ISSUE SUMMIT REPORT

DSN Industry Issues Summit: Collaboration between pharmacy, medical community

The 24th annual in-person event in November had retailers and the medical community sharing their strategies for collaborating to lower costs and improve outcomes By Sandy Levy

How can pharmacy and the medical community work together to lower costs and improve access and health outcomes?

This was the question put before a panel of executives at Drug Store News’ Industry Issues Summit, held in person in New York City on Nov. 30.

The panel, “Bridging the Gap Between Pharmacy & the Medical Community: How Working Together Will Lower Costs & Improve Access and Outcomes,” was moderated by Shannon Huneke, a retail and healthcare consultant at Accenture.

Panelists included Priya Mammen, senior medical director, office of clinical integrity at Walgreens; Onisis Stefas, CEO of Northwell & Vivo Health Pharmacy; Marc Watkins, chief medical officer of Kroger; Stacy Burch, vice president, North America marketing at Embecta; Warren Moore, vice president, Social Determinants of Health Actions at Walmart; Daniel Sanchez, senior vice president and general manager of EnlivenHealth, an Omnicell Innovation; and Kathy Widmer, company group chairman, North America & Latin America Johnson & Johnson.

Huneke asked the panelists to discuss their history of bridging the healthcare experience via partnerships and collaborations.

Commenting on an initiative focused on black maternal health that J&J and Walmart are co-sponsoring, Widmer noted that Walmart partnerships make a difference.

“A couple of years ago, very organically, these two companies were having a conversation, saying, ‘surely we can do something meaningful.’ The reason the partnership works is that it starts with a concept of purpose,” Widmer said. “Do these two companies care enough to invest to put true resources to stay the course?”

Widmer cautioned that retailers who aspire to form collaborations such as the one J&J and Walmart have need to realize that these “are long programs and retailers need to have mutual values. Between J&J and Walmart we do,” she said.

Pointing out that if you are black and pregnant, throughout and after your pregnancy, you are three times more likely to suffer serious complications or die in the United States, Widmer said values and complementary strengths between partners are essential. “Walmart has the wonderful access, the trusted relationship, and

The panel, made up of retailers, suppliers and health networks, sought to address how retail pharmacy and the medical community can work together to lower costs for American consumers.

is close to every consumer and patient in the United States. They have incredible insight and knowledge about the population. J&J brings clinical and behavioral science expertise.”

The support of senior leadership also is crucial. “If you are going to go after something like this, even though there’s passion in the middle of the organization and in junior colleagues, if leadership doesn’t get behind it, it is destined to peter out,” Widmer said.

Moore chimed in, stating that understanding there are true inequities that exist and the willingness to move into action has to start at the top of the organization. “We want to do real-world and not checkthe-box activity. It has to be real. It comes down to how you resource,” Moore said.

The discussion proceeded with Watkins addressing how Kroger creates a holistic approach, putting the patient at the center of everything they do.

Watkins insisted that you need to meet people where they are and understand the friction that happens in communities. “At Kroger, for the past 25 to 28 years we’ve been on a journey to personalize delivery of our service through better understanding of customers,” Watkins said. “We do that through analytics, customer loyalty cards at the point of purchase. Forty-five years ago it was the voice of the consumer. Folks said they need access to care. We said, let’s get into the pharmacy space. Fifteen to 20 years ago, they said that they need access to care and convenience.”

Kroger has made a commitment to address obesity, and it asked its CPGs to help the retailer create a healthier assortment of food. “We want to bring $58 billion in savings back into the purchase ability of our customers,” Watkins said.

As the discussion shifted, Stefas said that there are four barriers that exist when formulating collaborations in order to meet the needs of the consumer, but they are not insurmountable.

“One barrier is from a technological perspective, but there are ways we can integrate data,” he said. “Two, how are we going to treat the patient? There’s enough evidence-based medicine out there where we can collaborate on who’s doing what and how it’s going to occur. The third barrier is around financials. Today’s stakeholders aren’t aligned. The fourth barrier is healthcare information from a financial perspective. We all know there’s value to these things, but are we willing to share data?”

Mammen addressed next what Walgreens does to close gaps in health care, noting that it’s clear that the role outside of the healthcare system is for all of us as partners to address community health needs.

“Walgreens has access to 80% of the population,” said Mammen, emphasizing that as we understand inequities in health care, it became abundantly clear during the pandemic that access to community-based outlets “becomes inherently giant. We know that no one size fits all. Where we have the strength is we have our team members and patients who all come from the community. We look to them to identify the issues for that population. We then take data to look at our footprint across the country.”

Commenting on the importance of addressing social determinants of health, Moore said that we know health starts in the home, in our schools and our communities. “The patient experience is an eye toward health equity at Walmart,” he said.

To that end, Walmart held two health equity summits to provide information to its frontline associates. It also is deploying CE and CME to its pharmacists and frontline providers, on how health equity can be addressed in the retail setting.

Burch addressed the topic of personalization, asking, how do we continue to find a better and easier solution for our patients and equip them with the right education during these critical touch points within their healthcare experience? “It’s all about collaboration to help the patients.”

Lastly, Sanchez informed attendees that technology is available for personalized care. “The common theme we hear is how we help transition of care,” he said, noting that when patients are discharged, how do we drive them into the retail setting? “There is a willingness for this to happen. There needs to be work done on the regulatory front.” dsn