy?
29:26
Speaker 3: How do we make you sticky?
29:27
Speaker 14: How do we make you come back?
29:29
Speaker 15: So that's really, I think, the next several stages of
29:32
Speaker 15: what we're looking at.
29:34
Speaker 7: So I think of tech now much differently than I
29:37
Speaker 7: did when I entered pharmacy 2008.
29:40
Speaker 9: Goodness gracious.
29:42
Speaker 7: And 20 years ago, we were showing off database management
29:47
Speaker 7: because SQL had just come out. And now we're showing
29:51
Speaker 7: off with how AI can impact and can help us
29:55
Speaker 7: leapfrog the mundane and the imperfect and the ability to
30:03
Speaker 7: qualify and be able to drill in to what's happening
30:08
Speaker 7: to the patient that might be ancillary. We're talking about transportation.
30:13
Speaker 7: We're talking about.
30:16
Speaker 7: Some people don't have enough money to maybe eat or
30:19
Speaker 7: have the right diet with the therapy that is being administered.
30:24
Speaker 7: So now pharmacy gets an opportunity to practice at the
30:29
Speaker 7: top of my license.
30:31
Speaker 9: Well, guess what?
30:32
Speaker 7: You're literally doing that now because you can pull away
30:35
Speaker 7: from just the therapy and start concentrating on the ancillary.
30:39
Speaker 7: So talk to us about the other parts of therapy
30:42
Speaker 7: that play into treatment.
30:44
Speaker 15: I think, you know, it's a really good point. And
30:47
Speaker 15: at Lumicera, as we look at the patient, we look
30:49
Speaker 15: at the whole person. When we talk about personalization, we
30:52
Speaker 15: truly mean that. And it's about the pharmacist getting to
30:54
Speaker 15: know the patient, right, at the initial consult. Sometimes even
30:58
Speaker 15: small talk to understand, you know, where the patient is
31:01
Speaker 15: coming from, what the situation's at home.
31:02
Speaker 3: Is there a caregiver? Is this a.
31:05
Speaker 15: adolescent, for instance, patient, so a minor, so the caregiver
31:10
Speaker 15: would need access to some of our systems in order
31:12
Speaker 15: to make sure that he or she takes care of his.
31:15
Speaker 3: Or her child, right?
31:16
Speaker 15: That's incredibly important, and that's something that we've actually now
31:19
Speaker 15: customized Into our now completely digital onboarding experience, for instance, that,
31:26
Speaker 15: you know, you can indicate, hey, I'm a caregiver, right,
31:29
Speaker 15: and be allowed that access. Because, again, on that even,
31:32
Speaker 15: you know, from a state-by-state perspective, when you're talking about
31:34
Speaker 15: social determinants health, geography of where you live is incredibly important.
31:38
Speaker 15: And the states can be all slightly different when it
31:41
Speaker 15: comes to those rules and regulations.
31:43
Speaker 3: So, you know, that caregiver.
31:44
Speaker 15: Access, the delegation access, you know, is another way of
31:47
Speaker 15: putting it, is really important.
31:49
Speaker 14: It's just one example of how we're looking at, again,
31:51
Speaker 14: the whole patient.
31:53
Speaker 7: Christine, it's starting to become a tradition that you come
31:57
Speaker 7: on the show, the NASP podcast. We appreciate you being
32:00
Speaker 7: here at the Inspire 2026, and we have to have
32:03
Speaker 7: you back, Inspire 2027.
32:04
Speaker 9: Awesome.
32:06
Speaker 3: I look forward to it.
32:07
Speaker 7: Hey, you started it, so we got to keep it going.
32:10
Speaker 14: That's a good one, Todd. Thank you.
32:11
Speaker 13: Hi, this is Heather Benome, the Director of Pharmacy with URAC,
32:18
Speaker 13: and you're listening to the Pharmacy Podcasts.
32:23
Speaker 7: Hey, NASP podcast listeners. I don't know if any of
32:27
Speaker 7: you feel this way, but AI is just as wonderful
32:32
Speaker 7: as it is in concept of being scary. So when
32:36
Speaker 7: we have leading accreditation and authority organizations like Eurek assuring
32:41
Speaker 7: that there's standards in place to follow, makes me feel
32:45
Speaker 7: just a little bit safer. Heather, welcome to the NASP podcast.
