Walgreens-Verily digital health collaboration for improving medication adherence
Walgreens and Verily, a company owned by Alphabet, Inc., are partnering up to improve medication adherence and chronic disease management to ultimately improve patient care and reduce medical costs.
In order to increase the role of technology in improving the patient outcomes and bring down the health care expenditures, Walgreens and a sister company of Google have joined hands to do things such as helping patients to stay on their medications and create devices with sensors that can help in preventing, managing, screening, and diagnosing the diseases.
Walgreens Boots Alliance and Verily, a healthcare company which is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, have recently announced an alliance on multiple projects which are intended to mend and improve chronic disease management and decrease healthcare spending. According to a press release, Verily is looking at Walgreens as a first-choice retain pharmacy and commercialization partner.
Stefano Pessina, CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. said that the company is focusing on looking for innovative ways to offer improved patient care at lower and most affordable costs, and by collaborating with the right healthcare partners they are working towards bringing up the innovative services and solutions to their patients and customers.
The partnership will be based on a data-driven approach and will explore how the emerging analytics technologies and strategies, together with ground-breaking sensors and Internet of Things devices, can generate superior outcomes without bringing a rise in total industry expenditures.
Walgreens and Verily have said that both the companies will work together on a diversity of projects, together with a pilot program designed to improve medication adherence using different devices and other approaches. There is another project that will help Walgreens employees and those who depend on them in managing Type 2 diabetes in association with virtual clinic Onduo, Verily’s joint venture with drug maker Sanofi.
In a joint statement released by both the companies, these projects are part of a larger strategic alliance which has been designed to join Verily’s healthcare technological innovations with Walgreens’ corner store presence and trustworthy pharmacy services.
Why is it a significant development?
With the way, health care settlement models are changing and consumer demand is growing, it has become more important to have significant and swift developments in digital technologies, and virtual care has become a kind of a must-have for a variety of healthcare systems. However, if you are wondering how hospitals and health systems can get physician buy-in, things might become a bit easier than you realize.
Walgreens has been on the lookout for more partnership prospects like the one with Verily. While having an October conference call with analysts, Walgreens CEO said that these partnerships will allow the company to speedily align its products, services, and workforces to the requirements of the quickly changing and incorporated multichannel marketplace.
The subsequent month, Walgreens’ competitor CVS Health finalized its $70 billion merger deal with Aetna. On that day, Forbes conveyed from its Healthcare Summit that Walgreens CEO said Walgreens and Humana are looking to collaborate.
Walgreens is also joining its forces with LabCorp, one of the largest clinical laboratory operators in the world, to open at least 600 blood-draw settings at its stores in the next four years. Also to strengthen its non-drug sales, Walgreens has also teamed up with the grocery giant Kroger for a one-stop shopping program, and with Birchbox, the start-up that promoted subscription boxes packed with cosmetics samples, to build 11 mini-stores within selected Walgreens sites.
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