High-Technology Home Pharmacotherapy,II: An Overview of the Newest Home Therapies

Abstract

This article provides an overview of a group of therapies previously considered as exclusively inpatient treatments. Cardiovascular therapies have moved out of the intensive care unit and into the outpatient setting. Parenteral anticoagulation is also handled at home, using aggressive patient selection and monitoring criteria. Premature labor management, once requiring lengthy hospitalization, is another treatment transplanted from the inpatient setting. The ongoing research in immune modifier therapy has produced agents, both approved and investigational, that have found a place in home care. Several other parenteral therapies now performed routinely outside of the hospital include hematologic agents, blood, hormones, and steroids. Rapid growth in these home settings affords the pharmacist fertile ground for challenging clinical practice.