Retail Clinics

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — PharmaSmart International on Monday announced new advances in its blood-pressure diagnostic and health IT kiosks, including Internet connectivity, patient data tracking and patient health record integration.

“PharmaSmart now combines a clinically validated diagnostic tool with an easy-to-use health IT platform to offer pharmacists meaningful tools for better patient care,” stated Ashton Maaraba, PharmaSmart GM and SVP. “This represents a new era of clinical pharmacy services.”

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Tuesday announced the implementation of its Walgreens Way to Well Commitment program, a new Walgreens initiative geared toward improving the everyday health of Americans nationwide.

To kick off the Way to Well Commitment, more than 7,600 Walgreens pharmacies and Take Care Clinics now are offering free blood pressure testing daily throughout February, an offering announced on “The Dr. Oz Show.”

ATLANTA — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday updated the nation’s influenza status. Nine states are reporting high influenza-like activity (a metric that captures the severity of a flu outbreak) and 25 states are reporting widespread activity (a metric that captures the estimated level of spread of influenza activity through state and territorial epidemiologists reports.)

RARITAN, N.J. — A drug made by Johnson & Johnson may be effective in reducing pain in patients with a complication of diabetes, according to a late-stage clinical study.

PITTSBURGH — The Food and Drug Administration has approved a generic hypertension treatment made by Mylan.

Mylan announced the approval Friday of nisoldipine extended-release tablets in the 8.5-mg, 17-mg, 25.5-mg and 34-mg strengths. The drug is a generic version of Shionogi Pharma’s Sular, which had sales of about $103 million during the 12-month period ended in September 2010, according to IMS Health.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Spouses of older patients with diabetes tend to experience distress if the diabetic patient has symptoms of depression, according to a new study.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Seniors of Hispanic descent are far less likely to become immunized against the flu or pneumonia, compared with white seniors, according to a new RAND study released earlier this week.

Researchers found that Hispanic seniors who prefer speaking Spanish and live in such linguistically isolated communities as the Southeast are least likely to be immunized.

ATLANTA — Nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Wednesday.

In addition, an estimated 79 million U.S. adults have prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes.