/ en Thu, 01 May 2025 19:39:53 -0500 Wed, 23 Apr 25 15:16:30 -0500 /news/headline/2025-04-23-jama-study-finds-changing-default-prescription-length-can-possibly-reduce-pharmacy-trips-lower <p>A <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2832105">JAMA Internal Medicine study </a>published April 7 examined the effects of changing the default prescription lengths for statins, which are cholesterol-lowering medications, from 2022 to 2024. The study noted that higher rates of possession of such medications are often associated with a lower risk of death.</p><p>Researchers made a default change for doctors in the electronic health record, making a 90-day supply the default prescription option instead of a 30-day supply. At the beginning of the study from July to November 2022, roughly 71 percent of the participating physicians prescribed 90-day supplies of statins. From November 2022 to January 2024, 91 percent of the doctors were ordering 90-day prescriptions instead of actively choosing the 30-day option. The study resulted in 7,200 fewer 30-day prescriptions, researchers <a href="https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2025/april/nudge-boosts-statin-prescribing-means-fewer-pharmacy-trips">said</a>.</p><p>“Having medication available is a necessary precondition for adherence, and longer prescription durations facilitate adherence by reducing the frequency with which patients must act to obtain medications,” the study notes. “Higher rates of medication possession for statins are associated with lower all-cause mortality, highlighting the potential clinical benefits of longer prescription duration.”</p> Wed, 23 Apr 2025 15:16:30 -0500 Pharmacy /aha-center-health-innovation-market-scan/2025-02-25-rfid-solutions-attract-attention-medication-inventory-management <div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-8"><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/RFID-Solutions-Attract-Attention-for-Medication-Inventory-Management.png" data-entity-uuid="fcef64bf-69db-4b66-b257-90a786729d38" data-entity-type="file" alt="RFID Solutions Attract Attention for Medication Inventory Management. A radio frequency identification (RFID) system tag surround by drug capsules." width="100%" height="100%"><p>Using radio frequency identification (RFID) systems to track hospital and health system assets, including equipment and staff, have long been in use. But it appears that more organizations are giving RFID a second look to aid in medication management accuracy, safety and efficiency.</p><p>Recent reports note that UF Health Shands, a private, not-for-profit hospital in Gainesville, Florida, has been using an <a href="https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/rfid-brings-inpatient-medication-management-home-settings" target="_blank" title="HIMSS: RFID brings inpatient medication management to home settings">RFID solution</a> for three years to help the pharmacy team manage crash cart trays. Meanwhile, Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston has been using <a href="https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/novel-rfid-solution-elevates-drug-inventory-management" target="_blank" title="HIMSS: A novel RFID solution elevates drug inventory management">RFID solutions for drug kits, trays and airway boxes</a> for several years to streamline the refilling process.</p><p>RFID systems augment and improve a historically barcode-driven workflow by utilizing the technology’s power to read large numbers of drugs during a single scan — in real time, wirelessly. This can make it is easier and faster to determine what drugs may need to be restocked or removed due to expiration. RFID also can eliminate manual entry of lot numbers and expiration dates while accelerating the recall process, which saves many hours of often tedious work, advocates say.</p><p>Still, making the conversion to RFID tracking of medications has its own set of labor-intensive considerations.</p><h2>Evaluate Tagging Considerations</h2><p>To use RFID-enabled medication systems, each medication needs to be RFID tagged, notes a <a href="https://www.pharmaceuticalcommerce.com/view/the-promise-of-rfid-for-improving-medication-inventory-management" target="_blank" title="Pharmaceutical Commerce: The Promise of RFID for Improving Medication Inventory Management">Pharmaceutical Commerce report</a>. This typically requires pharmacy personnel to place a vendor-provided RFID tag onto individual products, associate the drug information to the tag and then double-check the tags to ensure accuracy.</p><p>Tag placement also can be important since the tags must be affixed in the right location to avoid obscuring the medication label. Many hospitals have job aids to direct pharmacy personnel where and how to affix tags, especially on difficult-to-read products.