06/26/2024
Precision medicine is one of the latest innovations to impact the healthcare industry, signaling a new avenue to optimize patient care and improve outcomes across the board. This new ability to create tailored, personalized care should be celebrated, as should the results individuals are experiencing. However, in order to make precision medicine available on a larger scale, it’s imperative for health systems to implement it strategically.
Precision Medicine in Practice
When a physician decides to move forward with a custom medication as part of a treatment plan, there’s a series of steps that have to happen before the patient receives their dose: lab work, formula development, storage, transportation, pick-up. Within each of those categories, there are many more logistics-oriented steps that must run smoothly so the patient can receive their treatment. For example, a complex supply chain will inform what drugs a lab has in stock. A transportation network will ensure that the finished medication is stored at the proper temperature en route to the patient. The list goes on.
These intricate workflows are made more complicated by the fact these custom medications cannot be developed or distributed in bulk. That is both the challenge and opportunity that this innovation represents.
Getting Back to Basics for Personalized Care
The workflows behind precision medicine are inherently complex. However, health systems can create the foundation needed to make precision medicine a viable, sustainable form of care through basic process design principles:
1. Understand the key stakeholders. Designing the right process starts with bringing the right people together. Providers, lab techs, pharmacists, and patient advocates should all have an opportunity to provide insight into how they interact with, or how they would interact with, precision medicine.
2. Account for the patient and customer experience. Medication is only as effective as a patient’s ability to take it. When will the medication be available? How should the medication be stored, and for how long, until it can be distributed to the patient? What happens if a patient needs to reschedule an appointment? The process supporting a precision medication program should be developed with the patient and their caregivers in mind.
3. Plan for the vulnerabilities. One of the most significant vulnerabilities in precision medicine is the time component. Most medications need to be stored at a specific temperature and administered within a strict schedule. At the same time, there are variables outside of any person’s control. What happens when a delivery truck is delayed due to severe weather or a mechanical failure? What about when a patient isn’t well enough to receive the treatment? What alternatives might someone have if they’re late getting to an appointment? Understanding the potential points-of-failure and then planning contingencies will help position a new precision medicine program for success.
4. Create room to evolve. A strong process is flexible enough to accommodate future growth. If the process of precision medicine runs perfectly for a small volume of orders, what steps can be taken to ensure that this option is eventually available to all patients who qualify for this type of treatment? Perhaps future flexibility means working with multiple transportation providers—or finding one network that can manage varying demand and complex product orders. Maybe future flexibility involves working with multiple labs so that more medication can be developed in tandem. Whatever the solution may be, planning ahead will set the stage for continued growth.
5. Don’t let perfection stop progress. While it’s important to create effective processes, it’s imperative for new advancements to reach patients and providers as quickly as possible. As health systems begin to implement precision medicine programs that allow for more personalized care, they should prepare to iterate and continuously improve. This more Agile approach to process design creates the structure to achieve results today and make future adjustments based on patient, caregiver, and provider feedback.
Precision medicine is one of the most exciting and impactful developments in healthcare. In order to make the most of it, health systems need to prioritize a strong foundation for continued innovation.
Curious about what the process supporting a precision medicine program might look like for your organization? Fill out the form below to connect with one of our consultants.