32:49
Speaker 11: Thank you so much. I'm pleased to be here.
32:51
Speaker 7: Well, we've been working together now for years. You're constantly
32:55
Speaker 7: bringing us some great updates and information at these conferences,
32:58
Speaker 7: both the NASP as well as Assembia. Inspire is a
33:03
Speaker 7: brand-new conference theme that Sheila and the team put together.
33:05
Speaker 7: It has been inspirational. I've been really excited about the
33:11
Speaker 7: vibe here. There's so many... new specialty pharmacies coming out.
33:16
Speaker 6: Agreed.
33:17
Speaker 7: And they're looking for accreditation. They're looking for standards. They're
33:20
Speaker 7: looking for guidance. So why is NASP one of the
33:24
Speaker 7: most important conferences of the year for your participation in GRE-REC?
33:29
Speaker 13: It really is hands down. I mean, A, this is
33:32
Speaker 13: where specialty pharmacy meets. This is where it happens. And
33:37
Speaker 13: Sheila and their team put together such a great educational.
33:43
Speaker 11: Meeting as well.
33:44
Speaker 13: So not only do we have all this great education,
33:46
Speaker 13: I love when my pharmacy reviewers, I manage the team
33:49
Speaker 13: of pharmacy reviewers, come to this meeting. The education, what
33:51
Speaker 13: they get exposed to is amazing. Also, the pre-conference workshops
33:56
Speaker 13: that NASP puts together, the content is so rich. We
34:01
Speaker 13: always get to participate. There's a full-day accreditation workshop where
34:06
Speaker 13: we can talk about just accreditation in general, best practices,
34:10
Speaker 13: what are the common pitfalls, what are the new programs.
34:13
Speaker 13: We can dive deep into the standards. And it really
34:17
Speaker 13: helps organizations understand accreditation more, make it a little bit
34:20
Speaker 13: less scary, gives us an opportunity to hear from organizations
34:24
Speaker 13: what kinds of questions they have and gives us an
34:26
Speaker 13: opportunity to answer them. Just a really important forum for
34:29
Speaker 13: us to contact with specialty pharmacies that are accredited as
34:36
Speaker 13: well as those that are just starting that process and
34:39
Speaker 13: that journey.
34:40
Speaker 7: Yeah, and I like how you said to make it
34:42
Speaker 7: less scary because if I think, hey.
34:45
Speaker 9: I don't know how much this is going to cost us.
34:46
Speaker 7: I don't know if we even have the talent on
34:49
Speaker 7: staff to be able to answer some of the questions
34:51
Speaker 7: or the experience.
34:52
Speaker 9: That guidance is so important.
34:54
Speaker 11: It really is. It really is.
34:55
Speaker 13: And I usually bring reviewers as well. So just having
34:59
Speaker 13: the experts here to be able to answer those questions
35:01
Speaker 13: for them. All right.
35:02
Speaker 7: The genie is out of the bottle. AI is running everywhere.
35:07
Speaker 7: Some of it is just absolutely wonderful, like I said
35:10
Speaker 7: in the opening. But then there's always the question. There's
35:13
Speaker 7: always like, hey, when it comes to the bottom line,
35:16
Speaker 7: it's the pharmacist license on the line. It's the safety
35:20
Speaker 7: of the patient that's even more important than that. We
35:23
Speaker 7: spoke in April about URAC's AI and healthcare accreditation program
35:28
Speaker 7: that you had launched with different organizations and beginning that
35:31
Speaker 7: review process. And now that several organizations have achieved accreditation,
35:36
Speaker 7: What are you learning from these early adopters and what
35:39
Speaker 7: does that tell us about the future of AI governance?
35:42
Speaker 11: Yeah, absolutely. So you're right. We talked six months ago.
35:45
Speaker 13: We had launched an AI and healthcare accreditation program, had
35:49
Speaker 13: several organizations seeking accreditation at the time. And now we've had,
35:53
Speaker 13: I think, about nine organizations actually achieve that accreditation with
35:57
Speaker 13: several more in the review process and in the pipeline,
36:00
Speaker 13: which has been extremely exciting. It's exciting for me. I
36:03
Speaker 13: get to oversee this program. One of the cool things
36:05
Speaker 13: that we've seen is that it's really across healthcare. We've
36:09
Speaker 13: had several pharmacy organizations, and we've had a telehealth organization,
36:13
Speaker 13: case management, independent review organizations. So understanding that this program
36:20
Speaker 13: can apply across healthcare.