</p><p>While it may be a lot of work, for many facilities the benefits in terms of accuracy and efficiency outweigh this tedious task. For others, however, the labor required to tag the number of products required may dissuade them from adopting RFID.</p><p>UF Health Shands opted in favor of an RFID solution to support its emergency department, pharmacy and hospital-at-home program that launched in 2024. Rubaiyat Zinat, pharmacist coordinator for adult medicine pharmacy services at UF Health Shands, is hopeful that RFID’s use will expand to hospital operating rooms and anesthesia workstations. The ability to use drugs pre-tagged by pharmaceutical manufacturers would further simplify medication management workflows, saving her team time and frustration, she told Healthcare IT News.</p><p>After determining that its health system regularly uses 784 high-value and specialty drugs that cost $100 or more per unit, Texas Children’s worked on developing a new type of RFID system to track these items.</p><p>It focused on more efficiently tagging each medication, taking an onerous 12-step process that was fraught with the potential for human error to a simpler two-step workflow. In the new workflow, a pharmacy tech scans the high-value drug to generate a label with all pertinent information that is applied to a box. That box is associated only with that unique medication. The box then moves to a conditioning station where the technician scans the already validated drug label and applies an RFID tag to each unit within the box.</p><p>This process has eliminated the need for manual data entry, with each drug associated with a specific RFID location, such as a cabinet or refrigerator. This validates that the drug is the right product, that it’s going to the right location and that the RFID tag is working before it gets there.</p></div><div class="col-md-4"><p><a href="/center" title="Visit the AHA Center for Health Innovation landing page."><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/logo-aha-innovation-center-color-sm.jpg" data-entity-uuid="7ade6b12-de98-4d0b-965f-a7c99d9463c5" alt="AHA Center for Health Innovation logo" width="721" height="130" data-entity- type="file" class="align-center"></a></p><p><a href="/center/form/innovation-subscription"><img src="/sites/default/files/2019-04/Market_Scan_Call_Out_360x300.png" data-entity-uuid data-entity-type alt width="360" height="300"></a></p></div></div></div>.field_featured_image { position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } .featured-image{ position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } h2 { color: #9d2235; } Tue, 25 Feb 2025 06:00:00 -0600 Pharmacy /aha-center-health-innovation-market-scan/2024-10-15-4-health-systems-team-tackle-drug-development-care-coordination-and-billing <div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-8"><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/4-Health-Systems-Team-Up-to-Tackle-Drug-Development-Care-Coordination-and-Billing.png" data-entity-uuid="cc708067-d6ca-4b77-9008-533ef3e88f67" data-entity-type="file" alt="4 Health Systems Team Up to Tackle Drug Development, Care Coordination and Billing. A silver hand and a gold hand fist bump." width="100%" height="100%" class="align-center"><p>Addressing weighty issues that confront health care, such as increasing access to complex drugs, care coordination within huge programs like Medicare Advantage and streamlining billing processes, is tough for any organization trying to go it alone. So maybe it’s not surprising that four prominent nonprofit health systems — Baylor, Scott & White Health, Memorial Hermann Health System, Novant Health and Providence — have banded together to form a for-profit entity to tackle these challenges.</p><p>The new organization, <a href="https://www.providence.org/news/uf/689043632?streamid=4347370%5C" target="_blank" title="Providence: Leading Health Systems Form New Organization to Transform the Development and Delivery of Health Care Solutions">Longitude Health</a>, will draw on the expertise of founding member organizations while it tries to recruit more health systems and investors over the next 12 months.</p><p>Initially, Longitude Health plans to form three operating startup companies that will focus on pharmaceutical development, improving care coordination and streamlining billing practices. The organization hopes to create additional operating companies in the coming years. Paul Mango, former chief of staff at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, will be CEO of the new venture, with CEOs from the four health systems comprising the Longitude board.</p><p>“Health systems must transcend traditional care delivery strategies and embrace innovative business models that serve the broader health care community,” said Rod Hochman, M.D., president and CEO of Providence. “To do so, it is imperative that we work with other like-minded partners facing similar challenges to build up new capabilities. By implementing solutions that benefit multiple health systems, we can drive down costs and ensure the sustainability of health care delivery. We will lead the charge in shaping a brighter future for health care delivery.”