Ardon Health is a closed-door specialty pharmacy located in Portland, Oregon, which opened for business on May 1, 2014. We serve patients all over the US but have a strong presence in the Pacific Northwest. We currently employ 6 clinical pharmacists and 1 PGY-1 community resident. Our support team of technicians work to process prescriptions, resolve insurance issues, and connect patients with resources. The pharmacist duties entail prescription verification at a data review and product review stage. Our pharmacists also provide in depth telephonic patient education and counseling, along with disease state focused clinical programs to help improve outcomes.

Ardon Health exclusively services specialty medications. Medications that fall into this realm are typically high cost (oral or injectable) and require high patient touch to ensure success. At Ardon Health, we offer a variety of patient care services to help to manage chronic, life-threatening or rare conditions. Our disease states include: chronic inflammatory disease (psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, RA, IBD, Crohn's disease), neurology (MS, migraines), infectious disease (hepatitis, HIV), hemophilia, oral oncology, multiple sclerosis, mental health and many more. We also treat smaller groups of patients with a variety of disease states that are treatable with injectable, biologic or specialty medications.

Students at Ardon will assist pharmacists in providing clinical services to the company and consumer through the appropriate evaluation of physician orders and safe and efficient dispensing of medications, supplies, and administration equipment. Students will be exposed to all aspects of specialty pharmacy. From traditional work flow tasks such as prescription processing and pharmacist verification, to the shipping and more complicated process of dispensing for these products - all steps required to fill prescriptions and operate a pharmacy in a manner that is consistent with state and federal laws and company policies.

Students will learn about our core disease states and review them with our clinical team. After gaining exposure to disease states, they will additionally be exposed to patient counseling on these medications/conditions. Students will also participate in a process of evidence based medicine, to complete journal club for newly approved medications or other relevant publications.

Students participate in the functions of the clinical help desk, including patient and doctor interaction, dispensing of medications, answering drug information questions and assisting pharmacists in development of clinical endeavors.

Students will have the opportunity to gain an understanding of the dispensing process, patient advocacy, and therapy compliance, which includes:

  • Exposure to new and innovative treatment modalities unique to the specialty pharmacy field
  • Adherence and side effect monitoring
  • Creating and Implementing Patient Disease Management Programs
  • Patient education on treatments and chronic and complex conditions
  • Prior-authorization requirements such as split fill and step therapy.
  • Connecting patients with copay assistance resources to minimize out-of-pocket expenses
  • Clinical education for Ardon staff
  • Inventory management and special storage & handling of biologics

 Students will interact with our pharmacy resident. Interprofessional interactions with medical offices occur over the phone.