Health(care) meets Retail

Last week I had a blast. After working and exploring this field I was able to bring together people to take a different approach to solutions for the challenges we face in healthcare.

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Representencence from healthcare, government, industry, retail, environmental, healthcare insurance, university medical centers, roadside assistance, supermarkets, postal services, and many others together to kickstart thinking about opportunities through a retail lens. Even though not completely new as in the US Walgreens, Walmart, Amazon, and others are in this for a while, the needed approach for European models, specifically for the Dutch setting might be different. At this very moment, we're digesting all the sights, great ideas, and energy into tangible steps over the next couple of weeks. They most likely will vary from pop-up stores in the city of Roermond and the Designer Outlet Center to developing trained skills for extra personnel to help with low complex procedures, or maybe even totally dislocate these into retail environments. For this, we don't want to bring current staff like physicians or nurses outside of the hospitals, as they are very much needed in the current (increasing) setting.

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Many of the participants will join me and @steven van Belleghem on an open tour next May to the east coast to visit some of the US examples and learn firsthand from them and see how we can adapt that to the European/Dutch setting. Nexxworks is taking on the logistics and all for this tour, drop them a line of you're interested in joining us.

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Meanwhile, I will be on tangible steps with the participants of the "Health(care) meets retail" conference, where I used the slides below to set the scene. So, more to come.

CostPlusDrugs, the war on drugs?

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Another very interesting news broke last week. Marc Cuban (one of the original Dragon Dens' , serial entrepreneur, and mega investor launched CostPlusDrugs.

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We started Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company because every American should have access to safe, affordable medicines. If you don’t have insurance or have a high deductible plan, you know that even the most basic medications can cost a fortune. Many people are spending crazy amounts of money each month just to stay healthy. No American should have to suffer or worse - because they can’t afford basic prescription medications.

If you are fortunate enough to have health insurance with a low deductible, the high cost of drugs is driving up the premiums that you or your employer pay, making getting health insurance expensive and challenging.

The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company takes these problems head on.

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Mark Cuban states the above on their website. Drug topics (blog with the voice of the pharmacists) did a "the good, the bad and the missed opportunity" review on this initiative.

MyHealthRecord, missed the main stream implementation ?

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Is it too easy and simple to read the main reason for not going main stream in Australia for MyHealthrecord in the first two opening lines of this Guardian article?

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Twelve years after the introduction of My Health Record, Australians are struggling to access their medical information, while clinicians report frustrating difficulties uploading and finding vital health details such as pathology results and diagnostic tests.

Will digital players reinvent health insurance?

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In virtually every industry—from banking to dining, from entertainment to travel—tech-savvy innovators have disrupted incumbent players and reinvented the consumer experience. Health insurance is one of the latest industries to undergo a major transformation, according to our new report, Digital disruption for ! health plans: It isn’t coming, it’s here.

The blood taking robot is now actually coming.

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A Dutch medical robotics company, today unveiled the world’s most advanced autonomous blood drawing device at the annual meeting of the Netherlands Society for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (NVKC) in Rotterdam. Vitestro’s device combines AI-based, ultrasound-guided 3D reconstruction with robotic needle insertion, ensuring accurate and secure blood collection. The venipuncture technology is adaptable to patients of 16 years of age onwards, with comorbidities, and puncture difficulty. From 2023, Vitestro will initiate pivotal clinical studies for regulatory approval in Europe. EU-market introduction is anticipated in 2024.

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• Intuitive to use device, empowering patients to be self-efficacious in the full blood collection procedure

• Automating this labor-intensive procedure transforms quality and availability of care and supports a sustainable healthcare system

• In clinical studies, the prototype of the device has already performed 1,500 automated blood draws on more than 1,000 patients.

What do you think about this? Would you see this happening in i.e. a drugstore?

CVS Health rolls out virtual primary care service

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Retail drugstore giant CVS is rolling out a virtual care service that gives consumers access to primary care, on-demand care, chronic condition management and mental health services. Eligible Aetna and CVS Caremark members will be able to use the virtual primary care service to access healthcare services on demand, whether at home or in a retail or community-based setting. Members also will have the option of being seen in person at an in-network provider, including CVS MinuteClinic locations. The virtual primary care provider can also help members identify appropriate in-network specialists and other in-network health service providers, according to the company.

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The virtual solution will roll out to Aetna members starting Jan. 1, 2023, and for eligible CVS Caremark members during the second quarter of 2023. Caremark also will introduce virtual specialty care solutions on the platform in 2023.

Industry Voices—Challenging the status quo to deliver inclusive care for all

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As a healthcare community, we’ve made significant progress in medical innovations and digital technology. But health inequities still prohibit many people from benefiting from these advancements. Beyond focusing on the latest digital tools, we also need to challenge the status quo in our work, taking bold action to make access to high-quality care more inclusive.

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Advancing health equity means removing the obstacles to health that lead to greater illness, higher death rates, and greater financial strain among some populations.

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For example, 70% of Black adults believe the healthcare system often treats people unfairly based on their race or ethnic background, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women. And research from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows that Hispanic/Latino women are 40 percent more likely than white women to have cervical cancer and 30 percent more likely to die from cervical cancer. Click to read more...

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Is the AR Contact lens coming ?

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On their website Mojo Vision states :

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It’s a big day for Mojo Vision. Today, we announced our most advanced prototype of Mojo Lens, the world's first true smart contact lens.

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This Mojo Lens prototype is a huge step forward with more firsts and bests than we can enumerate in a single blog post. We have advanced hardware innovations in the areas of display, communications, power, and eye-tracking. With these critical features coming together, Mojo now has a lens to further develop, test and iterate new Invisible Computing experiences that will bring new benefits to people for both everyday and mission-critical needs.

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Sounds great, no? Could you see yourself using these during your round of golf?

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The Telehealth Cliff explained by the ATA.

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ATA’s big boss, CEO Ann Mond Johnson, in this interview: “From an overall perspective, we just don’t want to go over that ‘telehealth cliff." interview by the great Jessica DaMassa

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ATA, the re-branded American Telemedicine Association, has not only evolved along with virtual care through the pandemic, but has also been critical in redefining telehealth as modality for healthcare and re-framing access to it as a bipartisan issue that everyone in DC can get behind.

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Ann talks through the high-level changes she’s witnessed for telehealth adoption over the past two years and gives us her predictions for what’s going to happen next – particularly when it comes to the business of virtual care, consumer demand, and, most importantly, regulations and reimbursement. Lots happening thanks to ATA’s new affiliated trade organization, ATA Action, which is lobbying to ensure that the waivers that enabled the acceleration of telehealth during the Covid-19 public health emergency become permanent. The time is NOW for health tech co’s to get involved! Tune in to find out how.

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The Telehealth Era Is Just Beginning (Harvard Business Review)

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Contrary to what many people think, virtual health care, also known as telemedicine or telehealth, is much more than a cheap digital knockoff of in-person care. When used appropriately, it improves patient health and reduces costs. It also makes care more equitable and accessible to the 89% of U.S. adults and 78% of adults globally who own a smartphone, including those in medically underserved communities. Click to read more ...

That's all folks!