</p><p>Health system-led ventures like the generic drug company CivicaRx and the data analytics firm Truveta are models that Longitude can build on, Hochman told <a href="https://www.modernhealthcare.com/providers/longitude-health-providence-baylor-scott-white-novant-memorial-hermann" target="_blank" title="Modern Healthcare: 4 nonprofit health systems launch Longitude Health">Modern Healthcare in a recent interview</a>. If Longitude can develop solutions that demonstrate value, the organization will share those with the field, he said.</p><p><span><strong>Initial aims of the Longitude startup companies include:</strong></span></p><ul><li><strong>Improving access to drugs</strong> like monoclonal antibodies used to treat cancer and infectious diseases.</li><li>Working closely with physicians to <strong>limit readmissions</strong>, at the request of Medicare Advantage plans. The company will help health systems refine treatment and improve care transitions.</li><li>Consolidating medical bills into a <strong>single invoice</strong> that shows what a patient owes.</li></ul><p>In January, Longitude plans to hold a competition among the four health system members to determine what Longitude’s next focus should be, which could be related to health information technology, cybersecurity, labor productivity or value-based care.</p></div><div class="col-md-4"><p><a href="/center" title="Visit the AHA Center for Health Innovation landing page."><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/logo-aha-innovation-center-color-sm.jpg" data-entity-uuid="7ade6b12-de98-4d0b-965f-a7c99d9463c5" alt="AHA Center for Health Innovation logo" width="721" height="130" data-entity- type="file" class="align-center"></a></p><p><a href="/center/form/innovation-subscription"><img src="/sites/default/files/2019-04/Market_Scan_Call_Out_360x300.png" data-entity-uuid data-entity-type alt width="360" height="300"></a></p></div></div></div>.field_featured_image { position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } .featured-image{ position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } Tue, 15 Oct 2024 06:00:00 -0500 Pharmacy /news/headline/2024-07-17-aspr-commerce-department-assess-active-pharmaceutical-ingredient-base-better-understand-pharmaceutical <p>The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response July 16 <a href="https://aspr.hhs.gov/newsroom/Pages/Active-Rx-Ingredient-Supply-Chain-July2024.aspx">announced</a> it will work with the Department of Commerce on an assessment of the active pharmaceutical industrial base to better understand the pharmaceutical supply chain and how it has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. The assessment is based on a survey conducted last winter. The study will inform federal strategies and funding decisions related to the API supply chain and raise awareness of potential supply chain issues, such as the current limited domestic manufacturing capabilities and other potential issues. The study will survey more than 200 companies, including manufacturers, distributors, suppliers and customers. A <a href="https://www.bis.gov/press-release/bis-conduct-assessment-us-active-pharmaceutical-ingredient-industrial-base">Bureau of Industry and Security webpage</a> answers FAQs about the project.<br> </p> Wed, 17 Jul 2024 16:02:09 -0500 Pharmacy /news/headline/2024-07-17-cms-releases-final-guidance-medicare-prescription-payment-plan <p>The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services July 16 released its <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2024/07/16/biden-harris-administration-releases-final-part-two-guidance-help-people-medicare-prescription-drug-coverage-manage-prescription-drug-costs.html">final guidance</a> on the Medicare Prescription Payment Plan which will begin next year. The plan will provide individuals with Medicare Part D coverage the option to pay their out-of-pocket prescription drug costs in monthly installments rather than paying in full at the pharmacy counter. This final guidance complements CMS’ upcoming national education and program implementation efforts that will be coordinated with Part D plans, pharmacies, providers, drug manufacturers, and beneficiary advocates. CMS has also released a <a href="https://www.cms.gov/files/document/fact-sheet-medicare-prescription-payment-plan-final-part-two-guidance.pdf">fact sheet</a> providing an overview on the final guidance. </p> Wed, 17 Jul 2024 14:01:56 -0500 Pharmacy /role-hospitals-atlantic-health-targets-polypharmacy <div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-9"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-4"><p><img src="/sites/default/files/2024-07/ths-atlantic-health-polypharmacy-700x532.jpg" data-entity-uuid data-entity-type="file" alt="Atlantic Health. Stock image of open palm holding pills" width="700" height="532" class="align-left"></p></div><p>Polypharmacy refers to using five or more medications, a practice that research has shown increases the risk of drugs interacting dangerously with each other. Multiple medications can cause confusion, lightheadedness and even internal bleeding.