Hospital Stewardship Leverages Real‑Time Tech to Cut Costs

In a MedCity News webinar for Pharmacy Week 2026, pharmacy experts will outline why stewardship is essential to hospital cost containment and long‑term sustainability. The session will focus on antibiotics and opioids, noting that decisions depend on infection type, patient risk factors, and therapy duration. The goal is to show how stewardship can save money while keeping patient care high.

Panelists include Martha Tran, Pharm.D., Senior Director of Customer Operations at Inovalon, and Josh Caraccio, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCIDP, Principal Implementation Engineer at Inovalon. Arundhati Parmar, Editor‑in‑Chief of MedCity News, will moderate the discussion. They will discuss the responsibilities of pharmacists when managing opioids and other potent drugs in today’s health‑care climate.

The webinar will highlight a shift from retrospective, dashboard‑driven reviews to near real‑time surveillance, smart risk prioritization, and closed‑loop intervention. These tools allow stewardship programs to act proactively, enabling pharmacists to work at the top of their license. The technology shift turns stewardship into a dynamic, decision‑support system.

A key takeaway is the shared playbook between antibiotic and opioid stewardship. Surveillance, prioritization, and intervention workflows can be applied to both programs, reducing manual burden and freeing pharmacist time. The panel will illustrate how this integration improves efficiency across medication types.

By the end of the webinar, attendees will understand how stewardship programs contribute to cost containment, health‑system resilience, and better patient outcomes. They will also learn the practical steps needed to adopt real‑time technology in stewardship. Registration is available through the MedCity News webinar form.