CVS Health eyes faster pace of health innovation
Helena Foulkes, CVS Health EVP/CVS Pharmacy president
CVS Health is poised to boost its health innovation efforts in response to a rapid-fire series of marketplace changes. That was the message at a Drug Store News forum from top CVS Health executives, who demonstrated their desire to push the envelope further — and faster — and challenged suppliers to join the effort.
Much of the focus will center on embracing emerging health trends — from connected health technology to DNA testing. Efforts will address empowered health and the consumer’s journey from sick care to self care. The company will take a deeper dive into understanding how digital innovation can solve pain points for consumers. “We are committed to bringing innovative products and solutions to our customers and we are focused on finding ways to make it happen even faster,” said Jon Roberts, EVP and COO.
New market realities make it imperative to find different routes, he added. “The pace of change over the next five years will be greater than what we’ve seen over the past 30.”
The Health Innovation Summit, held over the summer in Providence, R.I., was hosted by CVS Health, in partnership with DSN and Mack Elevation. Presenters included a range of thought leaders both from within and outside of the industry, who addressed how emerging trends are reshaping the healthcare industry.
Roberts said CVS Health is aiming to address some of the biggest challenges across its expansive footprint, such as how to navigate omnichannel. “We are well positioned to bringing unique solutions to customers with our expansive retail footprint and our commitment and leadership within digital. We have an opportunity to leverage our bricks and mortar in an omnichannel way to redefine convenience beyond how it’s defined today in the consumer’s mind,” he said.
He pointed to opportunities for rapid home delivery of pharmacy and front-store products via an enhanced Maintenance Choice offering.
Amplifying Roberts’ comments, Helena Foulkes, EVP of CVS Health and president of CVS Pharmacy, talked about what it means for an organization to have an “innovation mindset,” and shared some of the ways in which the company is working to advance its digital offerings by “getting into the shoes of the consumer to solve for pain points.” These efforts gained momentum through the launch of the company’s digital innovation laboratory in Boston in 2014, which was created to spearhead new initiatives.
It included the development of CVS Pay, not just for mobile payments, but also as a tool to reduce the amount of information consumers need to provide at each pharmacy visit. It also included CVS Curbside to enable mobile or desktop ordering and pickup for busy consumers.
Foulkes said that even basic technologies can turn into “game changers” for solving consumer pain points. For example, the adoption of a technology as seemingly simple as two-way texting is helping CVS solve for interruptions that come when patients change insurance plans; now its patients can simply send a photo of their new insurance cards rather than wait until they arrive at the store to find that their prescription has not been filled because of an insurance issue.
“These are the kinds of innovations that really make a difference and ultimately drive the outcomes we’re all looking for,” she said.
Shifting to how the pace of innovation is impacting its stores, George Coleman, VP merchandising and consumer health care, talked about the company’s efforts to re-imagine the customer experience around health and wellness — from healthy food to healthy skin care. A range of new efforts target the omnichannel experience, new brands and products, as well as new services such as optometry and audiology, he shared. The enhanced services will leverage a range of clinicians at the company, including pharmacists, techs and nurse practitioners.
“We’re looking at telemedicine,” he said. “We’re looking at bringing health services into our stores. We’ve done pilots in optometry and audiology, and we’re scaling them further.”
The front store is being transformed into a “new health and beauty destination,” he explained. These advances come against the backdrop of a shifting consumer healthcare environment and changes in the insurance landscape. Consumers “put a premium on prevention, because it’s more costly to get sick,” he said. This reality supports the journey from sick care to self care, which makes it imperative that CVS adapts for the new climate, he explained.
Coleman highlighted some of the most important emerging trends the company is tracking in consumer health care:
Self-knowledge: The emergence of DNA test kits will evolve into even more targeted forms of analysis, such as what kind of skin care may be most effective for a particular consumer. It’s “individualized literally to your DNA. This stuff is coming. It’s getting better,” he said;
Connected devices: New devices, including wearables with data that’s integrated on apps, will continue to become more important for monitoring everything from blood pressure to temperature. “There will be more ways to integrate the apps and data, and we want to be one of those integrators,” he said;
Nutrition and supplementation: How to best integrate healthy foods with pills, supplements and OTC’s is a big topic of focus. Consumers give top priority to eating healthy foods, but “90% of Americans don’t get enough of the recommended daily allowance of minerals and vitamins in food alone;”
Sleep: Consumers are increasingly recognizing that adequate sleep is required for good health, and they are seeking a wider range of solutions to help facilitate this. This includes traditional OTC-type products, and also more natural remedies, including “solutions outside the bottle,” extending even into general merchandise and
Immunity: “Immunity is becoming a big deal” to stave off sickness, and consumers are looking for natural solutions in addition to traditional supplements. “We’ve had a lot of success with smaller brands who are basing themselves in their ingredients stories,” he said.
The comments from the CVS Health executives set the tone for the presentations and discussions that followed throughout the day. In this special report, DSN recaps the major highlights and key themes from the event.