Specialty pharmacy is becoming one of the most important access points in modern healthcare, particularly for patients managing complex, chronic, rare, and high-cost conditions. As therapies advance and patient needs become more sophisticated, health systems are rethinking how specialty pharmacy can improve medication access, continuity of care, clinical outcomes, affordability, and the overall patient experience.
In this special episode of This Week in Pharmacy, the Pharmacy Podcast Network introduces Specialty Care Close to Home, a new series examining how hospitals and health systems are designing, building, supporting, and scaling specialty pharmacy services across health-system and community-based care models.
Featured Guests
Dr. Laura Mark, PharmD
Vice President of Pharmacy, Allegheny Health Network
Allison Arant
Senior Vice President, Clearway Health
Chris Corsi
Chief Executive Officer, CassianRx
Together, the guests discuss why health-system specialty pharmacy expansion matters, what successful programs require, and where the greatest strategic and operational challenges exist. The conversation explores how strong partnerships, integrated clinical workflows, patient-centered technology, and coordinated care teams can reduce fragmentation and improve specialty medication access.
Discussion Highlights
- The growing strategic role of health-system specialty pharmacy
- Keeping patients connected to trusted local care teams
- Improving access, adherence, affordability, and therapy management
- Building scalable specialty pharmacy infrastructure
- Integrating clinical, operational, and technology capabilities
- Overcoming payer, workflow, workforce, and reimbursement challenges
- Creating collaborative models that support long-term sustainability
Future episodes of Specialty Care Close to Home will explore accreditation, payer access, manufacturer relationships, clinical workflow, patient engagement, technology infrastructure, data reporting, community access, workforce development, and financial sustainability.
The series will also feature pharmacy directors, vice presidents, executives, operators, and innovators from health systems across the country who are leading the next generation of specialty care delivery.
Host: Todd Eury, Founder of the Pharmacy Podcast Network
Coming Soon: Specialty Care Close to Home—a national conversation about bringing advanced specialty pharmacy services closer to where patients live, work, and receive care.
