UA’s Tech Launch Arizona Facilitates Licensing of Medical Management Model
The University of Arizona's Tech Launch Arizona (TLA) on Wednesday announced that a medication management software and business model developed by UA College of Pharmacy faculty and researchers has been licensed to SinfoníaRx. SinfoníaRx is a new division of the Tucson-based health care company Sinfonía HealthCare Corporation(link is external).
The model was developed by a team of health care professionals at the UA College of Pharmacy, which operates the award-winning Medication Management Center. The center delivers services to patients nationwide and includes direct pharmacist interaction with patients, their health care providers and community pharmacists to ensure optimal treatment. The program’s state-of-the-art software system proactively evaluates hundreds of millions of prescriptions and medical claims annually to identify opportunities to reduce the risk of adverse events and drug interactions, improve medication adherence, and look for opportunities to reduce the cost of medication treatments.
Under the license agreement, which will take effect in December, SinfoníaRx will assume the program’s current contract, employees and software system. Through an ongoing partnership, the College of Pharmacy will continue to provide clinical pharmacist support for SinfoníaRx’s medication management service.
"Medication management is a growing need in health care. With the wealth of resources Sinfonía HealthCare brings, we will be able to further develop our program and software to reach more patients in critical need of this service," said Kevin Boesen, program founder and SinfoníaRx CEO.
“We are delighted that Sinfonía HealthCare will now be at the helm, taking the medication management software and service into a new trajectory of growth and impact," said David Allen, vice president of Tech Launch Arizona.
Sinfonía HealthCare CEO Fletcher McCusker said the software fits well with the company's focus on preventing expensive, out-of-home health care.
"By combining the prevention of medication errors – a $200 billion dollar problem in the U.S. – with our home health business model, we believe Sinfonía HealthCare and SinfoníaRx will emerge as major forces transforming health care systems," McCusker said.
The UA's Medication Management Center is a "real-world demonstration of how using the right drug in the right dose at the right time can both improve the quality of care and lower costs," said J. Lyle Bootman, dean of the UA College of Pharmacy. "The technology developed in the center has allowed it to serve more than 2.5 million individuals with significant medical conditions. By the end of this year, it will be the nation’s largest provider of medication therapy management services."
The license agreement with Sinfonía HealthCare is an example of the role being played by TLA, which was established a little more than a year ago by UA President Ann Weaver Hart to transform UA research discoveries into intellectual property, leading to patents, licenses and commercial products.
TLA aims to build partnerships that connect UA researchers with the business community to move knowledge and inventions developed by students and faculty into the market while significantly enhancing the impact of university research and innovation.