PodcastRx

Audra Palmo took over as manager of Diamond’s Medical Supply division in early 2020, transitioning out of a 20-year career in long-term care. She was on the job but a few months when the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States. Suddenly, Audra found herself jumping through procurement hoops to secure crucial personal protective equipment, comforting panicked customers, and facing unprecedented infection control risks. Thankfully, her past long-term care experience was exactly what equipped her to face these new challenges in a new career setting. You’ll hear all about Audra’s story and more on this episode of PodcastRx.

Vaccines are one of the greatest success stories in all of medical history. As the World Health Organization points out, there are now vaccines to protect us from over 20 potentially deadly diseases. Vaccination saves 2-3 million lives each year from diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, influenza and measles, to name but a few.

And now as the world comes to grips with a historic pandemic, the anticipation to add COVID-19 to that list of diseases is top of mind for the medical community.

On this episode, we welcome back Chris Bender, Pharm. D. As a pharmacist with Diamond’s Drug Information Center, Chris provides consultation and educational services to correctional facilities and occasional long-term care facilities.

We talk about the history of vaccines, how they’re developed, what they do and don’t do, and their impact on Chris’ everyday practice as a pharmacist. And of course, we also discuss the ongoing development of a COVID-19 vaccine and what the future may or may not hold.

Debbie Yackuboskey is a registered nurse practitioner, a nursing consultant and Diamond’s infection control coordinator for the past 17 years. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Debbie suddenly found her infection control expertise put to the test in unprecedented ways as she worked to protect Diamond staff and customers against the novel coronavirus. She joins us to talk about these planning and response efforts, the occasional challenges in applying CDC and state guidelines to pharmacy operations, and the impact of COVID-19 on her work as a nurse educator and med exchange supervisor for long-term care facilities.

Biologic medications are some of the most innovative drugs on the market and some of the most expensive. In their place, biosimilar medications promise to make the treatment benefits of biologic drugs more accessible. While biosimilars bear no significant clinical difference to their biologic counterparts and face rigorous FDA approval pathways, biosimilars lack utilization, lack confidence from healthcare providers and patients, and struggle to come to market due to innovator biologic patents.

Erica Gray of the Diamond Drug Information Center joins us to break down these factors and to give us a better understanding of just what is holding back biosimilars.

Links to the material discussed in this episode:

Biological Product Definitions.

Available at: https://www.fda.gov/media/108557/download

"Five things to know about biosimilars right now"- McKinsey & Company

Available at https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/pharmaceuticals-and-medical-products/our-insights/five-things-to-know-about-biosimilars-right-now

"FAILURE TO LAUNCH: Barriers to Biosimilar Market Adoption" - Biosimilars Council

Available at https://www.biosimilarscouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/AAM-Biosimilars-Council-Failure-to-Launch-2-web.pdf

"Biologics and Biosimilars: Background and Key Issues" - Congressional Research Service

Available at https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R44620.pdf

"How logically impossible patents block biosimilars" - Nature Biotechnology Available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-019-0196-x

"Non-pharmacological Effects in Switching Medication: The Nocebo Effect in Switching from Originator to Biosimilar Agent." - BioDrugs.

Available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30269270:

Purple Book: Database of Licensed Biological Products. Available at: https://purplebooksearch.fda.gov/

US Food & Drug Administration. Patient Materials. Available at: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/biosimilars/patient-materials

Hey everyone. Thanks again for listening to PodcastRx. As you know, our favorite thing about this show is the chance to bring on expert guests who work right here at Diamond Pharmacy. But with the outbreak of COVID-19 affecting the vulnerable populations we serve, our staff members are understandably busy during this difficult and uncertain time. So new episodes are on an indefinite hiatus.

We did get one new episode in the can before this pandemic exploded and we’ll bring that to you very soon. You can find all existing episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and Google Podcasts. Please leave us a review or rating on your favorite platform.

And if you’d like to share your thoughts on an episode with us directly, you can email [email protected].

