INSIGHTS AND PERSPECTIVES

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT This is a fine example of how pharmacists can be both convenient and accessible and ready to answer questions about disease states and medicines, and all at the click of a mouse, or smartphone touch pad, as the case may be.

(THE NEWS: Rite Aid enters partnership with American Well. For the full story, click here)

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT To borrow from the great Mark Twain, it would appear that the reports of the demise of retail clinic growth have been greatly exaggerated. Drug Store News has a two-word answer for why retail clinics will continue to grow for a very long time: health reform. And there are 32 million reasons why that growth will be quite dramatic.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Taking medications is like doing household chores or getting called for jury duty: Everybody would prefer not to have to do it, but it’s still necessary. The consequences for noncompliance could be unpleasant or severe.

(THE NEWS: CVS Caremark: Medication adherence gets in way of social life, patients say. For the full story, click here)

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT Walgreens. YMCA. UnitedHealth Group. Two nationally known yet locally focused and health-interested organizations are partnering on a health initiative with a third organization, which marks the first time a health plan will play for evidence-based diabetes prevention and control programs. That future heralded so many years ago by the Asheville Project may finally have arrived.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT Once again, government seems to be mangling the delicate balance among pharmacies, generic drug suppliers and consumers. Ontario lawmakers and health “reformers” are doing it the old-fashioned way: by seeking short-term cost cuts at the expense of long-term savings.

(THE NEWS: Shoppers Drug Mart responds to Ontario's revised generic pricing rules. For the full story, click here)

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT Patient-centric healthcare solutions offer a glimpse of what health reform eventually could look like by the time it is fully implemented. It’ll be a system where consumers are more in control of managing the levers that determine cost.

(THE NEWS: PricewaterhouseCoopers: Government, health leaders seek customer-centric healthcare solutions. For the full story, click here)

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT The fact that CVS Caremark presented research highlighting the benefits that pharmacy benefit management tools can have on improving medication adherence is important on several different levels.

(THE NEWS: CVS Caremark research highlights methods for improving medication adherence. For the full story, click here)

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT These days Rite Aid comes with the image of a pugilist sprinting up the 72 steps before the Philadelphia Museum of Art with both arms raised high. Because if Rite Aid were a movie, right now it’d be in the midst of its own montage.

(THE NEWS: Rite Aid suffers losses, expects flat performance in fiscal 2011. For the full story, click here)