Utilization of Technology to Improve Efficiency in Investigational Drug Management Processes

Abstract

Background: Background: An investigational pharmacy is responsible for all tasks related to receiving, storing, and dispensing of any investigational drugs. Traditional methods of inventory and protocol tracking on paper binders are very tedious and could be error-prone. Objective: To evaluate the utilization of the IDS to efficiently manage the inventory within an investigational Pharmacy. We hypothesize that the IDS will reduce the drug processing time. Methods: Our pharmacy tracked the drug processing time before and after using the IDS including the receiving, dispensing, and inventory. As part of the receiving the study drug pharmacists tracked the time it took a pharmacist to complete the tasks of logging the study drug before and after the implementation of the IDS system. In addition, the pharmacy also timed the process for drug dispensing and a full investigational drug inventory check. Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare the difference in the meantime of total processing before and after the IDS. Results: Utilization of the IDS system showed significant reduction in processing time, and improvement of efficiency in inventory management. Additionally, the usability survey of the IDS demonstrated that the IDS system helped pharmacists capture data consistently across every clinical trial. Conclusion: Our results demonstrates how technology helps pharmacists to focus on their actual day to day medication-related tasks rather than worrying about other operational aspects. Informatics team continues to further enhance the features such as monitor portal, and features related to finance – generation of invoices, billing reconciliation, etc.