By Katherine Capps, Co-Founder and Executive Director, GTMRx Institute
May 23, 2019
The GTMRx Institute is dedicated to saving lives, saving money, and when possible, restoring health by getting the medications right. This is our philosophy—but what are the actionable steps we’re taking to be a true catalyst for change? GTMRx is only two months old, but the scale of the opportunity to implement a systematic approach to medication use–comprehensive medication management (CMM)–demands we waste no time. We’re laying the groundwork to develop the payment, policy, practice transformation and evidence needed for rapid uptake and expansion to ensure broad implementation of this service.
Changing the status quo requires evidence, innovation and changing how we pay for care. We’ve created new communications channels dedicated to educating and informing the market so that (1) research and innovation move to the practice level, and (2) we can build a case for quality that will impact payment.
Shortly before our April 17 public launch, we began sharing news with over 30,000 in the health industry, offering information about how practice is transforming for more appropriate and personalized use of medication and gene therapies.
On April 30, we launched the GTMRx Learning Network, kicking off with a monthly webinar series. The goal is to offer GTMRx members and the industry insights from change agents and thought leaders, and disseminate news about new discoveries and evidence as well as tips to transform practice. All of this is in service of our vision: to enhance life by ensuring appropriate and personalized use of medication and gene therapies. Each webinar is archived at www.gtmr.org for download to maximize reach.
- Our first two learning events described the financial and human impact of non-optimized medication use, defined CMM and its 10-step process, and outlined some of the actionable steps that need to be taken to realize this $528 billion opportunity. (Watanabe, Hirsh, McInnis)
- Our June 19 webinar will focus on how the Department of Veterans Affairs has transformed team-based care through patient aligned care teams (PACT), tapping into the clinical pharmacist as an important member of the team. Featuring VA experts Anthony Morreale and Julie Groppi, the event will offer an opportunity to talk to the experts.
- We will also be conducting a private webinar in June for some of the country’s largest self-insured employers to increase awareness of CMM and help enable their active engagement in transitioning to personalized use of medication and gene therapies.
- In July we’ll host a webinar that will look into what the future holds in advanced and complimentary diagnostics.
- Our August webinar will look at the important role of health information technology as a vital tool to support optimized medication use.
News Briefs: The GTMRx Institute team is constantly on the hunt for new information to share with CMM champions. On a weekly basis we curate material into succinct briefs that highlight the “must know” current events, announcements, articles and research. Visit our website to subscribe so these news briefs are delivered to your inbox every Tuesday. And remember to use social media to share the news with your friends!
Working Groups: In our second quarter of operations we will form work groups focused on practice transformation, policy and payment change needed to support new models, precision medicine and health information technology to support CMM practice. Voluntary GTMRx leadership will chair these work groups and soon will begin recruiting likeminded, action-oriented experts to work with us as we build consensus documents to inform our work. You must be a board member or executive member to lead a work group, and a signing member to join a work group.
Where is this taking us?
All of these efforts are working toward the development of a blueprint for change, created by our membership. This will guide our work over the coming 24 to 36 months. These are important early steps to ensure a patient-centered, systematic approach to medication use. And we have no time to waste!
We believe that the answers and solutions are already out there. It’s critical that, as the blueprint is developed, we factor in the viewpoints of the wide variety of stakeholders who will benefit from the adoption of CMM. If you’re a member of GTMRx and are interested in being involved in one of these groups, please send us a quick note. If you are not already a member, please visit our website to become a signing member and get involved.
The Institute serves as a national platform and a forum advocating for practice, payment and policy solutions that will revolutionize the way care is delivered in order to optimize medication use. We’re moving forward quickly to save lives, save money and allow buyers to obtain better value.