36:22
Speaker 11: Has been really exciting.
36:24
Speaker 13: The other thing, just to remind you and your listeners
36:27
Speaker 13: a little bit about the structure of the program.
36:29
Speaker 11: So the program is modular.
36:32
Speaker 13: And so if you are an AI system developer, there's
36:36
Speaker 13: a developer module.
36:37
Speaker 1: Oh, nice.
36:37
Speaker 11: There's an AI system user module. And so of those that.
36:42
Speaker 13: Have achieved accreditation so far, it's kind of a third,
36:45
Speaker 13: a third, a third, like a third that are developing only,
36:48
Speaker 13: a third that are using an existing AI system only,
36:51
Speaker 13: and then about a third that are, hey, we are
36:53
Speaker 13: developing AI systems for our organization to use. And it's
36:57
Speaker 13: been really interesting even just to see those different dynamics.
37:01
Speaker 13: Some of the other things, you know, The AI developers,
37:04
Speaker 13: they understand the value of accreditation to healthcare organizations. And
37:08
Speaker 13: so they want to get that validation that says, hey,
37:11
Speaker 13: we are doing this. We are developing and launching and
37:15
Speaker 13: monitoring in a responsible way. And as a result, hopefully
37:21
Speaker 13: other organizations that have a Yark accreditation will.
37:23
Speaker 11: Want to partner with us.
37:26
Speaker 13: One of the other real takeaways I'd say is organizations
37:30
Speaker 13: who have sought and achieved this In most cases, they're like, hey,
37:34
Speaker 13: we're doing what the standards require. So we are offering
37:39
Speaker 13: AI systems in a responsible way. We're using it in
37:42
Speaker 13: a responsible way, but Eurac has validated that for us.
37:45
Speaker 13: And so we're doing what we're supposed to be doing,
37:47
Speaker 13: but oh, you know what? We didn't really have this
37:50
Speaker 13: fleshed out, but the standards helped us understand the importance
37:53
Speaker 13: of that, make sure we do that, it's implemented, and
37:56
Speaker 13: that now is hardwired into the work that we're doing
37:59
Speaker 13: in the AI space.
38:01
Speaker 9: You don't know what you don't know.
38:03
Speaker 7: And it's just like, what do I have to ensure
38:06
Speaker 7: with my pharmacy operations, with HIPAA and with firewall control
38:11
Speaker 7: and information access and cybersecurity? I don't know what's going on.
38:15
Speaker 7: So URAC really gives that definition, clarifies it, and then
38:19
Speaker 7: helps that pharmacy entity organization or even programmer assure that
38:23
Speaker 7: there's not going to be holes in the in the system.
38:26
Speaker 11: Yeah, and it's been really interesting.
38:28
Speaker 13: And actually, I did a session here a few days
38:31
Speaker 13: ago where I interviewed an AI system developer and a pharmacy.
38:36
Speaker 3: They've partnered together.
38:37
Speaker 11: They've both independently achieved accreditation. So the pharmacy... achieved the user.
38:41
Speaker 13: Accreditation, the developer achieved the developer version of the accreditation.
38:45
Speaker 11: But interviewing them and seeing.
38:47
Speaker 13: The way that they work together and support each other,
38:50
Speaker 13: it's been fantastic. And they've been able to achieve and
38:54
Speaker 13: use the accreditation standards to, again, ensure that they're doing
38:57
Speaker 13: things the right way in a responsible manner and to
39:00
Speaker 13: further their relationship.
39:01
Speaker 11: It's just been great.
39:02
Speaker 4: All right.
39:03
Speaker 7: You have said that organizations pursuing Eurax AI accreditation programs
39:07
Speaker 7: are using AI in a variety of ways. What kind
39:11
Speaker 7: of AI systems are you seeing deployed in the pharmacies today?
39:14
Speaker 13: Yeah, so in pharmacies, we're seeing AI agents who are
39:19
Speaker 13: helping to take over some of those more repetitive tasks
39:25
Speaker 13: that a pharmacy is responsible for so that they can
39:27
Speaker 13: free up their human staff to do some more cognitive work,
39:31
Speaker 13: interacting with patients, and things like that.
39:35
Speaker 11: We've also seen AI systems that will.
