Hormonal contraceptive Access via Pharmacist-Prescribing Implementation package (HAPPI)

Empowerx, Inc., Del Mar CA

Investigators

Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract With 95% of unintended pregnancies in the United States attributed to incorrect, inconsistent, or non-use of contraception, improving access to reliable contraception is an important public health issue. Pharmacists are considered the most accessible health care provider and are well-positioned to improve contraception access by providing pharmacist-prescribed contraceptive services. The focus of this proposed work is on pharmacists who can provide greatest access – those in community pharmacies. There are more than 67,750 community pharmacies in the United States and only 3,500 are currently offering pharmacist prescribing of contraception. In Phase I, we used a participatory approach to build a user-informed prototype of the Hormonal contraceptive Access via Pharmacist Prescribing Implementation (HAPPI) toolkit comprising of a software application and a web-based community of practice to support effective and sustainable implementation of pharmacist- prescribed contraceptive services. This Phase II project will use/apply user co-design and user experience (UX) design and research principles to include end-users (i.e. community pharmacists and patients) in the development of the HAPPI toolkit. For the HAPPI software application, we will develop and pilot the product in three phases guided by an adapted version of Noorbergen et al.’s co-design framework for mobile health: 1) prototyping and development, 2) evaluative, and 3) implementation. During the prototyping and development phase, we will gather feedback from end-users via iterative usability testing and product enhancements. For the evaluative phase, we will bring the HAPPI software into a single pharmacy to test how the product works in a real-world environment. For the implementation phase, we will pilot the HAPPI software in several pharmacies using a single arm clinical trial design to test the impact of the tool on service provision and patients’ access to care. In addition to the software application, we will develop a web-based, professional Community of Practice (CoP) to disseminate innovative educational content and technical assistance to support pharmacist-prescribed contraceptive services, as a part of the HAPPI toolkit. Guided by the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework and Evidence-Based Quality Improvement (EBQI) approach, the content of the CoP will be 1) developed and 2) implemented while undergoing iterative feedback collection from end- users and refinement. At the conclusion of this project, we will have a market-ready, proven, user-informed HAPPI software application and toolkit that will facilitate the implementation of pharmacist-prescribed contraceptive services.