The Pharmacist-Developed Tool Helping Mitigate Drug Shortages
In a world where drug shortages are one of the most pressing issues for pharmacy businesses, there are certain tools making a significant difference in helping patients access their drugs at the pharmacy.
CCT Rx Shortage Solutions is a simple yet useful way for pharmacies to identify drug shortages in real time. The new technology—developed by Cold Chain Technologies and ShortStop Rx—is helping pharmacists stay on top of prescription drug updates and ensuring patients have access to their pharmacy’s medications.
“We thought, we need to help pharmacies. We need to figure out a way that we can get the information they need in front of them,” said David Swenson, RPh, founder and CEO of ShortStop Rx. “[We] figured out how to extract information from the publicly available websites, like the FDA, and put it into a form that was useful for pharmacists.”
Detailing CCT Rx Shortage Solutions and how it is benefitting pharmacists, Swenson sat down with Drug Topics on the most recent episode of Over the Counter. With extensive expertise in pharmacy innovation as well as background working as a clinical pharmacist himself, Swenson shared his insights into the issue of drug shortages in the US and how his company is trying to put an end to them.
“As I talked with [pharmacists], I asked all of them, what's the biggest problem they faced every day? And hands down, virtually everybody I talked to said drug shortages were the biggest problem by far,” Swenson told Drug Topics. “And some went so far as to say—I talked to one large, big-box retailer that has a pharmacy embedded in it—[they] said that they had an extra staff member working each day on drug shortage problems. It became clear that this was not only a big problem but was an unsolved big problem.”
Stay tuned for weekly podcast episodes on Over the Counter every Thursday afternoon. Check out our previous episode with Jeff Goad, PharmD, MPH, president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. He discussed the importance of vaccines for protecting against hepatitis diseases and the crucial role pharmacists play in boosting uptake.
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