Walgreens Taps Power of Mobile Devices to Improve Consumer Health
In the opening keynote at the HIMSS15 conference on Monday, Walgreens President Alex Gourlay laid out his companys vision for creating a patient-centered pharmacy that leverages mobile healthcare and digital health technologies.
In the opening keynote at the HIMSS15 conference on Monday, Walgreens President Alex Gourlay laid out his companys vision for creating a patient-centered pharmacy that leverages mobile healthcare and digital health technologies.
As the nations largest drugstore chain with more than 8,200 stores, Gourlay argued that Walgreens has the scale nationally to implement such an ambitious technology program and to have a positive impact. We have 8 million customers who come across our brand every single day6 million in drugstores and 2 million in digital assets, he said.
Emphasizing that Walgreens is a pharmacy first, Gourlay preached about the benefits of its digital transformation including refilling prescriptions. In 2011, the company launched Refill by Scan providing customers with the ability to refill prescriptions by scanning barcodes on medicine bottles using smartphone cameras. According to Gourlay, Walgreens customers fill more than one prescription per second using mobile devices. It used to take 5 minutes to refill your prescription when using the old telephone system. Now, it takes under 30 seconds, he said.
Also See: Pharmacy Chains Continue to Blur the Line
Gourlay believes that mobile platforms, in particular, are the key to empowering Walgreens customers. Theres more emphasis than ever on owning your health through wearables and other connected devices and apps like MyFitnessPal, he said. As personalization helps consumers to keep track of more and more data, we need to provide them with actionable personalized insights using that data.
Mobile Apps, Rewards Program
Walgreens now offers a whole suite of mobile pharmacy/healthcare services including apps that recommends/schedules immunizations and a separate one that notifies users when to take medications and in what doses. This helps with medication adherence, one of the biggest opportunities we have in the healthcare systemnot just here in the U.S. but right across the world, asserts Gourlay
Another appPharmacy Chatallows customers to talk to Walgreens pharmacists through their smartphones, providing 24/7 access to these trusted professionals, said Gourlay. Currently, Walgreens conducts more than 9,600 pharmacy chats per week which are free to customers. Just this month, the company launched a new feature as part of a digital health advisor dashboard that allows our licensed pharmacists to proactively reach out to our customers and ask them if they need any assistance or advice in meeting their healthcare goals, he said.
Gourlay also said that Walgreens plans to launch an app next month for the Apple Watch designed to help patients manage their medication regimes by letting them know when its time to take their medication via alerts. The [Apple] Watch is a great way to improve medication adherencewe believebecause tasks can be accomplished with a quick glance and the touch of a button, he observes.
In order to drive behavioral changes leading to improved health outcomes, last year the Walgreens Balance Rewards program was created awarding points to customers for completing certain healthy activities and adopting healthier lifestyles, with the opportunity to redeem points and save on merchandise at Walgreens in-store or online. Under the rewards program with 82 million active members, points are given for various activities from walking and running to recording blood pressure and blood glucose readings, according to Gourlay.
On Monday, Walgreens and UnitedHealthcare announced that they are collaborating to integrate Walgreens Balance Rewards with UnitedHealthcares health-incentive initiative Reward Me to help people adopt healthy behaviors. As part of a pilot program, UnitedHealthcare plan participants in Arizona and Illinois will be able to access the program via the Reward Me tab on UnitedHealthcares mobile app Health4Me and earn Walgreens Balance Rewards loyalty points by completing healthy activities such as daily exercise, eating fruits and vegetables, and logging sufficient sleep.
Wearable Technology
In January, Walgreens and Qualcomm Life announced a collaboration to seamlessly connect medical devices and personal health data. Under the partnership, Walgreens is utilizing Qualcomm Lifes cloud-based 2net Platform that enables end-to-end interoperability for medical devices and apps to aggregate wireless health device data into its network of mobile apps and websites.