</p><p>Morristown, N.J.-based Atlantic Health System will soon deploy an AI-based technology that flags polypharmacy issues. The health system's new tool will find patients at high risk of hospitalization, recommend edits to medication regimens and other clinical interventions, and "monitor care journeys at the individual and population health levels," according to a press release.</p><p>Every year, substandard medication management leads to 275,000 deaths and more than $528 billion in avoidable costs in the U.S., according to research.</p><p>Atlantic Health System provides care for more than half of New Jersey and parts of New York and Pennsylvania. Its new AI-powered medication management platform will be available for more than 520,000 beneficiaries via Atlantic Health's three Accountable Care Organizations.</p><p><a class="btn btn-primary" href="https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/pharmacy/atlantic-health-targets-polypharmacy.html">LEARN MORE</a></p></div></div><div class="col-md-3"><div><h4>Resources on the Role of Hospitals</h4><ul><li><a href="/center/population-health">Improving Health and Wellness</a></li><li><a href="/roleofhospitals">All Case Studies</a></li></ul></div></div></div></div> Tue, 16 Jul 2024 09:54:25 -0500 Pharmacy /amicus-brief/2024-06-25-amicus-brief-aha-others-case-defend-mississippis-340b-contract-pharmacy-law <p class="text-align-center"><strong>UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT</strong><br><strong>FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI</strong></p><p>PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH AND<br>MANUFACTURERS OF AMERICA,<br><em>Plaintiff,</em><br>v.                                                                     Case No. 1:24-cv-00160-HSO-BWR          <br>LYNN FITCH, in her official capacity as<br>ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF<br>MISSISSIPPI,<br><em>Defendant.</em></p><p class="text-align-center"><strong>BRIEF OF </strong><em><strong>AMICI CURIAE</strong></em><strong> AMERICAN HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION, 340B HEALTH,</strong><br><strong>MISSISSIPPI HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION, AND RURAL HOSPITAL ALLIANCE</strong><br><strong>IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT LYNN FITCH’S</strong><br><strong>OPPOSITION TO PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR A PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td>George H. Ritter<br>WISE CARTER CHILD & CARAWAY, P.A.<br>401 East Capitol Street, Suite 600<br>Jackson, Mississippi 39201<br>Post Office Box 651<br>Jackson, Mississippi 39205<br>(P): 601-968-5500<br>(F): 601-944-7738<br>ghr@wisecarter.com<br>Counsel for Amici Curiae</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br><br><br><br><br><br><br><br> </p> Tue, 25 Jun 2024 15:18:31 -0500 Pharmacy /aha-center-health-innovation-market-scan/2024-03-12-4-insights-walgreens-health-strategy-review <div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-8"><p><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/4-Insights-into-Walgreens-Health-Strategy-Review.png" data-entity-uuid="0f17d05c-b3f7-4e8f-8a7b-7b9690746bea" data-entity-type="file" alt="4 Insights into Walgreens’ Health Strategy Review. A soccer field chalkboard with the Walgreens logo in the center. Four hands with blue chalk are drawing up a strategy on the board." width="100%" height="800"></p><p>Walgreens recently has undergone significant leadership changes while facing financial challenges on several fronts. The pharmacy chain operator last month was replaced on the Dow Jones Industrial Average by Amazon and halved its dividend two months earlier to conserve cash as it tries to grow its business.</p><p>In the roughly four months since new CEO Tim Wentworth took over, analysts have been trying to determine how the company will adjust its long-term vision — particularly since some of its huge investments to grow its health care business have yet to deliver the intended results.</p><p>For anyone expecting a major rebranding of the company or a fundamentally new direction in its health care operations, Wentworth essentially had two words to say about it during an <a href="https://seekingalpha.com/article/4675736-walgreens-boots-alliance-inc-wba-presents-44th-annual-td-cowen-healthcare-conference" target="_blank" title="Seeking Alpha: Walgreens Biooks Alliance, Inc. (WBA) Presents 44th Annual TD Cowen Healthcare Conference (Transcript)">interview</a> at the recent TD Cowen Health Care Conference: “Forget it.”