REMS pharmacy tasks: The adoption of an innovative electronic support system.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the pharmacy adoption rates of an online Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) Pharmacy Portal designed as an alternative for REMS-certified pharmacies to perform mandatory pharmacy dispense confirmations and to assess whether Pharmacy Portal uptake was affected by the pharmacy daily dispense volume.

Setting: REMS-certified pharmacies dispensing lenalidomide (Revlimid), pomalidomide (Pomalyst), or thalidomide (Thalomid).

Practice Description: Primarily specialty and hospital pharmacies in the limited distribution network that used the REMS Pharmacy Portal.

Practice Innovation: A self-service pharmacy portal was developed to allow REMS-certified pharmacies to obtain confirmation numbers instead of calling a Celgene Customer Care Representative (CCR) or using the Interactive Voice Response System (IVR) system.

Evaluation: The numbers of pharmacy dispense confirmations obtained were identified, and the mean percentages by quarter (Q) were calculated from January 2013 through August 2016 for the Pharmacy Portal, Celgene CCR, and IVR.

Results: In Q1 2013, the CCR and IVR options were used for 57% and 43% of dispense confirmations, respectively. After the training period, the Pharmacy Portal rapidly became the most used option (67% of confirmations from Q2 2014). By August 2016, data displayed the continued preference for the pharmacy portal (98% of all confirmations) regardless of the daily dispense volume of the pharmacy. As of March 30, 2018, the pharmacy portal continued to be the preferred option for all pharmacies (maintained at 98.5% use).

Conclusion: There is an overwhelming REMS pharmacy preference to use the pharmacy portal over the IVR and CCR options, irrespective of the pharmacy daily dispense volume. The rapid uptake of the pharmacy portal is most likely attributed to robust and comprehensive 1-on-1 training and support provided by the REMS sponsor to the REMS-certified pharmacies, but also because it might be easier to use than the other options, resulting in reduced REMS burden for the pharmacy.