Analysis of the situation of pharmaceutical care for patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: To describe, analyze and compare the situation of pharmaceutical care consultations for outpatients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases of the Pharmacy Services of Spain at two different times.

Method: Longitudinal, multicenter and unidisciplinary descriptive observational study, carried out by the Immune-mediated Inflammatory Diseases Working Group of the Spanish Society of Hospital Pharmacy through a virtual survey in 2019 and 2021. Variables were collected regarding coordination, resources, biosimilars, unmet needs and telepharmacy. Numerical results were presented in absolute value and percentage and free text responses were grouped by topic areas. To compare the results between the two collection times, the Chi-Square test was used with a significance level of p<0.05.

Results: The level of participation was 70 pharmacists in 2019 and 53 in 2021. The main significant findings obtained were an increase in participation in asthma biologic committees (p=0.044) and care coordination in dermatology (p=0.003) and digestive system (p=0.022). The wide use of biosimilar biological medicines stood out, with a 15% increase in the exchange of the reference biological to the biosimilar. The lack of research in the field and insufficient human resources, among other unmet needs, were revealed. In the outpatient units, the use of the stratification model of the MAPEX project was a minority and an increase in the use of information and communication technologies was promoted. Motivated by the pandemic derived from COVID-19, telepharmacy was established for the first time in 85% of the centers, maintaining the service at 66% at the time of the second survey.

Conclusions: Outpatient units are undergoing constant change to adapt to new times, for which institutional support is needed to invest more resources to promote the development of strategies to reduce unmet needs. We must continue working to achieve a pharmaceutical practice that provides efficiency, safety, quality of life and access to innovative drugs in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.