</p><p>Instead, Wentworth said he and the board will meet in April to conduct a strategic review of Walgreens’ retail, pharmacy and health care business portfolio and to develop a road map for the future. By year-end we should have a clearer picture on how Walgreens will evolve, but Wentworth gave some hints about potential areas of change.</p><h2><span>4 Takeaways on Walgreens’ Future Health Care Direction</span></h2><h3><span>1</span> <span>|</span> Relationship-building through the pharmacy will receive greater attention.</h3><p>Walgreens’ experience in administering vaccinations to scores of customers convinced Wentworth that pharmacist trust can be leveraged further in other ways on behalf of payers to drive engagement and create value.</p><h4>Takeaway</h4><p>When the company announced its $1 billion cost-cutting initiative last fall, Walgreens stated that many of the cuts in 2024 would come from retail pharmacy operations. It remains to be seen how this fits alongside the goal of expanding the role of pharmacists in leveraging trusting relationships with customers.</p><h3><span>2</span> <span>|</span> Retail stores will remain central to Walgreens’ strategy.</h3><p>Even as it continues to close some of its 8,600 retail outlets to reduce costs, Walgreens will be focused on getting its footprint right, Wentworth said. The emphasis will be on what the organization should look like in five years and then reverse-engineer how the footprint needs to change.</p><h4>Takeaway</h4><p>Determining which locations will deliver incremental health services and which will be more focused on community pharmacy services will be critical in this process. In talks with its board, Wentworth said the company needs to be clear about its strategy for the front (retail) and the back of the stores (pharmacy and health care).</p><h3><span>3</span> <span>|</span> Getting board alignment on health care assets will be critical.</h3><p>As part of its review with the board, company leaders will examine Walgreens’ health care assets, including: primary care provider VillageMD; CareCentrix, a post-acute and home care provider; Summit Health/CityMD, a provider of primary, specialty and urgent care; and Shields Health, a specialty pharmacy. The company’s clinical trials division and fulfillment centers also will be scrutinized. This discussion will help shape strategy on how to optimize performance in the markets these companies serve.</p><h4>Takeaway</h4><p>While Walgreens remains committed to these businesses and has a strong belief in their value, the scale of some operations will change and some could end up being moved to different areas of the company. Last fall, VillageMD announced plans to close underperforming locations in five markets, including all 58 in Illinois and Florida, as part of a larger cost-cutting initiative. And reports that Shields Health may be sold are untrue, Wentworth said. Instead, Walgreens will focus on optimizing value from the company.</p><h3><span>4</span> <span>|</span> New pharmacy models will be explored.</h3><p>Earlier this year, Wentworth said the company will examine new pharmacy models as cost-plus drug pricing appears to be gaining momentum. He believes the market, including CVS’ new pharmacy benefit management (PBM) reimbursement model, is responding to what payers want.</p><h4>Takeaway</h4><p>Wentworth is encouraged by a recent willingness among PBMs to change the conversation around not just cost-plus drug pricing models, but also to other services that companies like Walgreens can provide to create value for PBMs and payers and that can be bundled. The examples of providing vaccinations, tests and other services demonstrate that retailers can provide these services and get paid a fair fee without “cross-subsidization that distorts the economics for us or the marketplace,” he said.</p><h2><span>Learn More</span></h2><p>For a deeper dive into how companies like Walgreens, Amazon, CVS Health and others plan to transform health care this year, read Market Scan’s <a href="/aha-center-health-innovation-market-scan/2024-02-19-special-report-how-health-care-disruptors-will-transform-field" target="_blank" title="AHA2024 Disruption Report cover Special Report: How Health Care Disruptors will Transform the Field in 2024">2024 Health Care Disruption Outlook</a>.</p></div><div class="col-md-4"><p><a href="/center" title="Visit the AHA Center for Health Innovation landing page."