University of Washington and UCB Announce Partnership to Investigate How Community Pharmacists Can Help Close Gaps in Epilepsy Care
The University of Washington’s School of Pharmacy and global biopharmaceutical company UCB have announced their partnership in an interdisciplinary project aimed at improving access to care for people with epilepsy.
Gaps in epilepsy care are well known. Of people who present to an emergency room with a seizure, 40% do not receive follow-up care from a neurologist within 30 days. Of those who are admitted to the hospital for seizures, only 60% speak with a discharge nurse when they leave. As a result, nonadherence to treatment remains high despite risks that include injury, hospitalization, and even sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP). Although it is known that nonadherence to epilepsy treatment is broadly related to cost, side-effects, and forgetfulness that can be part of the illness, more specific knowledge and reasoning related to an individual’s nonadherence are not well understood.
The average person with a chronic disease, such as epilepsy, sees a physician 4 times per year and a pharmacist 35 times per year. Pharmacies are often closer geographically and may be easier for individuals to access at their own convenience, putting community pharmacists in a position to address gaps in care. At a population level, community pharmacists collaborate with other health care providers, assess medication use patterns and patient outcomes, and strive to ensure medication use is safe, efficacious, and cost effective for all patients living with diseases and conditions that require treatment. Yet, no models exist for engaging community pharmacists in population health approaches to epilepsy care.
In this unique partnership, both The University of Washington School of Pharmacy and UCB will contribute funding and staff to conduct a needs assessment, including interviewing stakeholders and performing a literature review. They will also identify best practices to address the needs of persons living with epilepsy and their caregivers, develop a community pharmacy intervention with a stakeholder-driven consensus-building approach; and evaluate the outcomes of that intervention. The goals are to improve appropriate use of treatments, increase seizure control, and improve quality-of-life measures for individuals with epilepsy.
“The UW Population Health Initiative seeks to accelerate new collaborations between diverse disciplines to find innovative solutions to the complex challenges society faces,” said Ali Mokdad, the UW’s chief strategy officer for Population Health and professor of Health Metrics Sciences. “We are excited to support the UW and UCB in bringing together the expertise and resources of the public and private sectors to develop a novel approach to increasing access to care for people living with epilepsy.”
“One of our foundational findings at UCB is that many people with epilepsy find the system isn’t built for them in ways that work with the complexities of their lives, particularly given the impact of epilepsy on people’s ability to drive and work.” said Mike Davis, head of US neurology at UCB. “Community pharmacists are increasingly at the front line of health care delivery, and we believe they can play an important role in ensuring more people living with epilepsy get to the right treatment at the right time. We seek innovations that make our health care system more sustainable while empowering individuals using the system. The University of Washington is doing great work in this area and UCB is proud to collaborate with them on this initiative.”