Blending high-tech and low-tech innovations for long-term care adherence and more

Having worked across community pharmacy, industry and long-term care, Ontario-based pharmacist Teresa Pitre has had lots of first-hand experience dealing with complex patients on multiple medications. She has also realized there are better ways to assist them using technology. “Working in long term care especially opened my eyes to what we can do as pharmacists with medication management, when we’re given the right tools and decision-making power,” she says. Pitre worked on a project with a long term care organization, CareRx (formerly Medical Pharmacies Group Ltd.), where she helped identify gaps in care and pharmacy services across Canada. She was also given an opportunity to partner with peopleCare Inc. and North West Telepharmacy to bring automated dispensing cabinets used in hospitals to long-term care facilities.She stresses that these have been a game-changer in terms of improving adherence. “That’s when I really started to feel empowered about using my ideas and technology to improve healthcare processes. It gave me a taste of what can be done when you find the right partners.” Read: Bringing compounding practices to lightIn her most recent venture, Pitre is general manager at Custom Health Pharmacy’s first location and central hub. Custom Health is a network of more than 200 pharmacists with more than 20 advanced certifications who provide remote monitoring, analysis and triage to community pharmacies and primary care using digital health tools. In first speaking with Custom Health Founder, Shane Bishop—who developed proprietary software for tracking medication use in patients on multiple drugs—Pitre realized she could play a key part in helping improve medication adherence for patients at home, too. “I ended up joining the company and opening the first pharmacy location in 2017 in Mississauga,” she says, noting this location is a centre for adherence packaging and clinical services including remote patient monitoring and chronic disease management. “In our pharmacy we have implemented various technologies already used in long-term care to do high-volume adherence packaging and layered that with Custom Health’s technology.” In addition to the Mississauga location, Custom Health now has pharmacies in B.C., Saskatchewan and the U.S servicing patients across North America.Read: To make AI safe, governments must regulate data collectionPatients dealing with chronic diseases and multiple medications at home are equipped with an automated medication dispensing machine called 'spencer' to help keep them on track. “We are dealing with patients with several chronic conditions, either seniors aging at home or younger patients with conditions like diabetes and mental health issues,” says Pitre, noting that advanced dementia is becoming a big focus. “We have customers ranging from six years old to 99 plus.” (Third party validated statistics show that patients who use Custom Health’s services and digital tools achieve an average of 98% medication adherence.)Custom Health currently serves more than 2,000 patients, with an average of 150 added every month. “Like any start-up there have been ebbs and flows but we’ve developed such a tight workflow that we can now scale up quickly,” she says. “I’d love to see some of the big chains recognize what we’re doing and adopt similar offerings because the traditional model doesn’t service everyone.”She says her greatest motivation in doing what she does is the positive impact on patients.“When patients tell me we’ve changed or even saved their life, that’s the biggest factor that keeps me going.”

Blending high-tech and low-tech innovations for long-term care adherence and more

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics