Giving Pharmacists Prescriptive Authority for Glucagon Would Benefit Patients with Diabetes
Jennifer Goldman, PharmD, CDCES, BC-ADM, FCCP, professor of pharmacy practice at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, discuses the benefits of glucagon.
In the recently released American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) Standards of Care, the organization recommends that all patients taking insulin or those at high risk for hypoglycemia be prescribed glucagon.1 The ADA also recommends that family, caregivers, school personnel, and others who provide support to patients with diabetes be educated on how to administer glucagon and where it is located in case of emergency.
Jennifer Goldman, PharmD, CDCES, BC-ADM, FCCP, professor of pharmacy practice at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and Diana Isaacs, PharmD, BCPS, BCACP, BC-ADM, CDCES, director of education and training in diabetes technology at Cleveland Clinic, discussed the ADA's new Standards of Care in an article published in Clinical Diabetes.2 They also discussed how education is key to managing hypoglycemia and the benefits of allowing pharmacists the ability to prescribe glucagon.
Drug Topics recently sat down with Goldman to discuss the benefits of glucagon for patients with diabetes, challenges and barriers currently impacting glucagon prescribing, and how allowing pharmacists to prescribe glucagon could improve rates of prescribing and filling.
“Allowing pharmacists to prescribe glucagon is something that is near and dear to my heart that I would absolutely recommend,” Goldman said. “Similar to what we think about what happened with Narcan to save people’s lives, we really could have wider access. Pharmacists can identify an at-risk patient and provide prescriptions onsite, bypassing the need for additional appointments. They often have more accessibility than physicians do and that could reduce the delay in prescriptions.”
