Category: Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy
Numbers Make a Difference in Patients’ Medication Decisions, UNC Study Finds
October 17, 2016Giving patients hard numbers about the likelihood of experiencing side effects from a new medication makes them more likely to take the drug, according to a new study fromthe UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Conversely, giving them similar information about the likelihood of benefiting from a drug has the opposite effect, making patients less willing to take it. A team led by Susan Blalock, Ph.D., M.P.H., a professor in and vice chair of the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, asked nearly one thousand people to review information about the risks and benefits associated with a hypothetical drug. Some participants … Read more
High Up-Front Costs Could Delay Access to Life-Saving Blood-Cancer Drugs for Medicare Patients
October 4, 2016The significant out-of-pocket costs that cancer patients can face before Medicare drug benefits kick in may delay the patients’ treatment with a new class of highly effective therapies, according to a University of North Carolina study. In the study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, researchers report that nearly a third of a group of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia, and who have federally-funded Medicare health insurance, did not start treatment within six months of diagnosis with any of three targeted drugs that have led to dramatic improvements in survival for the disease. However, patients who had access to … Read more
Blalock Named Chair of FDA Risk Communication Advisory Committee
September 27, 2016Professor Sue Blalock, Ph.D., M.P.H., has been appointed chairperson of the Food and Drug Administration’s Risk Communication Advisory Committee, effective until Sept. 30, 2018. She has been a member of the committee since 2013. Blalock is a professor in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, as well as the division’s vice chair and an adjunct professor in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health’s Department of Health Behavior and Health Education. Blalock’s expertise is in the area of patient and public health education, and she is particularly interested in risk communication and the effect of pharmaceutical care, including … Read more
Jennifer Elston Lafata Joins DPOP as Full Professor
September 14, 2016Jennifer Elston Lafata, Ph.D., has joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy as a full professor with tenure in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy. She will serve as associate director of the UNC Institute for Healthcare Quality Improvement and co-leader of the UNC Health Care System’s Cancer Care Quality Initiative. Lafata’s principal research interests surround cancer screening, patient decision-making, and provider-patient communication and patient outcomes. She has published more than 110 peer-reviewed articles during her career and received funding from agencies including the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. “Dr. Lafata is … Read more
Study Finds Links between Physicians Setting Cancer-Care Guidelines and Drug Industry
August 26, 2016Nearly 9 out of 10 physicians and researchers who helped develop a leading set of cancer-care guidelines in the United States reported financial ties to the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study found. Of the 125 panelists who worked on setting the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s guidelines for lung, breast, prostate and colorectal cancer, 108 received some form of industry funding. The funding could include general payments for food, lodging or speaker fees, as well as research funding, according to the study published in JAMA Oncology. The majority of those payments were … Read more
Spending on Expensive Specialty Drugs Triples since 2003
July 6, 2016Specialty drugs are a relatively small part of total prescriptions filled at the pharmacy, but they are a dramatically increasing part of total prescription spending. A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reveals that just 1.8 percent of drugs make up 43.2 percent of spending in 2014. The work, led by Stacie Dusetzina, an assistant professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and Gillings School of Global Public Health, shows a dramatic increase from 2003, when specialty drugs accounted for just 11 percent of the money spent by commercial health plans on prescription drugs … Read more
Syringes a Surprising Source of Wasted Medication, UNC Study Finds
June 6, 2016When medicine is injected, a little bit stays behind in the syringe. It’s not much, but depending on syringe design and the cost of the drug, this waste — or dead space — can add up to as much as $2,300 per year for a patient, according to a new study from researchers at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and RTI International. Syringe dead space is the leftover fluid that remains inside the syringe after the plunger is fully depressed. In syringes with high dead space, often those designed with detachable needles, the leftover amount is equal to 3 … Read more
Joel Farley Promoted To Full Professor
June 3, 2016Joel Farley, Ph.D., has been promoted to full professor in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy. Farley joined the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in 2006 as an assistant professor in the department and was named an associate professor in 2012. He was elected and inducted into the American Pharmacists Association as a fellow in 2014. Farley’s principal research interest focuses on how prescription medications are managed by the evolution of public policies. His other research concentrates on pharmacoepidemiology and pharmaceutical outcomes. “Dr. Farley has contributed consistently and strongly to the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in research, teaching, … Read more
Promise of Almost a Year More of Life for Targeted Drug Not Reality for All Liver Cancer Patients
May 16, 2016For advanced liver cancer, there’s a single approved drug shown to offer patients a chance at longer life. But a new study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers found that this drug was notably less effective in a group of Medicare patients who likely had more extensive cancer and serious liver disease than patients included in clinical trials. In the journal the Oncologist, researchers report that the median survival for a group of Medicare patients on the drug sorafenib was three months, which is significantly lower than the median survival of nearly 11 months for patients treated … Read more
Pharmacists Missing Chance to Counsel Children, UNC Study Finds
May 12, 2016Children receiving a prescription medication should be counseled directly by a health care professional, recommends the Institute of Medicine and United States Pharmacopeia. But that’s not happening, according to a new study led by the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. Pharmacy researchers observed 97 families pick up 116 prescriptions for children at three community pharmacies over a two-week period. Two-thirds of the time, the child was not present when a parent or caregiver picked up the prescription. Pharmacists counseled the child’s caregiver 20 percent of the time but never counseled the children separately. Children and caregivers were counseled together twice. … Read more