39:38
Speaker 13: You know, connect the different operating platforms of a pharmacy.
39:42
Speaker 13: That's been a long issue with pharmacy. We have so
39:44
Speaker 13: many different systems that support the work we do, whether
39:47
Speaker 13: that's a patient management system or an inventory system or
39:50
Speaker 13: a dispensing system. But getting all those systems to talk
39:53
Speaker 13: to each other and work together, we've seen a lot
39:57
Speaker 13: of really creative AI systems that can sort of help
40:01
Speaker 13: weave all of that together to further the workflow.
40:04
Speaker 11: Of a pharmacy.
40:06
Speaker 9: Heather Bonome with UREC.
40:08
Speaker 7: It's been great to catch up with you here on
40:10
Speaker 7: the NASP podcast at Inspire. We hope to have you back.
40:15
Speaker 7: It's an always, we have to have a Heather update
40:17
Speaker 7: every year. So we'll see you in Orlando in 2027.
40:20
Speaker 9: Sounds good.
40:21
Speaker 11: Happy to.
40:24
Speaker 2: Hello, this is Heidi Pollack with Outcomes and you are
40:28
Speaker 2: listening to the Fantasy Podcast Network.
40:33
Speaker 9: Heidi, great to have you back. You're one of my favorites.
40:37
Speaker 7: I don't know if we track back what your first
40:40
Speaker 7: podcast was, but it has to be 10 years.
40:43
Speaker 3: It's been a while.
40:45
Speaker 2: My favorite recollection is the podcast I did with Chris
40:49
Speaker 2: Antipas from Asti's Pharmacy about Backline from Dr.
40:54
Speaker 15: First.
40:55
Speaker 2: I've also spoken many times about the things that I'm
40:59
Speaker 2: working on here at the Outcomes organization.
41:02
Speaker 3: So, yeah, it's probably been about 10 years.
41:04
Speaker 7: Not to make us feel old about ourselves.
41:07
Speaker 4: I know.
41:08
Speaker 3: I love it.
41:08
Speaker 4: I meet.
41:10
Speaker 9: P3s.
41:11
Speaker 7: I go to West Virginia University School of Pharmacy. I
41:15
Speaker 7: get to spend time with Mark Garofoli's class and he's
41:19
Speaker 7: invited me back.
41:20
Speaker 9: It's been four years now.
41:22
Speaker 7: And they, when I first start my, they think it's
41:25
Speaker 7: like this, you know, cold presentation and within the first
41:29
Speaker 7: 15 minutes, laughing engagement when I tell them, why are
41:35
Speaker 7: you guys, why are you, why do you want to
41:37
Speaker 7: become PharmDs?
41:38
Speaker 9: Like, what is it?
41:39
Speaker 7: What are you really in it for?
41:40
Speaker 9: You know, is it the money? Is it the, you know, the.
41:43
Speaker 7: Fame and everybody's kind of laughing, but this past P3
41:48
Speaker 7: session taught me that there's so much imagination from these young,
41:56
Speaker 7: I say kids, but these young adults that are entering pharmacy.
42:00
Speaker 7: And it's so excites me Because the infrastructure that's been
42:04
Speaker 7: built in pharmacy for the last 20, I've been in
42:09
Speaker 7: it now 22 years, it's so different than what it was.
42:13
Speaker 7: And I know that there's challenges and we got PBM
42:16
Speaker 7: reform and all these other things. But if I were
42:20
Speaker 7: going back in time and I was going to choose
42:22
Speaker 7: to be something and I'm going to be a PharmD.
42:25
Speaker 9: Farm D's, man.
42:26
Speaker 7: Like if you're going to be in health care, you
42:28
Speaker 7: don't got to touch blood and you can just do
42:31
Speaker 7: the fun stuff.
42:32
Speaker 9: Like Farm D's where it's at.
42:34
Speaker 2: Being a pharmacist is one of the most rewarding things
42:38
Speaker 2: for me. I actually come from a health care family.
42:42
Speaker 2: My grandmother was a doctor. My grandfather was a pharmacist.
42:45
Speaker 2: My aunt and uncle had a pharmacy. So I did
42:48
Speaker 2: my first internship at my aunt and uncle's pharmacy in Warren, Pennsylvania.
42:52
Speaker 2: I mean, as a young child, I was behind the
42:54
Speaker 2: counter of my grandpa's pharmacy.
