The Pharmacy HCT Core Topics Connection Live Session will air on Tuesday, November 12, at 2 pm CT/3 pm ET. This live session will focus on two core topics in hematopoietic cell transplantation and cellular therapy- Acute GVHD and Chronic GVHD. The faculty below will answer questions about their respective topics and share their experiences from their institutions. The target audience is PGY2 Oncology Pharmacy Residents, but is open to all trainees practicing or interested in transplantation and cellular therapy. This webinar will not be recorded. 

Live Session Faculty:

Acute Graft vs Host Disease

C. Brooke Adams, PharmD, BCOP

Clinical Pharmacy Specialist- Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy

Orlando Health Cancer Institute

JoEllen Weilnau, PharmD

Clinical Pharmacy Coordinator- Hematology/Oncology/Bone Marrow Transplant

Akron Children's Hospital

Chronic Graft vs Host Disease

Rebecca Gonzalez, PharmD, BCOP

Clinical Pharmacist Specialist- Blood and Marrow Transplantation-Cellular Immunotherapy 

Moffitt Cancer Center

Elizabeth R. Eubanks, PharmD, MPH, BCPS, BCOP

Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner- Ambulatory Adult Bone Marrow Transplant

Duke blood Cancer Center

Please join us for the ASTCT Pharmacy SIG Career Search Panel on Wednesday, October 23th at 2 p.m. CDT/ 3 p.m. EDT.  This live session will feature a panel of pharmacists in traditional and non-traditional oncology pharmacy roles discussing their respective career paths. The goal of this session is to assist new and current pharmacy practitioners with navigating their career journeys by allowing them to engage with oncology pharmacists working in a variety of practice settings. This event is open to all healthcare professionals who are members and non-members of ASTCT. We hope to see you on October 23!  

Panelists: 

• Amber Clemmons PharmD, BCOP, FHOPA - Clinical Professor University of Georgia College of Pharmacy, BMT Clinical Pharmacist at Wellstar-MCG Health, PGY2 Oncology Residency Director UGA/Wellstar-MCG Health   
• Julianna Roddy-McLean, PharmD, BCOP - Hematology Regional Medical Scientific Director at Merck      
• LeAnne Kennedy, PharmD, BCOP, CPP, FHOPA - Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist PGY2 Oncology Residency Program Director, Oncology Clinical Manager at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, Pharmacy Clinical Specialist in Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapy, HOPA President  
• David DeRemer, PharmD, BCOP, FCCP, FHOPA - Clinical Professor at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy and the Assistant Director of Experimental Therapeutics Group at the University of Florida Health Cancer Center  
• Kelly Gaertner Brandt, PharmD, BCOP, BCPS - Oncology Clinical Pharmacy Specialist Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute

Have you ever found yourself completely stumped on how to approach a clinical case, wishing you could poll pharmacists from other institutions for an immediate answer? Have you ever been curious about other institutions’ transplant or immunotherapy standards, processes, or platforms, but didn’t know where to inquire? Have you posted a question on the SIG Discussion Board in hopes of generating conversation about a unique clinical situation? Have you ever wanted to network with colleagues more often than annually at the Tandem Meetings?

This virtual round table discussion will focus on the ongoing national IVF shortage and discussing plans for conservation and mitigation strategies. 

 The Pharmacy SIG Steering Committee will be hosting this ad-hoc session which will remain in our usual format of Q&A and discussion with your colleagues from around the country with the intent to generate immediate answers. It will be held on Friday, October 18 from 1:00 p.m. CT/2:00 p.m. ET.

The ASTCT Payor Relations Committee will host the webinar, 'Immune Effector Cell Therapies: Best Practices for Financial and Administrative Operations Success,' on October 10th from 11-12 p.m. CDT. This webinar will provide guidance on the unique patient authorization workflows and administrative oversight to implement and operate a successful immune effector cell therapy program. Faculty from the Payor Relations Committee will review best practices for establishing interdisciplinary workflows, focusing on institutional staff roles and participation, common pitfalls steps required to ensure expected reimbursement. This is a great chance for new centers to learn how experienced centers have evolved their approach to administrative workflows for these complex therapies. This webinar is free and open to ASTCT members and non-members.

Faculty:

Amy Emmert, MScPH; Executive Director for Cellular Therapy External Affairs at Dana Farber Cancer Institute

Cynthia Devroy, Manager, Oncology Business Operations, Northside Hospital

Catherine Cardona, Program Analyst, Blood and Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapies Program, The University of Kansas Cancer Center

Gary Goldstein, Senior Manager, BMT and Cellular Therapy Program, Stanford Health Care

This third webinar of 2024 presented by the Palliative Care SIG will focus on lessons learned in the field and important research questions that must be answered in the future to further advance the science of palliative and supportive care to meet the needs of patients throughout the continuum of the illness.

Speakers:

Areej El-Jawahri, MD. Massachusetts General Hospital

Susan McInnes, MD, Cleveland Clinic

Effie Petersdorf, MD, University of Washington

Moderator:

Christina Ullrich, MD, MPH, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

The ASTCT Pharmacy SIG September 2024 Journal Club will air on Wednesday, September 11, 2024 at 2 pm CDT/3 pm EDT. This webinar consists of two, 30-minute journal club presentations, which include 20 minutes for the presentation and 10 minutes for discussion and a Q&A session. In the September Journal Club session, Drs. Sawiris and Held will present on two articles related to: (a) Exagamglogene Autotemcel for severe sickle cell disease and (b) Safety and efficacy of eltrombopag for platelet engraftment after haploidentical bone marrow transplant. This session is intended for pharmacists and other members of the health care team who are involved in managing patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplant or cell and gene therapy.