><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/logo-aha-innovation-center-color-sm.jpg" data-entity-uuid="7ade6b12-de98-4d0b-965f-a7c99d9463c5" alt="AHA Center for Health Innovation logo" data-entity- type="file" class="align-center"></a></p><p><a href="/center/form/innovation-subscription"><img src="/sites/default/files/2019-04/Market_Scan_Call_Out_360x300.png" data-entity-uuid data-entity-type alt></a></p></div></div></div>.field_featured_image { position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } .featured-image{ position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } Tue, 12 Mar 2024 06:15:00 -0500 Pharmacy /aha-center-health-innovation-market-scan/2023-12-19-grapefruit-health-targets-new-way-address-fields-workforce-shortage <div class="container"><div class="row"><div class="col-md-8"><p><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/Grapefruit-Health-Targets-a-New-Way-to-Address-the-Fields-Workforce-Shortage.png" data-entity-uuid="b500c0e3-fda6-4c4f-ba5c-b81e403a1b6a" data-entity-type="file" alt="Grapefruit Health Targets a New Way to Address the Field’s Workforce Shortage. A clinical student working for Grapefruit discusses medication prescriptions with a family of three via a telehealth service." width="100%" height="359"></p><p>Ballad Health in Johnson City, Tennessee, recently completed an interesting <a href="https://www.grapefruit.health/post/utilizing-students-to-address-medication-adherence" target="_blank" title="Grapefruit Health Utilizing Students to Address Medication Adherence: An Innovative Pilot between Grapefruit Health and Ballad Health">pilot</a> to improve communication around medication adherence. It worked with <a href="https://www.grapefruit.health/" target="_blank" title="Grapefruit Health homepage">Grapefruit Health</a>, a startup focused on addressing health care’s staffing shortage by creating a workforce solely comprising clinical students.</p><p>Beginning in April, Grapefruit recruited, trained, onboarded and managed a workforce of 13 pharmacy students from the immediate region in just four weeks. Over the 10-week pilot, more than 1,000 patients were contacted about their medications through Grapefruit’s platform, which is designed to use college students in clinical programs to assist with essential telehealth services.</p><p>Assessments were completed on about 50% of the patients, 40% of whom were referred for additional services or escalated conversations. The top three reasons for poor adherence were medication side effects, medication prices and forgetting to take the medications. Ballad Health teams followed up to address patient concerns and find solutions. The result: Patients’ medication adherence improved and Ballad was able to conserve clinical resources by addressing barriers outside the clinic setting. In addition, students received valuable opportunities to improve their patient communication skills. About 10% of these calls require a pharmacist interaction, in which case the student will perform a warm handoff.</p><h2><span>Grapefruit Health’s Value Proposition</span></h2><p>This is only one of several pilots in which Grapefruit Health has engaged as it continues to scale its business and tech platform nationally. The company’s model involves using exclusively clinical students from areas like pre-med, nursing, pharmacy and social work to perform repetitive tasks that don’t require a license to perform — work that otherwise would consume significant clinician time. They seek out tasks that are high in volume and lower in acuity.</p><p>The students work remotely through Grapefruit’s proprietary software called The Grove, performing duties like isolation and loneliness outreach calls, postdischarge follow-up, annual visit scheduling calls and more, says Eric Alvarez, Grapefruit’s founder and CEO.</p><p>Students perform the work around school hours and are paid well above minimum wage for the calls they make.</p><p>Getting any health care startup off the ground and funded can be difficult today, but Alvarez is optimistic the company is on the right track and making the proper connections with health care organizations.</p><h2><span>The Funding Challenge</span></h2><p>Alvarez, an Air Force veteran and former hospital administrator at the University of Chicago Medicine and Northwestern Medicine, and his team raised $1.3 million in a pre-seed financing round and gained recognition and support by being selected in March for Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) health care workforce accelerator program.</p><p>The accelerator program proved invaluable, Alvarez says, in helping the company refine its business model and gave the company access to AWS information technology architects who could examine the Grapefruit platform.</p><p>Since the accelerator program, Grapefruit has announced results from its program with the Sinai Urban Health Institute (SUHI) to improve National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP) enrollment. SUHI, an NDPP provider, faced a difficult challenge to increase enrollment in its NDPP cohorts. SUHI began collaborating with Grapefruit in October 2022 to revamp and test a new enrollment strategy.