42:56
Speaker 3: You know, keeping things clean for him.
42:59
Speaker 2: And the patient care is absolutely the most rewarding thing
43:03
Speaker 2: about it. But what I love is that my career
43:07
Speaker 2: just took this like crazy trajectory. So I loved being
43:12
Speaker 2: behind the counter, taking care of patients. And then I
43:15
Speaker 2: loved being a regional manager for Topps Markets. then I
43:18
Speaker 2: went into pharma for a couple of years and then
43:21
Speaker 2: I just landed in technology. None of that was like
43:25
Speaker 2: mapped out or planned out. And just the things that
43:28
Speaker 2: a pharmacist can do is unlimited. Do my recommendation to
43:34
Speaker 2: anyone becoming a pharmacist is I definitely recommend you spend
43:38
Speaker 2: some time in that patient care because that's, that's really
43:42
Speaker 2: where it's at. That is still my North star, even
43:44
Speaker 2: though I am not behind that counter anymore and I'm
43:46
Speaker 2: in product. Um, Keep that North Star. Keep your eye
43:50
Speaker 2: on the patient. That is really the center of.
43:52
Speaker 3: What we do.
43:53
Speaker 2: But do not let people pigeonhole you and put you
43:56
Speaker 2: in a box and say to you, you're just a pharmacist.
44:00
Speaker 2: Because you're not. You are so much more. You can
44:03
Speaker 2: be so much more than that. I mean, I look
44:05
Speaker 2: around the showroom floor here at NASP at the Inspire Conference,
44:10
Speaker 2: and there are pharmacists in all kinds of different roles
44:13
Speaker 2: at all of these different booths. And I'm just, I'm
44:15
Speaker 2: so proud of that, that we have come out from
44:18
Speaker 2: behind the counter and we can do so much more
44:21
Speaker 2: for patients and the journey that they have to take.
44:25
Speaker 9: It's so true.
44:26
Speaker 7: And there's an evolution that I want to talk to
44:29
Speaker 7: you about, and that is certifying a specialty pharmacist and
44:35
Speaker 7: making that a very different pathway based on the education,
44:39
Speaker 7: based on the certification. Talk to me about that and
44:43
Speaker 7: how it's grown over the years coming out of the NESP.
44:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is just such an honor to have been
44:49
Speaker 2: part of this specialty pharmacy certification board for the last
44:52
Speaker 2: three years and to really get a great understanding of
44:57
Speaker 2: the importance of being certified. The journey that specialty patients
45:03
Speaker 2: are taking are so complex. And it's just really, really
45:09
Speaker 2: important to have that additional level of knowledge of everything
45:14
Speaker 2: about that complex journey, oncology, HIV, hepatitis. It's so much
45:20
Speaker 2: more than putting pills in a bottle. There is so
45:22
Speaker 2: much more to that patient journey. I highly recommend anyone
45:26
Speaker 2: who's getting into specialty pharmacy seek out that certification. And
45:31
Speaker 2: I'm also very proud to know that the certification organization,
45:36
Speaker 2: we're looking at other members of that care team, and
45:40
Speaker 2: we recognize you deserve certification as well.
45:43
Speaker 3: Technicians.
45:44
Speaker 2: I couldn't live without my techs. There is nothing better
45:47
Speaker 2: than a technician. They are the backbone of pharmacy. But
45:50
Speaker 2: you have nurses, you have all types of other people
45:53
Speaker 2: who are part of that care journey. And we recognize
45:56
Speaker 2: that each one of those team members is vital to
46:00
Speaker 2: that journey and has, you know, a lot of information
46:04
Speaker 2: they need to have to take, you know, part in that.
46:08
Speaker 2: And so we want to recognize that with additional certifications to,
46:12
Speaker 2: you know, just take that level, that knowledge to the
46:15
Speaker 2: next level. So again, my recommendation, if you're in specialty pharmacy,
46:20
Speaker 2: come visit us at the SPCB booth here at NASP
46:24
Speaker 2: Inspire and learn about getting certified.
46:27
Speaker 9: The board is such a passionate group.
