Catalina Health Announces Initiative to Provide Patients Clearer Medication Information at the Pharmacy

Catalina Health™, along with other health care partners, will launch a quality improvement (QI) initiative with the goal of providing patients clearer medication information when they pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy. Catalina Health™ and other health care partners will disseminate newly-designed patient medication information (PMI) to patients filling prescriptions at participating pharmacies.

Through voluntary telephone and online responses, Catalina Health™ will survey patients to confirm that they received the new PMI, assess whether they found the information useful, and determine how they would like to receive this newly-formatted patient medication information in the future. All survey data collected by Catalina and other health care partners will be kept in accordance with all federal and state privacy laws.

“Patients frequently receive safety information about their prescriptions that is difficult for them to understand and too often not followed correctly,” said Renee Selman, Catalina Health™ President. “Catalina Health™ has a long history of working to get patients clearer information. In 2008, Catalina was one of the groups that spearheaded a citizen’s petition urging FDA to improve the information patients receive. Based on efforts the FDA had taken, the citizen petition was withdrawn. We are proud to be leading this quality improvement initiative to see what patients think about the newly formatted information.”

“The FDA wants patients to have the most important information needed to take their medications safely,” said Janet Woodcock, M.D., director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at FDA, “We commend these organizations for helping to generate evidence to ensure that PMI meets that need.”

The QI initiative stems from an ongoing multi-stakeholder workgroup convened by the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The workgroup includes: Catalina Health™, the Medical Cognition Laboratory at Duke University, Emory University School of Medicine, the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Pfizer Inc., and Purdue University College of Pharmacy and the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Effectiveness Research. The FDA has served as an observer. This workgroup was convened in March 2011 after workshops held by the Engelberg Center revealed that more evidence was needed to reform and develop a standardized Patient Medication Information document delivered to patients when they pick up their prescriptions at the pharmacy. Members of the workgroup addressed needed reforms by developing a pilot PMI similar to one of the single-page prototypes that was developed by FDA.