How To Make Direct-To-Patient Models Work For All Stakeholders

Direct-to-patient (DTP) models are positioned as a way to simplify and improve the patient experience—but their success depends just as much on how well they integrate into the day-to-day realities of healthcare professionals (HCPs) and pharmacies. As manufacturers expand their use of DTP strategies, friction often emerges not at the patient level, but within the workflows of the stakeholders responsible for prescribing, dispensing, and supporting access.

In the third and final installment of his interview with Pharmaceutical Commerce at Access USA 2026, Brok Vandersteen, VP of Business Development at AssistRx, underscores that the key to minimizing disruption lies in embedding DTP processes directly into existing clinical and pharmacy workflows. At the center of this is the e-prescription, which can serve as the trigger point for a range of downstream services—from benefits investigation to prior authorization and financial assistance. When designed correctly, these systems can automatically route patients to the most appropriate access pathway, whether that’s commercial coverage, cash pay, or free drug programs.

However, challenges arise when new models require stakeholders to change established behaviors—particularly for mature products with ingrained prescribing and distribution patterns. Shifting from traditional specialty pharmacy channels to centralized fulfillment models, for example, can create confusion or resistance if not supported by clear strategies and adequate resources. Manufacturers must not only design efficient pathways but also invest in education and support to ensure adoption across the provider base.

Equally important is the role of pharmacy integration. Triggering support services at the point of claim processing can help eliminate gaps and reduce administrative burden, but only if those systems are seamlessly connected. Without that alignment, DTP models risk introducing new inefficiencies rather than solving existing ones. Ultimately, success depends on designing with the full ecosystem in mind—ensuring that patients, providers, and pharmacies all move through a coordinated, streamlined experience.

Access the first and second parts of his video interview series with PC below:

• How Policy pressures Are Driving DTP Adoption
• When and How to Make DTP Models a Core Commercial Approach

A transcript of the conversation can be found below.

Editor's note: This transcript is a lightly edited rendering of the original audio/video content. It may contain errors, informal language, or omissions as spoken in the original recording.

PC: DTP models are often framed around the patient experience, but healthcare professionals and pharmacies have to work within these models too. Where do you see the most friction on their end, and how should manufacturers account for that?

Vandersteen: It's really important to fit into the workflow of all the stakeholders, right? There's this big push to really streamline the communication and engage with patients more efficiently, but how are you working with those patients, the HCPs, and the pharmacy? It really needs to be in their workflow. So core to it is, of course, an e-prescription that triggers all the services that enable a patient to get to the, to, the, the product as streamlined and efficiently and affordably as possible. certainly the ability to intake that, product and, you know, create that rules engine to determine the best path and whether or not to even pursue a prior auth or enable cash or free drug dispense or commercial. but we really look at how can you, you know, tailor that, that process as efficiently as possible. One thing is if you have a product that's really mature to the market and you're going to be changing the way in which those prescribers are going to handle the prescription, instead of to maybe an SP, they now need to go to a central location, it's important that the strategies around that and that there are resources put in place to drive that change of behavior. And also at the pharmacy, how do you integrate at the pharmacy level and even trigger services at the claim being processed so that it's not creating, again, more disjointed, experiences for all the different stakeholders?