Brandon Salke, Pharm.D., Pharmacist-in-Charge, Optime Care, article featured in Health Tech Hotspot on November 30, 2021.
When a patient is diagnosed with a rare disease, it can be a challenge not only for the patient, but also for their primary family caregiver. Rare diseases present unique difficulties, along with physical and emotional burdens for caregivers who receive no financial compensation. These caregivers play a critical role in navigating a fragmented healthcare system and the challenges of disease management, which directly affects the patient’s care quality and outcome.
Optime Care’s patient-first approach prioritizes the needs of each patient, helping patients and continually supporting them from day one and for their entire patient journey. This focus is particularly effective for patients with chronic disease or a rare disease who face an array of non-clinical issues, such as navigating insurance coverage and lack of streamlined information.
This article demonstrates how enlisting the help of a patient management organization that specializes in care coordination empowers healthcare professionals to focus on the patient experience through programs, services and specialized expertise that meets the needs of patients with a rare disease. This added level of disease-specific expertise also enables pharmacists to increase the caregiver’s understanding of the disease, which can help to further engage the patient in their treatment.