We know that many of our listeners are healthcare workers on the front lines of this public health crisis. From all of us at Diamond, we commend you and we thank you for everything you’re doing to keep your patients and the public safe.

Stay well, everyone. We’ll be back as soon as we can.

No matter who is doing it, the illicit transfer and misuse of medications is an issue that greatly threatens the safety of both patients and healthcare providers.

Chris Bender and Erica Gray of the Diamond Drug Information center join us to discuss drug diversion across institutional care settings and what providers can do to defend against it.

In the first segment, we define drug diversion and get a truly eye-opening look at the ways both prescription and OTC medications can be diverted in the correctional setting. And in the second segment, we talk about diversion among healthcare workers and the resources that facilities can use to build a strong diversion prevention program.

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

"9 Steps to Creating a Drug Diversion Monitoring Program"- HealthcareITNews

https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/9-steps-creating-drug-diversion-monitoring-program

ASHP Guidelines on Preventing Diversion of Controlled Substances

https://www.ashp.org/-/media/assets/policy-guidelines/docs/guidelines/preventing-diversion-of-controlled-substances.ashx

Controlled Substances Drug Diversion Pharmacy Technician Toolkit

https://www.ashp.org/Pharmacy-Technician/About-Pharmacy-Technicians/Advanced-Pharmacy-Technician-Roles-Toolkits/Controlled-Substances-Drug-Diversion-Pharmacy-Technician-Toolkit

"Behind Bars: The Truth about Drugs in Prisons" by Andrew OHagan and Rachel Hardwick

https://medcraveonline.com/FRCIJ/behind-bars-the-truth-about-drugs-in-prisons.html

Jail Medicine- A Correctional Health Blog- http://www.jailmedicine.com/

How do you optimize medication safety across different care settings, especially in the skilled nursing environment? To get some insight, we talked with Deborah Milito, Pharm. D. She is the director of clinical and consultant services for Diamond’s skilled nursing division. We discuss how medication reconciliation, drug regimen reviews, the IMPACT Act, and pharmacists themselves all work together to reduce medication errors across different care settings.

About our guest: Dr. Milito is the Director of the Clinical & Consultant Long-Term Care Division for Diamond Pharmacy Services and Chief Antimicrobial Stewardship officer. She also serves as the team leader for the

Joint Commission’s Performance Improvement, Provision of Care, Medication Management, and National Patient Safety Goals initiatives at Diamond. She is a long-time member of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists and was conferred as a fellow in 2017.

A Holiday Message from PodcastRx by PodcastRx by Diamond Pharmacy Services

It’s unlikely that you’d ever think of a healthcare professional as someone who cares “too much”. After all, that’s the objective of their calling. But make no mistake, compassion fatigue is a real phenomenon and can take its toll on even the most seasoned healthcare professional.

In this episode, we’re joined by Karen Harrell. She’s a registered nurse with decades of experience in managing assisted living communities. Karen recently presented on compassion fatigue at several of our 2019 Education Conferences. She gives us a rundown of the warning signs, the symptoms, and provides a few tips to help long-term care workers confront this sometimes debilitating condition.

Compassion Fatigue Reading:

https://www.compassionfatigue.org/

Professional Quality of Life Measure:

http://proqol.org

Diabetes is one of the fastest-growing chronic disease states in the United States. With more than 30 million people diagnosed, it affects a sizable portion of our population. And because diabetes is so prevalent in the general population, it, of course, is highly prevalent in the incarcerated population as well.

Managing this disease in a corrections setting is full of challenges from both a security and cost point of view. But in recent times, the pharmacist has emerged as a key collaborator in helping correctional health providers to navigate these and other diabetes care obstacles.

Our guest today is Zane Gray, Pharm. D. He’s a clinical pharmacist supervisor and head of the Diamond Drug Information Center. Zane has worked directly with many corrections providers to address diabetes care concerns, and he’s here to shed some light on the topic as a whole.