Q&A with Dr. Lynne Nowak: Why Real-Time Data Matters for Specialty Medication Access

Specialty medications now account for more than half of U.S. medicine spending. Yet, data gaps cause delays and abandonment. I sat down with Surescripts Chief Data and Analytics Officer Dr. Lynne Nowak to discuss how life sciences companies can use real-time data to reduce friction and accelerate therapy starts.

• Q: Dr. Nowak, you work with prescription data day in and day out, what challenges are preventing patients from accessing specialty medications—and why does better data matter?

  A:

  Specialty medications often treat complex, serious conditions where delays in therapy can have meaningful clinical and financial consequences. Unfortunately, accessing these medications today often comes with a lot of friction.

  When data gaps obscure benefit coverage, prior authorization requirements or prescribing intent, everyone suffers. Patients face long delays, providers experience overwhelming administrative burden managing complex therapies and life sciences companies don’t know exactly where access breaks down. Addressing these challenges is essential to keeping patient care on track.

  These statistics paint a stark picture of the current reality for patients:

  • 22% of prior authorizations are not completed, according to Surescripts analysis of all 2025 Electronic Prior Authorization transactions.
  • 27% of new prescriptions are never dispensed according to a Surescripts analysis of e-prescriptions sent to fill-reporting pharmacies in January 2026.
  • 53% of patients say cost has kept them from taking a medication, according to the Surescripts report, “Prescription Price Transparency and the Patient Experience,” February 2020.

  These numbers highlight a critical need for better, more connected data to ensure patients receive their medications without unnecessary hurdles.

  Q: If life sciences companies can't see where access breaks down in real time, how can they fix it?

  A:

  The key is moving away from using only retrospective data and embracing real-time intelligence.

  For life sciences companies, a clear view of drop-offs and delays can be transformative. It means market access teams can spot important prescribing patterns in near real time, instead of only using weeks-old claims data. By understanding exactly when and why a prescription is abandoned or delayed, life sciences teams can proactively address the root causes.

  This real time visibility eliminates the incomplete insight that has historically plagued market access teams, allowing them to deploy resources more effectively, optimize their support programs and ensure patients get the therapies they need when they need them.

  Surescripts processes 2.5 billion prescriptions annually. Starting from the moment a medication is prescribed through dispensing and adherence, we can help find and fix barriers to patient access.

  Q: Prior authorization delays can take days or weeks. What would it take to reduce that time?

  A:

  Speeding up the process starts with reducing friction in the authorization workflow. Today, specialty therapy patients face unnecessary delays while manual processes, phone calls and faxes create bottlenecks that postpone critical treatment initiation.

  The Surescripts Prior Authorization Platform for Life Sciences streamlines these workflows, helping patients start their specialty therapies faster. When authorization processes are more efficient, patients avoid dangerous treatment gaps and experience better health outcomes.

  Additionally, Electronic Benefit Verification enables near-instant benefits verification, allowing patient access teams to have immediate, informed conversations with patients about coverage, costs, and available support programs—right when patients need this information most.

  By removing these barriers at every step, we can prevent treatment abandonment before it starts and ensure patients get the therapies they need without delay.

  Q: Faster specialty therapy starts? Sign me up! Now, most life sciences teams ask, 'Are our medications being delayed by prior authorization processes'? How can they get that answer?

  A:

  Even when workflows improve, most life sciences teams can't answer: Is it working? With Surescripts health intelligence network, life sciences companies gain access to insights to answer questions like:

  • Where does prior authorization introduce delay or drop-off?
  • Which coverage policies trigger prescribing behavior changes?
  • What access barriers appear most frequently?
  • Are workflow optimizations translating to faster therapy starts?

  Instead of waiting weeks for claims data, patient access teams can see where friction appears in real time—while there’s still an opportunity to intervene. Imagine being able to make decisions based on what's happening now, not what happened last quarter.

The Bottom Line on Specialty Prescribing Intelligence

Specialty medications are among the most complex and costly therapies patients rely on, yet too often, access breaks down before treatment even begins. Real-time, transaction-level intelligence can surface where access barriers occur and give life sciences companies the visibility they need to intervene sooner.