46:32
Speaker 7: And when you talk and when we talk to Jonathan
46:34
Speaker 7: Argachak and we talk to Brandon and Sheila, like the
46:40
Speaker 7: passion that comes from you, all of you, it's It's the,
46:45
Speaker 7: it proves to me, and it's almost like affirmation that
46:49
Speaker 7: this certification really means something. It's not just another letter
46:54
Speaker 7: in your name. It's something that's very personal to the board.
46:58
Speaker 7: I'm so impressed with all of you.
47:00
Speaker 3: It absolutely is.
47:02
Speaker 2: And the CSPs that I've met, you know, while on
47:06
Speaker 2: the board and also just, you know, at conferences, they
47:09
Speaker 2: are so passionate about what they do that, yes, it's,
47:13
Speaker 2: I think it's something that everyone should seek out.
47:16
Speaker 3: And also being an NASP member.
47:18
Speaker 2: I have had so many great interactions, developed so many
47:22
Speaker 2: great friendships. Not only being a member, but being a
47:26
Speaker 2: committee member, being a chair of a committee.
47:29
Speaker 3: Get involved. It's something that I did well.
47:33
Speaker 2: Later in my career. And in hindsight, I wish I
47:36
Speaker 2: had done it sooner. I was part of an association
47:40
Speaker 2: in Western New York when I practiced pharmacy there. And
47:43
Speaker 2: I really, in hindsight, wish I had gotten involved in
47:45
Speaker 2: these amazing organizations early in my career. So again, for
47:50
Speaker 2: all of you listeners out there, if you are not
47:52
Speaker 2: part of your local pharmacy association, your state of pharmacy association,
47:57
Speaker 2: these national associations, please get involved. Don't let others decide
48:04
Speaker 2: the path of our profession.
48:07
Speaker 3: And that has been happening.
48:09
Speaker 2: I love to see the growth in these organizations. The
48:13
Speaker 2: growth here at the Inspire Conference, the attendance is record-setting
48:19
Speaker 2: this year. I'm so proud of Sheila and her team
48:21
Speaker 2: and all the work.
48:21
Speaker 3: That they've done.
48:23
Speaker 2: But let's not rest on those laurels. Let's make it
48:26
Speaker 2: bigger year after year after year.
48:27
Speaker 12: I agree.
48:28
Speaker 9: I agree.
48:29
Speaker 7: Heidi, this is always so special to talk with you,
48:31
Speaker 7: meet up with you. We don't get enough time to
48:34
Speaker 7: spend just to chill out and talk about our dogs
48:37
Speaker 7: and our other adventures. But thank you for being on
48:42
Speaker 7: the NASP podcast again. And thank you for the value
48:47
Speaker 7: and the stance that you take in specialty pharmacy.
48:50
Speaker 9: We appreciate you.
48:51
Speaker 3: And thank you for your time. Thank you for having me.
48:54
Speaker 2: And actually, that thank you should go to you for
48:57
Speaker 2: all that you do for the profession of pharmacy.
49:00
Speaker 3: You are a voice that is much.
49:03
Speaker 2: Needed in this industry, and thank you for helping us
49:08
Speaker 2: get that word out.
49:09
Speaker 9: Thank you so much. Talk to you soon.
49:11
Speaker 7: Bye.
49:12
Speaker 12: Hi there.
49:16
Speaker 16: This is Dr. mcgear with tox health and you're listening
49:18
Speaker 16: to the pharmacy podcast.
49:20
Speaker 7: Hey welcome to inspire 2026 dr gear uh dr jane
49:29
Speaker 7: how are you oh are you a doctor i'm not
49:32
Speaker 7: uh hey that's all right i pretend to be one
49:33
Speaker 7: so maybe we can pretend all right uh We are
49:38
Speaker 7: really interested in learning more.
49:39
Speaker 9: About Fox Health.
49:40
Speaker 7: We've been tracking you guys on LinkedIn for a while.
49:43
Speaker 7: Really appreciate you connecting with me. But tell our listeners,
49:46
Speaker 7: what's Fox Health's position within specialty pharmacy?
49:50
Speaker 16: We're here to save patients from the major carriers, local carriers,
49:54
Speaker 16: who are not aware of what they're delivering, which are
49:56
Speaker 16: the most expensive, clinically valuable and also financially valuable prescriptions.
50:01
Speaker 4: In the world.
50:01
Speaker 16: These are specialty drugs that we call collectively and the
50:05
Speaker 16: world needed a better model, both technology and logistics, to
50:08
Speaker 16: deliver these drugs to these patients' homes.
