DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens will present the findings of five recently completed clinical studies at the 22nd Annual International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research Annual International Meeting, May 20-24 in Boston. Clinical abstracts from the studies being presented focus primarily on Walgreens efforts to improve medication adherence and patient outcomes through various pharmacy initiatives.
 
“We’re continually seeking to uncover new and innovative approaches to help improve outcomes for our patients,” stated Chet Robson, medical director, clinical programs and quality, Walgreens. “The research we are presenting at ISPOR demonstrates the impact and effectiveness of various pharmacy programs and services and how they can serve to benefit patients and payers.”
 
The studies to be presented at ISPOR include:

• Analysis of 90-day prescription refill at retail programs, and their impact on improving adherence to medications included in the CMS Star quality measures, demonstrating significantly greater adherence among Medicare Part D patients;
• A study that observes adherence rates among Walgreens Medicare Part D patients for whom pharmacists initiated late-to-refill reminder calls. Greater impact is shown among patients with 90-day medication fills than on 30-day fills;
• An exploration of factors associated with medication self-synchronization (aligning multiple medications to be refilled on the same day), in which findings reveal medication self-synchronization is associated with age, copay amount, selected maintenance medication indicators, day supply indicators and total number of prescriptions;
• Examination of the Universal Medication Schedule as a means of standardizing prescriptions that demonstrates UMS prescribing is associated with significantly higher adherence to oral diabetic medications for older adults with low education who receive a multi-daily regimen. Walgreens collaborated with Northwestern University on this research; and
• A study exploring length of therapy and factors associated with HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis medication adherence, demonstrating significantly higher adherence among older age groups, males, users of HIV-specialized services, and those with private insurance. The study found that patients used PrEP on average for seven to eight months in the first year.