• Pain Point: Social determinants of health can drive about 80% of health outcomes versus about 20% for medical care. These environmental, socioeconomic, and behavioral factors are often overlooked.
• Solution: Our Pharmacist’s Letter, Pharmacist’s Letter Canada, Hospital Pharmacist’s Letter, Prescriber’s Letter, Pharmacy Technician’s Letter, and Pharmacy Technician’s Letter Canada articles provide strategies for building trust and helping patients prioritize what is most important to them. We review common screening tools that include questions about housing, education, and safety. In addition, helpful websites are provided so that you can search by zip code for services, such as where to find food or housing assistance, healthcare, or financial help. Our articles offer practical tips like asking open-ended questions, digging deeper when patients can’t pay for a prescription, and using patient-friendly, gender-neutral language as well as ways to leverage your team to meet patients where they are. Our resource, Guide for Helping Patients Afford Their Meds, provides cost-savings tips and links, and some of our Letters include our resource, Overcoming Patient Communication Challenges, for strategies to address cultural or literacy barriers.

• Pain Point: There’s a new SGLT2 inhibitor, sotagliflozin (Inpefa), that will try to compete with other SGLT2 inhibitors. Pharmacy teams and prescribers will need to stay on top of the evolving evidence and the role of SGLT2 inhibitors in practice.
• Solution: Our Pharmacist’s Letter, Hospital Pharmacist’s Letter, Prescriber’s Letter, Pharmacy Technician’s Letter, and Hospital Pharmacy Technician’s Letter articles review sotagliflozin, the only SGLT2 inhibitor that is not approved for managing type 2 diabetes yet, although hemoglobin A1c lowering seems similar to other SGLT2 inhibitors. We discuss the evidence to support sotagliflozin use in patients with heart failure and the risks associated with sotagliflozin. We provide recommendations for when to use an SGLT2 inhibitor to treat heart failure and how to choose which SGLT2 inhibitor to add. Our resource, Diabetes Medications: Cardiovascular and Kidney Impact, takes a deeper dive into the evidence for SGLT2 inhibitors.

• Pain Point: Albumin shortages and high costs continue to plague hospitals. Pharmacy technicians can play a role in reducing treatment delays, unnecessary waste, etc.
• Solution: Our Hospital Pharmacy Technician’s Letter article provides practical tips technicians can use when dispensing albumin. We discuss conditions where albumin is commonly used and which strength may be preferred, prep of 5% albumin from 25% albumin along with a calculation example, and considerations for delivery and disposal. The resource that we offer, IV Fluid Safety, provides a broad overview of this topic, including terminology, comparison of products, and strategies to optimize patient safety. 
  
  
  

Build your team’s competence and in-demand compounding skills with CriticalPoint’s upcoming 2023 virtual trainings.

View the training schedule here, and contact us to learn more.

This month’s Hot Topic on-demand webinar features an expert panel discussion and clinical guidance on social determinants of health. Listen in as speakers, Andrea Darby-Stewart, MD, and Christopher Daly, PharmD, MBA, BCACP, and other panelists discuss and answer common clinical questions. Watch the webinar.