50:11
Speaker 7: So what are you doing with Fox Health and how
50:13
Speaker 7: are you making sure that the patient stays at the
50:16
Speaker 7: center of care?
50:17
Speaker 17: So we're working with our clients and we build the product,
50:20
Speaker 17: the technology, and the logistics system to make sure that
50:24
Speaker 17: the drugs that are really important and valuable get to
50:26
Speaker 17: patients in the right temperature spec at the right time
50:30
Speaker 17: so that patients get the care that they deserve.
50:34
Speaker 7: And is this all encompassing of a closed-loop system, or
50:38
Speaker 7: are you choosing partners to actually plug in?
50:41
Speaker 4: Great question.
50:42
Speaker 16: So originally when we started the company, it was the
50:43
Speaker 16: idea of plugging in partners, and we would sort of
50:45
Speaker 16: be the middleware between that. But we realized recently that
50:48
Speaker 16: we had to sort of control the stack, and we
50:50
Speaker 16: needed to vertically integrate and bring logistics in-house. And that's
50:53
Speaker 16: the only way to drive the outcomes that patients deserve.
50:56
Speaker 16: My philosophy from being a physician, going from the bedside
51:00
Speaker 16: to the curbside, how do we keep that patient experience
51:03
Speaker 16: and that patient at the center of care? And we
51:05
Speaker 16: ask ourselves, if Walt Disney were to start a delivery company,
51:08
Speaker 16: what would that look like? And the obsession with the experience,
51:11
Speaker 16: whether it be our tracking notifications or when patients call
51:14
Speaker 16: our patient advocates who are there to advocate and make sure...
51:17
Speaker 16: patients get their medications. This is different than, say, a
51:20
Speaker 16: patient calling a dispatch service. This is not a dispatch.
51:23
Speaker 16: This is a team that exists to make sure the
51:25
Speaker 16: patient gets the medication that day after it's left the counter.
51:29
Speaker 9: And then what about packaging? How is packaging tying into it?
51:32
Speaker 17: So what we've done is over the years, so it
51:34
Speaker 17: starts with the product technology. So we are Epic integrated.
51:38
Speaker 17: So we are able to take at scale all the
51:41
Speaker 17: prescriptions that need to be delivered into our platform. And
51:43
Speaker 17: then within our platform, they can choose whether it's Fox
51:46
Speaker 17: or FedEx, UPS, USPS, depending on the geography. And then
51:50
Speaker 17: we have our own drivers who do the delivery. We
51:53
Speaker 17: have the packaging as well that takes care of high value,
51:57
Speaker 17: high quality cold chain. So our packaging, we have single-use packaging,
52:01
Speaker 17: we have reusable packaging, so you don't have to throw
52:03
Speaker 17: out all the boxes. And then we have the IoT
52:08
Speaker 17: devices that track every single delivery, and we can guarantee
52:12
Speaker 17: that it's maintained 2 to 8C throughout our customer.
52:16
Speaker 7: With all of this, what kind of data reporting can
52:18
Speaker 7: we rely on as a pharmacy, as a payer, as
52:22
Speaker 7: a manufacturer of that medication?
52:24
Speaker 9: There's a lot going on that we want data. That's right.
52:27
Speaker 16: And so because we're an animal-centric name company, we have
52:30
Speaker 16: a new species out called Arctic Fox. And what that
52:33
Speaker 16: means is we put an IoT device, a temperature sensor,
52:35
Speaker 16: in every one of our reusable containers. So this idea
52:38
Speaker 16: of testing for cold chain twice a year, we didn't
52:41
Speaker 16: think that should be the industry standard. We pushed that
52:44
Speaker 16: standard by saying every patient's delivery should be its own
52:47
Speaker 16: validation study, as the patient deserves to know the temperature
52:50
Speaker 16: of their drug that day in that particular weather. And
52:52
Speaker 16: now we can do that at scale in an affordable
52:54
Speaker 16: way to really set the standard of what patient safety
52:57
Speaker 16: is when it comes to delivery. We were inspired by
53:00
Speaker 16: two companies that are logistics companies that have nothing to
53:02
Speaker 16: do with healthcare. One of them is Domino's Pizza and
53:05
Speaker 16: the other one is SpaceX. And with our reusable container,
53:08
Speaker 16: we open it up like a Domino's Pizza. and the
53:10
Speaker 16: patient and their drug in a sealed temporary opening bag.
