By Katherine H. Capps, Co-Founder and Executive Director, GTMRx Institute
December 4, 2019
We see it every day; needless lives lost and wasted money from the current trial and error approach to medication use. In fact, 275,000 or more lives are lost, and at least $528 billion dollars are wasted yearly due to non-optimized medication use.
The good news is there are opportunities to control the loss and waste, whether you are involved in receiving, paying for or delivering care. Living in a world where patients get the right medications, the first time is attainable—and it doesn’t have to take decades to create this world. At over 700 members strong, the Institute is well equipped to help bring about this fundamental change.
As the Institute’s executive director and co-founder, I will be the host for our new podcast, Voices of Change, with HealthcareNow Radio. The podcast will feature leaders who have the knowledge, experience and ideas to solve this urgent need to get the medications right.
The podcast series began airing this Monday, December 2, with an episode on team-based care. You can listen to it here.
In the episode, I talk with fellow board member Dr. Paul Grundy, a trusted healer and global advocate for primary care who believes that using modern innovations in medicine can impact a person’s life in positive, but sometimes negative ways. He shares his personal views about things that physicians can do today to really impact outcomes while reducing physician burnout. Like many of our members, Paul shares a vision of team-based care that utilizes clinical pharmacists, freeing the physician to focus on understanding difficult diagnostic dilemma’s redirecting appointment time to strengthen relationship building.
I also speak with Dr. Terry McInnis, the President and co-founder of the Institute—who sees rapid movement from a population health approach to medication use into a more personalized approach due to precision medicine. Terry has long been a physician advocate for team-based, collaborative care, and optimizing outcomes through appropriate use of medications and gene therapies—as well as co-author of a study highlighting the $528 billion waste associated with non-optimized medication use.
Each month, I’ll interview changemakers like Paul and Terry who have been thought leaders and advocates for a team-based approach to medication management within their own sphere of health care. It is our intention that you come away with ideas that you can apply in your own work to get the medications right – and get a healthy dose of inspiration! I know you will find them as inspiring as I do – enjoy!
