Abstracts

Rationale: Community pharmacists are among the most accessible health care professionals, yet there is little published evidence on their contributions to epilepsy care (Epilepsy Behav 2021;117:107850). Previous research conducted by the authors with multidisciplinary epilepsy stakeholders, including patients and caregivers, identified that community pharmacists should be involved in epilepsy care by serving as a patient advocate, monitoring medication adherence and safety, and providing medication education. Population health interventions designed by subject matter experts are often not optimized for users, leading to poor uptake. Design Thinking is a methodology used by product designers to change the expert paradigm by bringing users intimately into the design process. The goal of this project was to use Design Thinking to develop a desirable, feasible, and viable intervention for use by community pharmacists with people living with epilepsy (PWE).

Methods: A Design Thinking workshop evaluated findings from previously conducted stakeholder research, scoping literature review, and input from a 15-person multidisciplinary think tank, and facilitated ideation on relevant PWE personas and new solution designs. Storyboards with illustrations and descriptive captions were produced for three PWE personas (a newly diagnosed patient, a well-controlled patient, and a complex patient with poor seizure control) and three corresponding intervention prototype designs. Three, 60-minute online focus groups were conducted with graduate pharmacists (n=3). Based on insights gathered, PWE personas and prototype designs were revised. Ninety-minute online interviews with intervention users including community pharmacists (n=6), PWE (n=5), and caregivers of PWE (n=3) were then conducted. Insights were analyzed to identify common themes across PWE personas and presented to the multidisciplinary think tank who provided input on key prototype features and the final high-level design of the intervention.

Results: The most desirable, feasible, and viable intervention features for pharmacist-provided services were medication synchronization, consultation, education package, care coordination, care planning, and regular check-ins. Additional themes from user interviews included: living with epilepsy is 24×7 and physician access is limited; pharmacists can help close information gaps; pharmacists can be a trusted community partner; and, there are perceived barriers of pharmacists’ time. The final intervention design prioritized pharmacist–patient consultation, development of a care plan, regular check-ins, and care coordination between the patient, pharmacist, and other health care providers.

Conclusions: Design Thinking is an effective framework for the development of new solutions for epilepsy care. Findings suggest users value specific features of potential community pharmacist-led epilepsy care intervention. The authors intend to operationalize and evaluate the impact of the final intervention design on PWE quality of life and health outcomes.

Funding: Please list any funding that was received in support of this abstract.: UCB Pharma-funded.