Presenters & Articles

Monica Sawiris, PharmD

PGY-2 Pharmacy Resident

Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist

Article: Exagamglogene Autotemcel for Severe Sickle Cell Disease

Hailey Held, PharmD

PGY-2 Pharmacy Resident

UW Health - Carbone Cancer Center

Article: Eltrombopag improves platelet engraftment after haploidentical bone marrow transplantation: Results of a Phase II study

Session Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of the activity, participants should be able to:

• Explain the pathophysiology of sickle cell disease and limitations of existing treatments
• Define the mechanism of action of Exagamglogene autotemcel (exa-cel)
• Discuss safety and efficacy of Exagamglogene autotemcel (exa-cel) use in sickle cell disease
• Explore benefits and challenges associated with Exagamglogene autotemcel (exa-cel) use in sickle cell disease
• Describe the typical timeline for platelet engraftment after a haploidentical bone marrow transplant, risks associated with delayed engraftment, and supportive care options
• Review safety and efficacy of eltrombopag for platelet engraftment after a haploidentical bone marrow transplant
• Summarize the potential benefit and risk to patient if using eltrombopag to enhance platelet engraftment

ACCREDITED PROVIDER

This activity is jointly provided by The France Foundation and American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT).

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by The France Foundation and American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT). The France Foundation is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

CREDIT DESIGNATION

Pharmacists

This knowledge-based activity, UAN JA0007204-9999-24-088-L01-P, qualifies for 1.0 contact hours (0.10 CEUs) of continuing pharmacy education credit. Please submit all evaluations and credit requests no later than 30 days after you complete this activity to ensure your credit fulfillment, as CE credit cannot be awarded past 60 days from the activity date. Your CE credits will be electronically submitted to the NABP upon successful completion of the activity. Pharmacists with questions can contact NABP customer service (custserv@nabp.net).

All other healthcare professionals completing this course will be issued a statement of participation.

The full CE information for this session can be found here. 

The 2024 CAR T Webinar Series debuted in June 2024, highlighting the Best of CAR T at the 2024 Tandem Meetings and new developments in CAR T Treatments. Recordings and slides from the live webinars have been posted here for your easy viewing.

Thank you to Johnson & Johnson and Legend Biotech for their generous support of this webinar series.

The New Developments in CAR T Treatments webinar is the second and final session in this two-part CAR T webinar series. This session aired on Tuesday, September 10, at 12 p.m. CDT and featured two presentations from Drs. Bachanova and Rouce on new developments in NK Cells and Point of Care Manufacturing. This hour-long webinar had two twenty-minute talks with the remaining time used for audience Q&A. The session is open and free to all ASTCT members and non-members. 

Topics and Speakers:

NK Cells

Veronika Bachanova, MD, PhD; University of Minnesota

Point of Care Manufacturing

Rayne Rouce, MD, BS; Baylor College of Medicine/Texas Children's

Thank you to Johnson & Johnson and Legend Biotech for their generous support of this webinar series.

Join ASTCT Director of Government Relations, Alycia Maloney, JD and Reimbursement and Policy Advisors from Nimitt Consulting for a webinar on Medicare rule updates on August 14 at 12 p.m. CDT/1 p.m. EDT. 

This webinar will cover:

• FY 2025 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Final Rule:
  • Final payment rates and policies for key MS-DRGs for Stem Cell Transplant MS-DRGs (014, 016 and 017) and CAR-T and Other Immunotherapies (MS-DRG 018)
  •  Final decisions on the CMS proposal for changes to the New Technology Add-on Payment (NTAP) for gene therapies for Sickle Cell Disease
  • Final outlier fixed loss threshold and market basket update amounts
• Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) Proposed Rule:
  • Payment updates to CAR-T and SCT codes
• Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Proposed Rule:
  • New codes and payment updates applicable to ASTCT member physicians

There will be a Q&A section at the end of the webinar, so be sure to register and submit any questions in advance that you would like answered during the webinar to info@astct.org. If you are unable to join, the recording will be made available. 

Please consider sharing this webinar with your network of doctors, administrators, providers, or any other colleagues that may be interested.

The Advanced Practice Providers SIG hosted a webinar on 'Autologous Gene Editing for Sickle Cell Disease and Transfusion Dependent Beta Thalassemia' on Thursday, July 18, at 2 p.m. CDT. This webinar is open to all ASTCT members and non-members. Please note that there is no CME offered for attending this webinar. 

Speaker:

Haydar Frangoul, MD, MS; Program Director, Sarah Cannon Pediatric Hematology/Oncology & Cellular Therapy @TriStar Centennial

Session Learning Objectives:

• Understand importance of elevated fetal hemoglobin in SCD and TDT
• Review gene editing technology to induce fetal hemoglobin
• Review gene therapy patient journey
• Understand indications for gene editing in SCD and TDT
• Review the updated results for gene therapy  
• Understand toxicities related to gene editing therapy