Health and Wellness Innovation Can Take Many Forms

In an interview with Pharmacy Times ahead of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores’ (NACDS) 2024 Trade Store Expo in Boston from August 17 through 19, Sara Roszak, DrPH, MPH, senior vice president of health and wellness strategy and policy at NACDS, discussed how the organization is prioritizing health and wellness innovation. Roszak highlighted pharmacy data interoperability and food is medicine programs as 2 examples of innovative projects.

Q: How is NACDS positioning itself as a leader in health and wellness innovation?

Sara Roszak, DrPH, MPH: So, I think we have a really important and exciting opportunity to lead in this space. Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, people really looked to pharmacies as a strong access point to care, where front line pharmacists were available and ready to serve people whenever they needed care services. You know, we saw more than 340 million Americans received a COVID-19 vaccine at a pharmacy, and I think that's really had a strong impact on how people think about their care and where and how they want to receive it. So, when you apply some of those lessons from COVID-19 forward, and think about other areas like health and wellness, there's kind of a natural progression that we would talk about how pharmacy could also help scale solutions for individuals in the health and wellness space, and within NACDS’ portfolio in this area, we've taken on a few different strategic initiatives across food as medicine, value-based care, and pharmacy data interoperability.

Q: How can pharmacists help foster a culture of innovation within pharmacy practice?

Roszak: So, I think there's an excitement around taking on new clinical services, perhaps an interest in participating in research. That's another great way to get involved, and supporting the role of pharmacy technicians and elevating those in the pharmacy team so that the pharmacists can take on more of that clinical work and decision-making work. And then also just leveraging technology to the best of their efforts as well.

Health innovation | image credit: doidam10 | stock.adobe.com

Q: With the rapid advancement of technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), how can pharmacists leverage digital tools and platforms to enhance patient care? How is NACDS responding to these changes?

Roszak: So, I think there's definitely a lot of potential in how AI could be used in pharmacy. I think from the NACDS perspective, we'd love to see pharmacists kind of leading the charge here, using clinical tools as they're being developed, and applying that technology in their setting as appropriate. And from an organizational perspective, we're really committed to discussions around AI and hearing from our members about this important issue, and just understanding how we can help best support them. And I know there's some good content at the NACDS Total Store Expo on this topic, as well, so it's important for a lot of reasons.

Q: How is NACDS focused on pharmacy data interoperability, and why is this so important?

Roszak: One of the key ways that we're thinking about this issue is in the context of payment for pharmacy services. Pharmacists want to be able to deliver expanded patient care services, and in so doing that, they would also like to be paid for those services, and where possible, participate in value-based care arrangements and opportunities. And with that context, data interoperability is key to reaching all of those goals. Especially when you think about value-based care, a lack of ability to share data across health care sectors could be an inhibitor to true participation in value-based care programs. So, from that perspective, it's extremely important to be able to connect and participate in those programs like other providers are participating. So, it’s not just value-based care, but kind of billing mechanisms, other payment pathways to get to a place where pharmacy patient care services flourish across the country in really scalable ways. Data interoperability is key to that vision. So, we've been really involved with this work for many years, and NACDS has been a part of the Pharmacy Health Information Technology Collaborative. We've worked with [the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs] over the years, and the team even more recently is looking at additional opportunities for how to engage. We just recently announced that NACDS is participating in a collaborative opportunity with the Sequoia Project, and SureScripts, and a couple other organizations around establishing a work group that will look at pharmacy interoperability and how to move some of these efforts forward. And last year, as well, we also commissioned a report that was published by Levitt Partners that has some really good recommendations for key stakeholders on how to advance pharmacy interoperability.

And then, more recently, just last month, NACDS had worked with the Milken Institute, which published a report on food is medicine care provided by pharmacies, kind of an action or blueprint on how to do that. And across the 3 areas of recommendations, the focus was pharmacy workflow and implementation, reimbursement, and data interoperability. So, regardless of what the topic area is when you're talking about care services, interoperability plays a really big role in making it happen on a wide scale.

Q: Food is Medicine has been one recent example of NACDS' involvement in health and wellness innovation. How does this reflect the future of chain drug stores?

Roszak: NACDS made 2 commitments to the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. The first commitment was recognized at that conference in September of 2022 where we said we would develop a consumer-focused campaign that promotes the importance of healthy eating, getting baseline screenings at pharmacies and helping people address the risks of diet-related disease, and we said we would do that with a handful of national partners. So, that first commitment has come to life and now it is a program called Nourish My Health that is available at nourishmyhealth.org. So, NACDS stood this campaign up with several national partners, and those participating include the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association, and the Food Is Medicine Institute at Tufts University. And once we got those national partners together, we also went out to our members and pharmacies across the country to gauge interest to participate in this campaign. So, we have several NACDS members that that are actively participating and they're activating the campaign in a variety of ways, whether in person at their stores, through specific health and wellness days, or through digital and social and other opportunities. Our national partners are also activating the campaign, so this summer, the American Diabetes Association is highlighting Nourish My Health at all of their Tour de Cure bike rides and Step Out walks against diabetes, so that's being highlight this summer. And then we've also worked with Tufts University to make their nutrition security screener more available through the campaign, so that is available on the website. It's also available in more than 5000 pharmacies as an option that someone could take the screener, and we've started a new partnership with Mesmerize, where they'll be promoting that content on screens in pharmacies and also doctors’ offices across the country. So, we're really doing our part to get the word out on this important issue and tracking the impressions of the campaign and also the data collected through that survey and sharing that information back with the White House and the CDC Foundation.

Then, earlier this year, we made a second commitment to this national effort, and that commitment was around our collaborative work with the Milken Institute, which culminated in them releasing an action plan just a month ago that is a blueprint for pharmacies on how to get involved in food is medicine programming. And the effort that led to that action plan was about a year of collaborative planning and engagement with the Milken Institute, and I did several interviews with folks to kind of get a landscape of what was happening in this space. They held stakeholder meetings with pharmacies, NACDS members, folks that they're directly engaged with, health plans, and government to explore the issue. And then, you know, as a nonpartisan think tank, came up with their own recommendations and ideas that that were included in that report. So, that piece has concluded, but we're still really interested in kind of pushing on those recommendations and seeing how we could implement them.

Q: How will innovation be front and center at NACDS TSE?

Roszak: So, innovation will definitely be front and center at the NACDS Total Store Expo. It's always really interesting to walk the floor and see all of the innovative companies that are there with us and learn about what they're doing. We will have some innovative programming that I think might be of interest to folks. One opportunity is on Saturday, August 17, we will be hosting the NACDS Institute, a program from 3 to 4:30 pm. We'll have 2 panels, and the program will be opened by Colleen Lindholz of Kroger health. The first panel will focus on Nourish My Health, and Aaron Wiese, president of Hy-Vee, will moderate that panel with several stakeholders. And then the second panel will be moderated by Colleen, talking with stakeholders about implementing the Milken report, as well. So, we're really excited for that program. Anyone who's registered for TSE is welcome to attend. And then on Monday, there are several insight sessions that morning, and specifically we have one focused on value-based care and diabetes care, explaining some of the findings of that UNC Foundation project that I mentioned as well, and also talking about broader outlook and trends.

Q: Is there anything you’d like to add?

Roszak: We're really excited about what NACDS is doing in the health and wellness space. Our members are doing really fantastic and interesting work, and I think pressing us to do even more in this space, too. So, I think this is only the beginning.