By: Joris Silon, US Country President, BioPharmaceuticals Business Unit
The Opportunity to Enhance Traditional Asthma Care
Whether you are scheduling a routine check-up or looking to better understand your current condition, the average person in the United States waits approximately 26 days before they’re able to see their primary care provider (PCP) in person – and the process can be even more complicated for the 30% of patients who don’t have a PCP.1 A lack of structure or tools to support health literacy, need for savings program support, and geographic challenges to accessing appropriate care can create additional obstacles for patients trying to navigate an already complex and resource-constrained healthcare system.
As patients know all too well, making a doctor’s appointment is just the first step to seeking care, with more steps to navigate after they leave their PCP – from visiting their pharmacy amid their busy schedules to having their prescription ready when needed.
Access to medicines should not be this difficult to navigate, particularly for the 21 million American adults2 living with asthma who depend on their respiratory treatments to help them breathe. At AstraZeneca, we relentlessly pursue innovation and partnerships across the healthcare ecosystem to improve the lives of millions of people. However, if our innovations cannot reach those who need them, we recognize more must be done.
Helping the Asthma Community Breathe Easier
As many Americans have turned online for their day-to-day needs, healthcare should be one of those spaces. The initial transition to online health visits may have been sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it has endured. In fact, data shows that 42% of asthma patients prefer to use virtual services, and those who did showed comparable asthma control to those who had in-person checkups.3
Managing asthma can be 24x7 for patients, but what if they could access a physician and appropriate treatments when they need it most? Considering this environment, patient preference and the challenges they face, AstraZeneca saw an opportunity to help the asthma community more easily navigate the obstacles they experience in accessing care by offering a patient empowered virtual care model.
We are proud to offer this industry-first solution for respiratory patients, giving access to critical respiratory medicines while focusing on the patient experience, affordability, and quality of care via a virtual solution. Through this solution, patients can conveniently sign up online with the click of a button and be connected to a board-certified physician as soon as one business day and can establish a treatment plan in as quickly as five days. Based on their treatment plan, patients can choose to access their appropriate medicines by selecting their local pharmacy or potentially home delivery. No added costs or complexities, just simple, empowered care.
Our program is designed to give patients greater control and accountability in their own care by appealing to what asthma patients want – the convenience of accessible care that fits into their daily life.
Eliminating Obstacles and Making it Simple with Patient Empowered Virtual Care
For the millions of adults managing their asthma who are experiencing symptoms and may not be visiting a primary care provider regularly, there is now an opportunity to have their healthcare better match their lifestyle in a convenient, simple and swift manner, integrating access to care into the modern ways they receive many of their consumer goods today.
Those living with asthma can’t afford to wait to breathe better. At AstraZeneca, we have been committed to transforming respiratory care for more than fifty years and counting. That is why we are proud to offer this innovation in patient empowered virtual care. To learn more, visit https://bit.ly/4aaOERP.
References:
- National Association of Community Health Centers. Closing the Primary Care Gap: How Community Health Centers Can Address the Nation’s Primary Care Crisis. https://www.nachc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Closing-the-Primary-Care-Gap_Full-Report_2023_digital-final.pdf. February 2023.
- Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Asthma in Adults. https://aafa.org/asthma/living-with-asthma/asthma-in-adults/. Accessed March 2023.
- Pharmacoequity in Allergy-Immunology: Disparities in Access to Medications for Allergic Diseases and Proposed Solutions in the United States and Globally. Maldonado-Puebla M, Akenroye A, Busby J, Cardet JC, Louisias M.J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2024 Feb;12(2):272-280. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2023.11.005. Epub 2023 Nov 10.PMID: 37951413