Patient reach: A system-level patient coverage indicator for academic detailing programs

Academic detailing bridges gaps between clinical practice and evidence-based treatments; however, it lacks a simple and convenient campaign-level coverage measure to optimize impact on the patient population. To address this, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Pharmacy Benefits Management Academic Detailing Services introduced the patient reach (PR) measure. This measure represents the share of actionable patients assigned to clinicians receiving an educational outreach session. The PR measure was implemented in March 2024 and provides information on PR coverage across VA regions, medical centers, and clinicians. The PR measure functions as the primary indicator supporting prioritization of clinicians for outreach visits and may apply to other pharmacy-related settings such as chronic disease management programs, opioid and controlled substance stewardship programs, and preventative care and screening initiatives. Future evaluations will assess whether using the PR measure improves clinician selection and contributes to downstream practice change.