Cardinal Health Launches New Platform for Drug Adherence

This week, Cardinal Health announced the introduction of a new forum aimed at resolving medication adherence issues. The Outcomes platform integrates many existing businesses to provide solutions for drug therapy management, digital patient interaction, and telepharmacy, according to the company.

Mike Kaufmann, CEO of Cardinal Health, said in a statement, “Outcomes is the latest example of how we’re developing and investing in technology solutions and actionable data tools to enable more meaningful, cost-effective and outcomes-driven connections in healthcare.” Medication nonadherence is a major problem for both the healthcare sector and patients.

Since the causes of the issue are diverse, the approach for solving it should be as well. Outcomes, according to its website, provides a broad range of services to pharmacists, pharmaceutical firms, and payers. OutcomesMTM, mscripts, and Telepharm are the three companies involved.

OutcomesMTM links members with pharmacists to enhance care; mscripts allows patients to refill medications with their pharmacies and give themselves updates through preferred digital channels; and Telepharm allows for remote therapy and medication verification. Pharmacies will link clinical services, patient engagement, and billing through this centralised portal, according to the company, for a more streamlined workflow.

Outcomes has recently added MyScheduling, which allows patients to schedule and change appointments at their local pharmacy, including for the COVID-19 vaccine, potentially reducing administrative tasks for pharmacies. A variety of strategies have been used by a number of health systems to increase drug adherence using technology. For example, in 2018, Mount Sinai Health System used financial incentives to encourage patients to take their pills on time. Patients in a pilot programme may receive a few dollars per day for doing so.