</p><p>Grapefruit deployed 12 nursing students from the Chicagoland area within four weeks to initiate connections with prediabetic patients. Over an 18-week period, the team successfully engaged with 1,046 out of 1,651 unique qualifying patients. Assessments were completed for 683 patients, with 286 expressing interest in joining the NDPP program offered by SUHI.</p><p>Programs like this give Alvarez confidence that his company will succeed, but he wants to perform larger projects that engage hundreds of students in these types of initiatives. With roughly 1 million students enrolled in health care education programs today, Alvarez sees the potential to create up to 1 billion new patient touchpoints every year.</p><p>His goals for 2024 include completing more than 100,000 patient interactions and having 1,000 students working with the company — objectives Alvarez says his firm is on target to surpass. For now, he’s thinking about the future and what his company can achieve in health care.</p><p>“We still have a long way to go, but when this is done right it’s a win for the students who can learn while they earn, patients can now get the care they desperately need and health care organizations can do what they need to do for less,” Alvarez says.</p></div><div class="col-md-4"><p><a href="/center" title="Visit the AHA Center for Health Innovation landing page."><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/logo-aha-innovation-center-color-sm.jpg" data-entity-uuid="7ade6b12-de98-4d0b-965f-a7c99d9463c5" alt="AHA Center for Health Innovation logo" data-entity- type="file" class="align-center"></a></p><p><a href="/center/form/innovation-subscription"><img src="/sites/default/files/2019-04/Market_Scan_Call_Out_360x300.png" data-entity-uuid data-entity-type alt></a></p></div></div></div>.field_featured_image { position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } .featured-image{ position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } Tue, 19 Dec 2023 06:00:00 -0600 Pharmacy /aha-center-health-innovation-market-scan/2023-10-17-3-takeaways-hlth-conference <div class="container"> <div class="row"> <div class="col-md-8"> <p><img alt="3 Takeaways from the HLTH Conference. A panel onstage at the HLTH Conference." data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="6c5c6f0b-9494-4fdb-8936-00543d143ed1" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/3-Takeaways-from-the-HLTH-Conference.png" width="620" height="381"></p> <p>Amid the sound bites and substance delivered at the recent HLTH conference, health care leaders, transformers and innovators shared how they plan to reshape care delivery, partner to drive innovation and help consumers get greater access to obesity and diabetes medications along with a greater holistic focus on weight management. Here is what caught our attention.</p> <h2>1 <span>|</span> <span>Transformers will strengthen their direct-to-consumer connections.</span></h2> <p>Three of the field’s most prominent disruptors — Amazon, CVS Health and Walgreens — provided a deeper look at their health care strategies and plans to execute their direct-to-consumer services. <span><strong>Walgreens</strong></span> said that later this month it will provide virtual care services in nine states to address common health care needs like urgent care, birth control and seasonal allergies. Its goal: to be the most convenient health and wellness destination whether consumers are in its stores or online. The states in the rollout cover nearly half the country and half of Walgreens’ customers. Patients will have access to virtual conversations for $33 out of pocket or with a physician or nurse practitioner via chat or video visit for select conditions for $36 to $75.</p> <p><span><strong>CVS Health</strong></span>, meanwhile, believes there is a role for so-called super apps to play in vertical markets like health care and that it is well positioned to provide that, said Sree Chaguturu, M.D., its chief medical officer. A super app is a single application accessible by a mobile device or web browser that is widely adopted by consumers and offers a vast range of services — from social media to e-commerce, wealth management and making health care appointments. CVS sent more than 2 billion text messages to its customers last year and they were more likely to confirm appointments and medication services via text than other communication channels. CVS will continue to evolve its assets in the vein of creating a super app, Chaguturu said.