I saw this image plastered on the side of Walgreens as I was driving by the other day, further showing how Walgreens is diving into the mobile health market. Their app, Walgreens Mobile, is available on the iPhone, Android, and Palm platforms.
From a health care side, their app offers utility by allowing patients to fill prescriptions via the app, and giving them reminders on when their prescriptions need to be filled.
Although this app is good, I’m surprised Walgreens didn’t go a step further to make this app a stand out. The simplest feature they could have added is a way for physicians to fill prescriptions for patients through their phone.
Patients often ask their doctor to “call in” a prescription so it will be ready on their way home – why not build this functionality into the app itself? Instead of having to call the pharmacy between patients, a healthcare provider could pull up the app while in the patients room, and get it done right there.
The other feature they could have added, albeit, a great deal more technical, would have been a way to actually remind patients when to take their meds with either text messages or notifications.
There is good data, especially in the Peds population, that shows texting increases medicine compliance, and there are studies currently underway to measure this in a more broad population. All health care providers know taking meds on time, or taking them at all is is a huge problem in the patient population. For example, non-compliance with BP medications is the number one reason for hypertensive emergencies in the ED.
For Walgreens, a corporation, their number one priority is to it’s shareholders, not the general health of the community at large. That’s why having these additions makes sense – not only would they help improve overall health, but more patients being compliant equals more patients buying medications. It’s a win win situation, and I would think Walgreens would be at the forefront of getting this done – I’m sure their shareholders do.
Link: Walgreens Mobile
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The only problem I see with this is a lack of integration with the physicians practice management system. Although it’s nice to see HIT finally moving in the right direction, a ‘frankenstein’ approach will only lead to more waste in an already sticky system. Unless all of these solutions can communicate with the practice management system, the world of healthcare will become even more fragmented. The medical practice’s “central computer,” as it were, should be able to accomplish these tasks without the staff having to download a specific app for each pharmacy they transact with.
That is a fundamental point and the key to unlocking a future where electronic health records mature into a more integrated and accessible tool for patients and doctors to manage health and wellness, rather than a tool limited to documentation for billing and medico-legal purposes.
As you well know, getting applications to exchange information securely is a thorny problem which has resisted easy solutions for many years. A more modular approach is needed so that a single vendor does not have an incentive to keep all the keys to themselves (we wrote about that here: /20…
The work that NHIN Direct is doing inside the ONC is very exciting in this regard also, if vendors can adopt a light weight SOAP or REST protocol for exchanging health information between applications. This should translate fairly easily to even iPhone apps. The nest generation of health IT entrepreneurs should be waiting in the wings.
What if this functionality all ready exists? And what if, instead of an app for each individual pharmacy, the doctor or patient can order their prescription for home delivery? What if this also came with a medication reminder system sending reminders via text message, voice calls, and/or email?
It appears that is what you are looking for Walgreens to accomplish. Well, that app already exists and it’s called MyRefill Rx and is available on the App Store for the iPhone.
Right. Actually there are multiple apps that do what you do in some way or form all over the app store.
But when my patient asks me to refill their script at walgreens(a popular store) so they can pick it up on the way home, your app can’t help me out. Walgreens is also a huge brand and trusted name, which is why if they included the functionality I mentioned, the general public as a whole could really benefit.