CVS Health Joins Drug Store News and Mack Elevation in Convening Health Innovation Summit

WOONSOCKET, R.I., June 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, CVS Health (NYSE: CVS), in partnership with Drug Store News and Mack Elevation, will hold an innovation summit that brings together leaders from major health care, technology and consumer brands including Facebook, Under Armour, Google and IBM, among others, for a discussion about emerging trends that are helping reshape the health care industry.

During the all-day summit, which will be held at the Omni Hotel in Providence, R.I., attendees will explore theories about where the industry is headed and how today's innovations are shaping tomorrow's health care solutions. Specific focus areas include connected health technology, social media's impact on the industry and empowered health care for consumers. This summit hopes to establish a collaborative platform for senior representatives from each company to share predictions and brainstorm new approaches that could impact how consumers take care of their health and access convenient, holistic health and wellness products and services in the future.

Speakers at the event include: Aaron Calloway, Sr. Client Partner, Facebook; Futurist and Economist Jane Sarasohn-Kahn; Steve Laughlin, Vice President and General Manager - Global Consumer Industry, IBM; Chris MacAulay, Connected Fitness Media, Under Armour; Dan Mack, Mack Elevation; and Ryan Olohan, National Industry Director, Healthcare, Google; as well as speakers from CVS Health.

"At CVS Health, we are committed to identifying innovative new solutions to further enhance the health care experience for our customers and patients," said Helena Foulkes, Executive Vice President of CVS Health and President, CVS Pharmacy. "Today's summit successfully brought together some of the brightest minds from industry-leading consumer brands, health and technology giants, and innovative start-ups that all share our interest in exploring what the future of health care should look like and how we can all play a role in helping people on their path to better health."

In addition to serving as a "think tank" to assist the broader industry in uncovering emerging trends that could improve health care for consumers in the future, the summit also will address current trends that are having a real impact on the quality of health care today. Specifically, the shift consumers are making from "sick care" to "self care" will be discussed as a trend that is already impacting some of the changes CVS Pharmacy recently announced it is making in its retail business. As more consumers are looking for technology, wearables, health services, food and supplement selections and over-the-counter products that help them care proactively for their health and wellness, retailers and service providers alike have a huge opportunity to empower their customers and answer this need with new and unexpected options.

"We are seeing a strong customer movement from 'sick care to self care' in consumer health care, which signals a shift toward preventive health and proactive wellness versus acute care or treatment," said George Coleman, Vice President of Merchandising for CVS Pharmacy. "This summit will shed new light on a variety of innovative solutions that could not only help us enhance the customer experience at CVS Pharmacy, but would also impact the entire health care ecosystem in the near future."

To build on today's collaborative discussions, CVS Health has plans to continue networking and hosting similar forums with local and national partners in the future to remain a catalyst for innovation within the consumer health care industry.