Walgreens has also launched rewards for using wearables, making the first retail program to financially reward customers not just for buying a fitness wearable but for connecting it to Walgreens and continuing to reach their health and wellness goals, said Gourlay. But, were not just talking about fitness trackers. Patients with chronic conditions can also sync their glucometers and blood pressure readers and start earning points for logging their readings on a daily basis.
2net will support Walgreens Balance Rewards for healthy choices program with robust medical device connectivity and care coordination capabilities such as remote patient monitoring, transitional care support and chronic care management. Compatible Walgreens devices include a wrist-worn blood pressure cuff, a traditional blood pressure cuff and a blood glucose meter.
Hypertensive and diabetic patients who use a wearable device and walk one mile per day are 7 percent more adherent than those who dont do both of these things, according to Gourlay. And, biometric devices such as glucometers and blood pressure monitors are also associated with greater medication adherence.
Virtual Coaching, Telemedicine
In another teaming, Walgreens partnered earlier this year with WebMD by putting its virtual wellness coaching program, called Digital Health Advisor, on Walgreens website. The program covers such issues as smoking cessation, weight loss, better eating and exercise, and managing stress and chronic conditions.
Chronic patients produce a lot of health data and tracking this data is especially important, he said. In order to really make an impact on population health, we knew we needed to do more. We needed an evidence-based digital coaching program that could deliver health outcomes.
WebMD has integrated its Healthy Target mobile health improvement program with Walgreens Balance Rewards program that offers discounted pricing. Users of Healthy Target can track their data from activity trackers, wireless scales and glucometers, and receive relevant content and tips. Under the partnership, WebMD users also have iPhone mobile access to online prescription refills, prescription transfers and clinic appointment scheduling.
When it comes to telemedicine, Walgreens and telehealth provider MDLIVE have introduced a new service offering that will give Walgreens website users 24/7 access to U.S. board-certified physicians through its mobile app. The service uses Walgreens digital footprint to facilitate virtual visits with doctors on demand said Gourlay, who added that it is initially available to users in California and Michigan, with plans to roll it out to Illinois next month and more than 25 states by the end of 2015.
It is going to have a huge measurable impact on patient outcomes, concluded Gourlay.
As the nations largest drugstore chain with more than 8,200 stores, Gourlay argued that Walgreens has the scale nationally to implement such an ambitious technology program and to have a positive impact. We have 8 million customers who come across our brand every single day6 million in drugstores and 2 million in digital assets, he said.
Emphasizing that Walgreens is a pharmacy first, Gourlay preached about the benefits of its digital transformation including refilling prescriptions. In 2011, the company launched Refill by Scan providing customers with the ability to refill prescriptions by scanning barcodes on medicine bottles using smartphone cameras. According to Gourlay, Walgreens customers fill more than one prescription per second using mobile devices. It used to take 5 minutes to refill your prescription when using the old telephone system. Now, it takes under 30 seconds, he said.
Also See: Pharmacy Chains Continue to Blur the Line
Gourlay believes that mobile platforms, in particular, are the key to empowering Walgreens customers. Theres more emphasis than ever on owning your health through wearables and other connected devices and apps like MyFitnessPal, he said. As personalization helps consumers to keep track of more and more data, we need to provide them with actionable personalized insights using that data.
Mobile Apps, Rewards Program
Walgreens now offers a whole suite of mobile pharmacy/healthcare services including apps that recommends/schedules immunizations and a separate one that notifies users when to take medications and in what doses. This helps with medication adherence, one of the biggest opportunities we have in the healthcare systemnot just here in the U.S. but right across the world, asserts Gourlay
Another appPharmacy Chatallows customers to talk to Walgreens pharmacists through their smartphones, providing 24/7 access to these trusted professionals, said Gourlay. Currently, Walgreens conducts more than 9,600 pharmacy chats per week which are free to customers. Just this month, the company launched a new feature as part of a digital health advisor dashboard that allows our licensed pharmacists to proactively reach out to our customers and ask them if they need any assistance or advice in meeting their healthcare goals, he said.