53:12
Speaker 16: And like a SpaceX rocket, we land that box back
53:15
Speaker 16: at the pharmacy that afternoon to reuse. So that level
53:17
Speaker 16: of closed-loop control, both the forward and reverse logistics, all
53:21
Speaker 16: done in a single day, has never been done on scale.
53:23
Speaker 16: And we've been doing what's called a green fox for
53:25
Speaker 16: over two and a half years. We've never lost a
53:28
Speaker 16: single box through this method because of that tight integration
53:31
Speaker 16: between our people, our process.
53:32
Speaker 9: And our technology.
53:35
Speaker 7: Stand-alone pharmacies, obviously, are probably key customers of yours, but
53:40
Speaker 7: let's talk about health systems now.
53:42
Speaker 9: It's actually the worst.
53:42
Speaker 16: Health systems are our prime target. We just signed our
53:46
Speaker 16: 31st health system. We're in 13 states and two countries.
53:49
Speaker 16: As I like to say, the sun never sets on
53:51
Speaker 16: the Fox Health logo as we're delivering cold-chain drugs in
53:54
Speaker 16: two countries in the world today. So we focused on
53:57
Speaker 16: health systems because they have a vested interest in keeping
54:00
Speaker 16: their patients and their ecosystem of services safe. And how
54:03
Speaker 16: do you turn them into an Amazon-level tech-enabled logistics experience?
54:07
Speaker 16: Any notification we send to patients is fully white-labeled to
54:10
Speaker 16: that health system, even to the point that Kaiser, where
54:12
Speaker 16: I used to be a physician, Kaiser even issued us
54:14
Speaker 16: an email address to send the notifications on behalf. So
54:18
Speaker 16: it's a completely white-labeled and bespoke experience that gives these
54:20
Speaker 16: health systems the same sort of tech-enabled experience that even Amazon's.
54:25
Speaker 7: Try to do.
54:25
Speaker 9: That's cool.
54:27
Speaker 7: How many NASP events have you been to? And this
54:30
Speaker 7: is actually the first Inspire, but They've changed the name,
54:33
Speaker 7: but how many NASPs do you come to?
54:36
Speaker 17: This is my personally the first NASP. And this is
54:40
Speaker 17: so far one of the best. specialty pharmacy or healthcare conferences.
54:44
Speaker 9: Excellent.
54:45
Speaker 7: And what's your feedback on the event?
54:47
Speaker 9: It's been incredible.
54:48
Speaker 16: I mean, the density of health systems, the combination of knowledge,
54:52
Speaker 16: you know, being with the posters over there, as well
54:54
Speaker 16: as what we can provide as vendors in the new space,
54:57
Speaker 16: and just the interest. And it's been amazing to see
54:59
Speaker 16: our existing clients light up when they come to our booth,
55:01
Speaker 16: they come get our plush foxes, to see potential clients
55:04
Speaker 16: that we're in talks with to finally meet them in person,
55:07
Speaker 16: and then meet new clients who have never heard of
55:09
Speaker 16: us to come to our booth to hear our story
55:10
Speaker 16: and and the mission of why we're doing this in
55:12
Speaker 16: the first place. That's been very special for us.
55:15
Speaker 9: All right.
55:15
Speaker 7: How does a listener reach out to you? Give us
55:19
Speaker 7: the website so we can get a hold of you.
55:20
Speaker 16: So we are Fox Health, spelled P-H-O-X, just like the
55:23
Speaker 16: phonetics of pharmacy, P-H-O-X-Health.com. We're all over LinkedIn as well,
55:28
Speaker 16: same spelling, Fox Health. Come hear the story of why
55:31
Speaker 16: a physician and a tech-enabled solutions architect came together to
55:34
Speaker 16: solve last-mile logistics in a patient-centric way.
55:37
Speaker 7: Well, I appreciate you being on the NASP podcast, being
55:40
Speaker 7: here at Inspire.
55:41
Speaker 9: Best of luck in the new coming year.
55:43
Speaker 7: We need more services like this supporting our specialty pharmacies,
55:47
Speaker 7: but more importantly, the patient. The patient's at the center
55:50
Speaker 7: of everything that we do. So we very much appreciate you.
55:53
Speaker 9: Thanks for having us.