Cloud-Based Specialty Pharmacy Platform Provides More Flexibility

From RADAR on Specialty Pharmacy

The combined central specialty and home delivery pharmacy formed by Walgreen Co., a division of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. and Prime Therapeutics LLC known as AllianceRx Walgreens Prime, recently unveiled a five-year deal through which it is collaborating with health care technology company Inovalon Holdings, Inc. to roll out ScriptMed Cloud. The specialty pharmacy platform, says AllianceRx Walgreens Prime, will drive operational efficiencies and improve overall patient care.

AllianceRx Walgreens Prime and Inovalon have worked together to "customize the system [ScriptMed] to us, our workflow and the way we do business," including "functionality enhancements built around our specifications," explains Joel Wright, CEO of AllianceRx Walgreens Prime.

"To maximize the benefit from specialty medications people are taking," a comprehensive health care portrait is needed. But within the health care system today, says Wright, "most information comes directly from the patient or prescriber." Today, "we get only what's shared in the prescription transaction and through talking with the patient.…You almost have to extract that data," and it may not be comprehensive. But ScriptMed Cloud will allow AllianceRx Walgreens Prime the ability to "access primary source data," which will help plug those gaps. Combined with real-time data sharing, this "helps maintain optimal therapy for patients," he says.

Patients also will be able to "get on therapy more quickly," as the software helps reduce the time it takes to fill a prescription. In addition, pharmacists will be able to have better conversations with patients because they'll have more information.

ScriptMed Cloud also provides simultaneous coordination among stakeholders within the health care system through electronic health records, health information exchanges, payer systems and provider sites.

Another "significant" aspect of ScriptMed Cloud is "our ability to modularize the system," says Wright. This capability "will potentially help us meet payer needs better" by being able to provide more specific, customized information to payers.

Subscribers may read the in-depth article online. Learn more about subscribing to AIS Health's publications.