Gourlay also said that Walgreens plans to launch an app next month for the Apple Watch designed to help patients manage their medication regimes by letting them know when its time to take their medication via alerts. The [Apple] Watch is a great way to improve medication adherencewe believebecause tasks can be accomplished with a quick glance and the touch of a button, he observes.
In order to drive behavioral changes leading to improved health outcomes, last year the Walgreens Balance Rewards program was created awarding points to customers for completing certain healthy activities and adopting healthier lifestyles, with the opportunity to redeem points and save on merchandise at Walgreens in-store or online. Under the rewards program with 82 million active members, points are given for various activities from walking and running to recording blood pressure and blood glucose readings, according to Gourlay.
On Monday, Walgreens and UnitedHealthcare announced that they are collaborating to integrate Walgreens Balance Rewards with UnitedHealthcares health-incentive initiative Reward Me to help people adopt healthy behaviors. As part of a pilot program, UnitedHealthcare plan participants in Arizona and Illinois will be able to access the program via the Reward Me tab on UnitedHealthcares mobile app Health4Me and earn Walgreens Balance Rewards loyalty points by completing healthy activities such as daily exercise, eating fruits and vegetables, and logging sufficient sleep.
Wearable Technology
In January, Walgreens and Qualcomm Life announced a collaboration to seamlessly connect medical devices and personal health data. Under the partnership, Walgreens is utilizing Qualcomm Lifes cloud-based 2net Platform that enables end-to-end interoperability for medical devices and apps to aggregate wireless health device data into its network of mobile apps and websites.
Walgreens has also launched rewards for using wearables, making the first retail program to financially reward customers not just for buying a fitness wearable but for connecting it to Walgreens and continuing to reach their health and wellness goals, said Gourlay. But, were not just talking about fitness trackers. Patients with chronic conditions can also sync their glucometers and blood pressure readers and start earning points for logging their readings on a daily basis.
2net will support Walgreens Balance Rewards for healthy choices program with robust medical device connectivity and care coordination capabilities such as remote patient monitoring, transitional care support and chronic care management. Compatible Walgreens devices include a wrist-worn blood pressure cuff, a traditional blood pressure cuff and a blood glucose meter.
Hypertensive and diabetic patients who use a wearable device and walk one mile per day are 7 percent more adherent than those who dont do both of these things, according to Gourlay. And, biometric devices such as glucometers and blood pressure monitors are also associated with greater medication adherence.
Virtual Coaching, Telemedicine
In another teaming, Walgreens partnered earlier this year with WebMD by putting its virtual wellness coaching program, called Digital Health Advisor, on Walgreens website. The program covers such issues as smoking cessation, weight loss, better eating and exercise, and managing stress and chronic conditions.
Chronic patients produce a lot of health data and tracking this data is especially important, he said. In order to really make an impact on population health, we knew we needed to do more. We needed an evidence-based digital coaching program that could deliver health outcomes.
WebMD has integrated its Healthy Target mobile health improvement program with Walgreens Balance Rewards program that offers discounted pricing. Users of Healthy Target can track their data from activity trackers, wireless scales and glucometers, and receive relevant content and tips. Under the partnership, WebMD users also have iPhone mobile access to online prescription refills, prescription transfers and clinic appointment scheduling.
When it comes to telemedicine, Walgreens and telehealth provider MDLIVE have introduced a new service offering that will give Walgreens website users 24/7 access to U.S. board-certified physicians through its mobile app. The service uses Walgreens digital footprint to facilitate virtual visits with doctors on demand said Gourlay, who added that it is initially available to users in California and Michigan, with plans to roll it out to Illinois next month and more than 25 states by the end of 2015.
It is going to have a huge measurable impact on patient outcomes, concluded Gourlay.
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