Article 13: Moving Forward

Accessing medications that are safe, effective, and of high quality is multifaceted and requires having several necessary tools at hand.

Our goal is to live in a world that no matter who and where we are, we are all able to access the safe, effective, high quality, appropriate, and affordable medications we need at the time we need them, in order to achieve better health. Almost daily, we read headline after headline regarding medications – from issues such as the opioid epidemic, the drug shortages crisis, to numerous other problems related to lack of or overdosing of medications. Will we ever get medication use just right? How have we leveraged diverse stakeholders, clinical knowledge, innovation & technology to create clinically appropriate interventions that meet individual needs to address these pressing issues in a timely fashion?
 
These multifaceted issues require multidimensional solutions.   
 
Efforts should be directed towards:

• Improving health outcomes, patient experience, and quality of care
• Increasing access
• Increasing transparency of medicine availability and affordability
• Reducing cost
• Saving time spent on finding the appropriate treatment
• Improving the efficiency of the healthcare supply chain

 
To achieve our goals, one should have a comprehensive multi-level strategy (from one person to millions) and utilize various tools to build and foster the ideal environment able to achieve these goals.  There is a need to build scalable models that can be utilized in other locations/settings to address different types of access problems.  Direct the work in such a way to ensure patients are getting better in the highest quality, efficient, cost-effective, and clinically appropriate manner possible.
 
Until society creates another medical intervention more powerful than medications to prevent and treat disease, medications will continue to be an integral part of healthcare delivery.

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Strategies during turbulent times – Part III of III

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