MAPflow Now Supports Chronic Disease Management

As the scope of pharmacy practice continues to expand across Canada, pharmacists are taking on increasingly significant roles within the healthcare system. In some provinces, chronic disease management is already part of the pharmacist’s scope, either as part of collaborative practice agreements or as fully independent practitioners, though often limited to a specific set of conditions. 

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Given that many chronic diseases are primarily managed with medications, it makes perfect sense for pharmacists to be integral members of the healthcare team providing ongoing chronic disease management. We can likely expect pharmacists to manage even more conditions in the future, especially as access to healthcare and efficient utilization of healthcare resources continue to be prominent issues.

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How Does Chronic Disease Management Differ from What We Can Do Now?

Pharmacists already play a vital role in supporting patients with chronic diseases. In addition to the patient education that accompanies dispensing, all provinces allow pharmacists to contribute to disease management through additional services such as medication renewals, adaptations, and reviews. However, these services are typically reactive in nature, often offered as one-time transactions and initiated when the patient identifies an issue. 

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Chronic disease management represents a shift to a more proactive approach to patient care. Rather than waiting for concerns to arise, pharmacists provide regular monitoring of their patients’ conditions to ensure that patients remain on track to meet their goals of therapy and that their medications continue to be both safe and effective. Pharmacists can identify any problems with the care plan and make modifications autonomously before they negatively impact the patient. 

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Pharmacists have already been trained to define monitoring parameters and time frames as part of their patient care plans, so chronic disease management is an important opportunity for them to follow through and fully implement their plans in a systematic manner that optimizes patient outcomes.

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How Does MAPflow Support Your Chronic Disease Management Assessments?

We’ve been working hard to create a tool to help pharmacists conduct assessments for chronic diseases, and we’ve recently unveiled our Chronic Disease arm of our platform with many great features such as:

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• Structured Assessment Algorithms
  Our chronic disease management algorithm follows the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process (PPCP), similar to our minor ailment algorithms, to ensure that you are systematically assessing patients to identify and address all their healthcare needs.
• Integrated Clinical Support
  With CPS integration built into the platform, you can access the most relevant CPS chapters at the click of a button, providing you with the information you need to manage a wide variety of chronic diseases.
• Comprehensive Documentation
  MAPflow automatically generates robust and compliant documentation for your pharmacy records, the patient, and their primary care provider. This documentation supports seamless interprofessional collaboration by clearly outlining the management plan and making it easy for another provider to assume care if needed.
• Efficient Follow-Up Assessments
  Historic data from previous assessments are automatically carried forward to future visits, which enables you to efficiently focus on any changes since the last encounter without sacrificing the completeness of your documentation.
• Future Disease-Specific Algorithms
  We currently offer a blank template for users, but we are actively developing disease-specific algorithms for common chronic conditions. These algorithms will provide additional clinical decision support that has been reviewed by pharmacists with expertise in these clinical areas.

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To see an example of MAPflow’s chronic disease management algorithm in action, watch the demonstration provided by our Director of Clinical Innovation, Kenny Chong.

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Why Offer Chronic Disease Management Services?

By providing chronic disease management services, pharmacy professionals can fully utilize the clinical training and education they’ve received, transforming the pharmacy into a one-stop healthcare hub. These services create opportunities to open up other streams of revenue and build greater rapport with the patient base.

For patients, expanding your clinical offerings to include chronic disease management means greater access to healthcare services from their trusted providers, to help them achieve the health goals they desire and deserve.

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Conclusion

The future of pharmacy practice in Canada includes pharmacists at the forefront of chronic disease management. By embracing this proactive, patient-centred model of care, we can deliver meaningful improvements in patient outcomes while opening new revenue streams and strengthening our role within the healthcare system.

MAPflow is proud to support pharmacy professionals across Canada in providing chronic disease management services as pharmacy practice continues to evolve.

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