Emerging Trends Update: The Patient’s Paramount Place

As managed care pharmacy professionals, we work to improve the lives of millions of people. But we also must never forget that behind these large numbers are individual patients.

That’s why the AMCP Foundation’s latest bridge report on its initial Emerging Trends research rings so true. The article, “The Patient’s Paramount Place: Emphasis on Empowerment, Engagement, Experience,” raises many important points on how patient empowerment is crucial to the success of health care today.

The underlying conclusion is that empowered patients may be more adherent to treatment, and their engaged role can contribute to an improved health care system.

In fact, patients today are more engaged and informed than ever before, including through the use of online resources and social media networks. Peer-to-peer communities contribute to health literacy and education and may provide avenues for better access to care, according to the bridge report. Another point is that with optimal patient engagement, stakeholders are better able to understand what clinical outcome measures are most important to them (as opposed to what clinicians believe are most important).

Patient-Reported Outcomes Are Crucial to Defining Value 

Greater attention to the patient perspective can help improve many realms of health care. It can be used to improve the patient experience, design better clinical trials, and — for managed care pharmacy — implement value-based care models that reward value rather than volume.

But how do you measure a patient’s perspective?

AMCP has been working to develop and validate measurements of patient-reported outcomes (PROs). A Partnership Forum in October 2017 identified and examined obstacles limiting their more widespread use. Barriers included the sheer diversity of the patient population; the role of caregivers and/or parents in reporting PROs, and technological and operational challenges in collecting the data.

We still strongly believe the use of PROs as a tool that can lead us into the future of care. As such, we are holding a follow-up Partnership Forum next month on overcoming the obstacles and identifying methods and infrastructure necessary to operationalize the key recommendations for the ideal state PROs. Exciting work ahead.

I encourage you to read other bridge reports that connect current realities to the AMCP Foundation’s Emerging Trends body of knowledge. Recent reports include The Rx Affordability Crisis, and Maximizing Value in Health Care.