</p> <p>Meanwhile, <span><strong>Amazon’s One Medical</strong></span> membership-based primary care practice is taking a disciplined approach to growth as it targets the 40% of Americans who don’t have a primary care provider. Neil Lindsay, senior vice president of health services, said One Medical is focused on two primary objectives: making it easier to get care and medications and helping people to stay well. Amazon may consider partnerships with providers of durable medical equipment and outlets that offer healthful food and meals to fulfill its objectives, Lindsay noted.</p> <h2>2 <span>|</span> <span>Provider partnerships are key to driving innovation.</span></h2> <p>If innovation is going to drive health care forward, partnerships will be the engine that powers progress. <span><strong>Sutter Health</strong></span> officials made that clear while announcing plans for a <a href="https://vitals.sutterhealth.org/sutter-health-announces-cutting-edge-innovation-center-to-revolutionize-patient-care-elevate-the-healthcare-experience/" target="_blank" title="Sutter Health Vitals: Sutter Announces Innovation Center to Revolutionize Patient Care & Elevate the Healthcare Experience">new innovation center</a> in San Francisco. The center, set to open early next year, will house Sutter’s innovation team and become a collaboration hub for the system’s physicians and colleagues, students and outside tech partners.</p> <p>Sutter is inviting visionaries who want to make health care “simpler, more engaging and deeply human.” The center will invest and partner with venture firms and early-stage digital startups from the initial idea stage to scale. The system believes its large and geographically diverse patient population of more than 3 million is a microcosm of the nation that will benefit its future partners.</p> <p>The center also can support other tools the system has developed like <a href="https://scout.sutterhealth.org/launchpad/" target="_blank" title="Scout by Sutter Health landing page: Build resilience and manage your everyday mental health">Scout by Sutter Health</a>, an app launched in 2021 to support resilience and everyday mental health management for those between ages 13 and 23, and enhance collaboration with its tech partners such as Ferrum Health. Ferrum’s AI-powered platform supports reading radiologists to help identify diseases like cancer in the early stages. Since its launch in 2019, the platform has processed more than 430,000 patient records and found more than 1,850 instances in which pulmonary nodes were missed on the first read.</p> <h2>3 <span>|</span> <span>Disruptors want to expand access to obesity drugs.</span></h2> <p>The popularity of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist drugs to help Americans lose weight has seen demand soar. Now, leaders from <span><strong>WeightWatchers</strong></span> and the telehealth company <span><strong>Ro</strong></span>, say they want to ensure that their customers have greater access to these drugs.</p> <p>Melynda Barnes, M.D., Ro’s chief medical officer of direct-to-consumer health, said Ro wants to bring together employers, payers, the government and providers to find ways to help cover the cost of these medications. Ro began offering GLP-1 medications with its weight-management program in January. Even with shortages of injectable GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, Saxenda and Wegovy, and reducing its advertising, demand for the drugs continues to increase, Barnes noted.</p> <p>WeightWatchers and <span><strong>Noom</strong></span>, a telehealth weight loss and wellness provider, also said they will be adding GLP-1 prescriptions to their offerings. In March, WeightWatchers acquired weight-loss provider Sequence for $106 million so it could begin offering weight-loss drugs like Ozempic, Trulicity and Wegovy.</p> <p>But Noom and others suggest that there needs to be a larger focus on holistic weight management rather than simply expanding access to GLP-1 drugs. Noom supports helping patients reduce reliance on medications by only giving drugs to those who most need them after other interventions have been tried.</p> <p>Many clinicians have voiced similar concerns, citing the easy access to GLP-1 drugs as a key reason they are in such high demand among consumers.</p> </div> <div class="col-md-4"> <p><a href="/center" title="Visit the AHA Center for Health Innovation landing page."><img alt="AHA Center for Health Innovation logo" data-entity- data-entity-uuid="7ade6b12-de98-4d0b-965f-a7c99d9463c5" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/logo-aha-innovation-center-color-sm.jpg" type="file" class="align-center"></a></p> <a href="/center/form/innovation-subscription"><img alt data-entity-type data-entity-uuid src="/sites/default/files/2019-04/Market_Scan_Call_Out_360x300.png"></a></div> </div> </div> .field_featured_image { position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } .featured-image{ position: absolute; overflow: hidden; clip: rect(0 0 0 0); height: 1px; width: 1px; margin: -1px; padding: 0; border: 0; } Tue, 17 Oct 2023 06:00:00 -0500 Pharmacy