The 2022 National Association of Specialty Pharmacy (NASP) Annual Meeting & Expo
There are a variety of specialty pharmacy conferences every year, but the NASP Annual Meeting & Expo is one of the most important and impactful options in the industry. NASP offers something for all critical health care stakeholders, with insights from thought leaders representing specialty pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, technology organizations, hospital systems, and health care…
There are a variety of specialty pharmacy conferences every year, but the NASP Annual Meeting & Expo is one of the most important and impactful options in the industry. NASP offers something for all critical health care stakeholders, with insights from thought leaders representing specialty pharmacies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, technology organizations, hospital systems, and health care consultants about the current and rapidly evolving state of specialty pharmacies.
About the NASP Conference
This year’s annual conference was extra special in that NASP was celebrating its 10th year anniversary and after a 2-year absence due to COVID, a return to a live in-person event. The overwhelmingly enthusiastic response resulted in a record number of over 1,400 attendees. There was clearly undeniable energy throughout the conference!
Led by Sheila Arquette, NASP President and CEO, the organization successfully orchestrated an impressive array of educational, business and networking opportunities that featured a diverse group of speakers and presenters that will help shape the future of specialty pharmacy. Keynote speakers Justin Patton, Montel Williams and Monica Pearson set the tone for self-discovery and building interpersonal trust, patient advocacy, workplace diversity, inclusion and equity.
D2 Solutions Industry Event
D2 Solutions worked with NASP to host a private reception to showcase UltraTouch™, a unique collaboration between leading specialty pharmacies and pharmaceutical manufacturers. UltraTouch™ represents D2 Solutions suite of technology services and its initial foray incorporates innovative QR code and digital patient engagement technology to mitigate the patient access barriers to prescriber-generated specialty medications. Leading pharmaceutical manufacturers were able to see early UltraTouch™ outcomes that included faster specialty therapy starts, improved adherence and an enhanced patient experience through consumer-driven principles of self-service convenience, personalization and choice.
Manufacturers were introduced to the D2 Solutions UltraTouch™ Specialty Pharmacy network and its members BioPlus, CareMed, Gentry Health, Knipper Health and Senderra. These leading pharmacies are well-recognized names in the industry and incorporating D2 technology-driven solutions, provide a uniquely differentiated approach to patient and provider engagement to mitigate the various medication fiction points from the patient’s 1st fill and throughout the entire medication journey.
Present and Future Specialty Pharmacy Insights
As the Specialty Pharmacy industry continues to evolve, a key theme at the NASP conference is the need to incorporate innovative technology that can help improve operational efficiencies while enhancing the patient and provider experience by reducing administrative burdens that result in faster therapy starts, reducing drug abandonment and increase enrollment into manufacturer patient support and assistance programs. Incorporating innovative technology plus retaining the personalized patient experience through specialty pharmacies should result in better clinical outcomes and higher provider and patient satisfaction scores.
Key faculty presentations highlighted the enormous challenges for specialty pharmacy with a continued robust pipeline for oncology, hematology and immunology-based therapies, broader acceptance of biosimilars, value-based reimbursement and especially the emergence of cell and gene-based therapies with costs now approaching $3 million dollars. Specialty Pharmacy winners in this complex environment will be those that incorporate technology as an inherent part of its organizational DNA.
NASP Workshop Highlights
While serving as a NASP Technology Committee Co-chair, D2 Solutions Kirby Eng collaborated with other Technology Committee members to support an all-day pre-conference Technology Workshop. The result was a well-attended ACPE-accredited series of presentations from a diverse faculty of specialty pharmacies, hospital systems, infusion and technology providers. Kirby served as workshop host, moderator and faculty member exploring “How Technology Consumer Trends Impact Engagement with Healthcare Partners”. Kirby also served as a faculty member during the conference session, “Meeting Patients’ Digital Expectations at Your Pharmacy” expressing his and D2’s views on how technology can help positively move the needle for specialty pharmacy and their interactions with patients. D2 Solutions CIO, Jim Maguire also served as a faculty participant during a technology workshop session exploring “The Acceleration of Technology”
Preparing for Future Conferences
The D2 Solutions experiences shared and learned at NASP served as a foundation for other influential industry conferences to showcase D2 Solutions growing technology-driven solutions that are being applied throughout the entire healthcare continuum. Moving forward, D2 Solutions is well-positioned to augment its well-established life sciences consulting business with innovative technology solutions that advance the vision and mission of specialty pharmacies, providers, manufacturers, hospital systems and their relationship with patients requiring specialty medications. As a NASP Corporate member, we Thank NASP for the opportunity.
