Annual AD-vice: Recapping This Year’s Wisdom

Curated By: Aanchal Gupta, Program Coordinator, NaRCAD

Over the past year, we’ve gained important insights from programs around the world by exchanging ideas at roundtable sessions, Peer Connection Program Gatherings, trainings, and our annual conference series. As we welcome in 2023, let’s reflect on some of the highlights that detailers and program staff have shared on our DETAILS Best Practices Blog over the past year. Enjoy!

Outside the Detailing Team: Leveraging Community Partners

• “I’m so lucky to be able to work in the office side-by-side a recovery navigator [who] helps link folks in the community to addiction services. We often share resources and try to work together to ensure that community health goals are achieved […] by making sure that the work people are doing is connected rather than existing within silos.” – Carolyn Wilson, Ledge Light Health District​

 

• “We’ve benefited from connecting with administrators of health systems. We approach them like business partners; it takes a special skill to communicate and work with an administrator. It’s important to have team members who understand how to communicate with leadership effectively to get that buy-in.” – Sandeep (Sonny) Singh Bains, PharmD, BCPS, Alosa Health

 

• “We [as detailers] attend a variety of community meetings. We know that many people living with HIV pass through community-based organizations. We want to make sure that those organizations are equipped with the correct information to get people the care they need through resources or referrals.” – Lexie Hach, MA, Iowa Department of Public Health

 

• “If you’re just starting out, reach out to community partners and get a sense of what patients are experiencing and the challenges they’re facing before you start detailing clinicians. You’ll better be able to represent what is happening in the community and the resources that exist when you’ve done your research first!” - José Peña Bravo, PhD, Florida Department of Health

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Detailing Visits: Preparation and Building Confidence
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• “I encourage my team to be persistent. We can't take the first “no” from a clinician as rejection. It might mean, “not now,” “I don't understand,” or “I haven't been exposed to this.” It doesn’t mean that they never want to have a visit with an academic detailer or will never change their prescribing behavior.” – Nicole Green, BSP, RPh, ACPR, DPLA, ThedaCare

 

• “Prior to your detailing visit, think about ways to slow down and limit the amount of information you share with the clinician so that the visit is of most value to them. You can do this by asking focused needs assessment questions and providing the clinician ample opportunities to speak and engage in the conversation.” – Chirag Rathod, PharmD, Illinois ADVANCE

 

• “Examine your own biases: When developing detailing tools, you need to make sure that you’re aware of your own biases and that your tools include the lens of equity, diversity, and inclusion. This is something we are actively working on incorporating in all our work at CEP.” – Trish Rawn, BScPhm, PharmD, Centre for Effective Practice

 

• “When you initially step into something new, you're outside of your comfort zone. Do you harness the fear and turn it into excitement for learning or do you shy away from it? It's important to step into it and remember that the goal is to better the communities that we live in. Take that excitement and run with it.” – Rachelle Woods, MSN, RN, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment​

 

• “Be patient, be persistent (after all, you care and want them to be their best selves) and be persuasive with those that you’re detailing. You have a lot of natural talent, training, and experience to efficiently help people make informed decisions through detailing visits. Don’t limit it to therapeutic decision-making; extend it to the mental and emotional aspects of care as well.” – Zack Dumont, BSP, ACPR, MSPharm, RxFiles Academic Detailing Service

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Thinking Outside the Box: Exploring AD Innovation
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• “Everyone brought something critical and unique to the table. Our administration team was instrumental in getting our visits booked and our director was transparent with our team throughout the process. [As a result] our team was excited, enthusiastic, and proud to have the opportunity to provide this education to clinicians in our province.” – Jennifer Carefoot, BSc, Pharm, BC Provincial Academic Detailing Service

 

• “Dentists fall into a different healthcare model that’s often siloed; this results in isolation, making the interactive, 1:1 outreach model of detailing even more important – we knew we needed to bring the information and support directly to them in their dental offices.” -Adrienne Butterwick, MPH, CHES, Comagine Health

 

• “It’s critical that academic detailers continue to encourage primary care clinicians to discuss harm reduction with their patients and link them to services within their community. Academic detailers have the ability to empower clinicians to have difficult conversations with patients to reduce infections, overdose, and death.” - Anna Morgan-Barsamian, MPH, RN, PMP, NaRCAD

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2022 has brought a wealth of opportunity and innovations. We hope to continue that momentum with all of you as we head into the new year. Stay tuned for more AD-vice blogs in 2023.

Best,
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The NaRCAD Team