DromosPTM™, an Innovative Software for Specialty Pharmacies

DETROIT – Henry Ford Innovations (HFI) has signed an exclusive licensing agreement with a Detroit software and health care company to market an innovative software application that will be appealing to specialty pharmacies worldwide.

The application, called DromosPTM™, streamlines clinical activities for managing patients’ medication therapy. It's the first-of-its kind application with robust capability to meet the diverse needs of specialty pharmacists, providers and manufacturers.

The agreement with Semita, a cloud-based software company, is the latest in a series of licensing agreements made by HFI to develop and commercialize its intellectual assets. Since its inception in 2011, HFI, the innovations arm of Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System, has signed 30 licensing agreements, representing $350 million in future revenue.

Semita is led by Detroit-based entrepreneur Paul Toenjes, who has more than 30 years of experience in software development, health care and corporate leadership and business development. He also owns five patents in health care.

“We’re excited about the functionality that DromosPTM™ brings to the specialty pharmacy industry,” says Joseph Jankowski, Ph.D., an HFI senior advisor. “We believe Paul is the right fit for this opportunity, given his proven track record and entrepreneurial spirit.”

Toenjes called DromosPTM™ “the most robust technology today” in the specialty pharmacy industry.

“DromosPTM™ fills a gap in this rapidly growing industry by providing a highly flexible and configurable platform that adapts to the way individual specialty pharmacists operate,” Toenjes says.

Key features of DromosPTM™:

• Manages the prior authorization process for medications with efficiency.

• Simplifies processes for delivering and refilling medications.

• Eliminates duplication and emphasizes best practices.

• Assists patients with finding financial assistance for their medication.

• Enhances reporting and monitoring capabilities.

• Advances configurable workflows to make quick, easy process changes due to evolving specialty pharmacy requirements.

DromosPTM™ is the brainchild of a team of specialty pharmacists at Pharmacy Advantage, the specialty pharmacy at Henry Ford Health System. They elected to build their own software application after concluding that existing products at the time didn’t meet the unique needs of specialty pharmacy management.

Specialty pharmacy focuses on high cost, high touch medication therapy for patients with complex and chronic diseases including dispensing, distribution, reimbursement and case management. Some of these diseases include cancer, hepatitis C, HIV/AIDS, immune disorders, infertility, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

According to published reports, specialty pharmacy is estimated to be 50 percent of the total pharmaceutical costs by 2022. Currently, more than 60 percent of all new drugs under development are considered specialty medications.

“DromosPTM™ our vision of what a true specialty pharmacy patient therapy management software system should be,” says Jonathan Van Lare, PharmD, director of Clinical and Specialty Pharmacy Services at Pharmacy Advantage. “It’s a software application built by clinical pharmacists for clinical pharmacists.”

DromosPTM™ debuted in 2013 at Pharmacy Advantage and continues to be refined to this day. For the past year, specialty pharmacies in Boston and North Dakota have been using the software and report it has significantly improved their services.

Two years ago, Pharmacy Advantage pitched DromosPTM™ to HFI for its potential for commercialization.

“We’ve taken a very convoluted process used in specialty pharmacy and turned it into a very linear workflow that allows us to get medications to our patients quicker without any interruption in their care,” Van Lare says. “Before DromosPTM™, it would take on average up to two weeks to process medications. Now, patients are receiving their medications within 48 hours.”

The name DromosPTM™ was borne from a name-that-software game Pharmacy Advantage held for its team members. The list was narrowed to three names before the team settled on DromosPTM™, which means pathway in Greek. The name Semita (pronounced sa-mi-ta) means pathway in Latin.

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MEDIA CONTACT: David Olejarz / David.Olejarz@hfhs.org / 313.874.4094.