Utilizing APPs to Deliver Bispecific Antibodies in the Outpatient Setting

There were a couple of things.

So one, the patients really hated being admitted for 9 to 11 days for step-up dosing.

So that was one of them.

And selling them on a 9 to 11-day hospitalization could be difficult.

for a therapy that could be really life altering, life extending, quality of life could be really different on this.

So we wanted to be able to offer it to them.

So that's the first.

The second was a nine to 11 day hospitalization for the number of patients that our program wanted to treat takes up a lot of hospital beds.

And that is difficult to accommodate in the current situation.

state of just everybody is so full all the time.

And then of course there's the financial impacts of how we get reimbursed outpatient versus inpatient and all of that, which was, I think, maybe more of an issue in the very beginning.

with teclistamab and talquitamab and all of those bispecific antibodies and less of an issue now, but certainly the hospitalization days and just life, quality of life continues to be an issue.

With workforce shortages and budget issues, many programs struggle to find support for new programming.

What would you say to others about creating new programs in this environment?

I think looking to see where you already have maybe some availability.

So like we had some nurse practitioners with availability that were able to step up and do this without hiring new staff.

And then we did dedicate some money to hiring a bispecific coordinator, which has been really, really important to just kind of help us move patients through all of this.

And I think that will continue to be very important.

So I think the big thing is probably looking at what you need to spend money on, making sure that you're spending money on the right things, and then looking for areas like space and staff that maybe have capacity that you can utilize in a little bit of a different way to deliver this care.

What are you hoping attendees will take away from your presentation this October at NOC?

One, that we can do this safely as an outpatient, maybe without some of the things that other centers have had in place.

So like having 24-hour non-emergency care, like we can do this safely with just having like a call service and an emergency room as long as we have access to that.

you know, the emergency drugs.

So I think that's one.

We can do it safely as an outpatient.