Pilot project focuses on making PMI easier to comprehend

Certain Rite Aid pharmacies are taking part in a pilot project designed to make patient medication information (PMI) easier for consumers to understand.

Starting in early August, some Rite Aid pharmacies began distributing the one-page PMIs for Celebrex, Ventolin, and Prezista, while a control group of patients received the standard PMIs for the same drugs.

“The myriad of paperwork handed to the patient at the pharmacy is just too confusing: the current medication guide is four pages long. With [the new] document, the goal is to get the information in front of the patient, and the pharmacist can have a conversation with the patient about the medication,” said Claire DeMatteis, executive vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for Catalina Health.

The pilot test is the culmination of four years of development on the streamlined PMI by FDA, Catalina Health, the Brookings Institution, several universities, and three major pharmaceutical manufacturers. “The significance is that we are all around the table, working toward a solution. That collaboration of efforts will have a very positive impact on patients,” DeMatteis said.

Catalina Health will survey patients through mid-October to determine whether they found the new information helpful and how they would like to receive the newly formatted PMI in the future. After analyzing the results from the pilot project, Catalina Health and its partners plan to expand the pilot project to phase 2 next year.