Digital Pharmacy
Maria G. Tanzi, PharmD
Digital pharmacy models such as Capsule and Amazon’s PillPack have entered the marketplace to offer patients a pharmacy experience built on convenience. These models deliver medications directly to a patient’s door with a click of a button. Some fear that digital pharmacies may jeopardize the future of traditional brick-and-mortar pharmacies, but specialized services offered at the corner store simply cannot be replaced.
A focus on Capsule, PillPack
Capsule, a digital pharmacy model based in New York City, is focused on eliminating wait times, building predictive inventory tools to ensure medications are in stock when patients need them, and creating a modern way to interact with the pharmacist. Patients can have their medications hand delivered (at no charge) to their door on the same day they see their physician.
Capsule also offers smart refills to help ensure patients stay adherent to their medications. Communication with the pharmacist is available via phone call, text, chat box, or e-mail. Capsule’s website notes the company is “on a mission to fundamentally rebuild the pharmacy and set a new standard for care.”
Amazon’s PillPack touts itself to patients as taking the “hassle out of managing your medication.” This service sorts patients’ medications by dose and administration time into single packets, making it seamless for patients to take their daily doses. These daily packets are customized to include both prescription and OTC medications and are delivered to patients monthly.
PillPack also offers patients the ability to obtain other items, such as testing supplies, and to interact with the pharmacy team via phone or digital communication.
Specialized services at the local pharmacy
While digital pharmacy models may provide convenient options, the neighborhood pharmacy offers numerous services they may not be able to match. First, patients can easily travel to their local pharmacy and obtain services well beyond prescriptions. In addition, nothing can replace the human element of face-to-face interactions and the care and empathy pharmacists convey during live interactions.
Patients can engage live with pharmacists in selecting appropriate OTC medications to manage acute situations, view demonstrations on appropriate use of devices such as blood pressure machines and glucose meters, and discuss behavioral changes that may be needed to help manage comorbidities. As local community pharmacists repeatedly interact with their patients, deep-seated personal relationships form over time. These types of relationships may be more difficult to cultivate via phone or digital communication models.
Vaccinations are another key component that pharmacists can leverage as a unique and convenient service offered at the local pharmacy. The availability of vaccines for seasonal influenza, shingles, and many others is very attractive to patients who may prefer to obtain them at the local pharmacy rather than their physician’s office.
Local pharmacies can also integrate other innovative health care services as another unique feature to offer patients. eTrueNorth, a Texas-based company, has partnered with numerous chain pharmacies to help expand clinical services in the pharmacy through CLIA-waived point-of-care testing (e.g., lipids, glucose), wellness screenings, and preventive health services.
Use of CLIA-waived point-of-care testing can allow pharmacists to provide patients clinical demonstrations of the efficacy of medications such as statins and antihypertensives, as well as to screen for undiagnosed conditions.
Two models working together
As pharmacists, we must embrace change and adapt to new and innovative models. Digital pharmacies offer patients an alternative pharmacy model to conveniently access services.
These models are helping patients obtain the medications they need, stay up to date on refills, and ultimately support the goal all pharmacists have: helping our patients. Some patients may prefer to use digital pharmacies, and others may prefer to visit the local store, but both models can work together to improve appropriate medication use and positively impact health outcomes.