DEERFIELD, Ill., October 26, 2011 - Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) (NASDAQ: WAG) is giving attendees at this week's TEDMED conference an opportunity to experience some of the company's latest health care innovations, designed to help people better manage and improve their overall health and wellness. TEDMED is the annual conference where cutting-edge science and technology leaders "connect, understand and inspire" to advance the art of health and medicine with new ideas, the latest science and innovative technology. Walgreens is one of the featured exhibitors at the event, which runs from Oct. 25 -28 in San Diego.
New Retail Pharmacy Experience
As part of a pilot program, Walgreens has introduced a new pharmacy, health and wellness experience at approximately 20 of its stores in the Chicago area, along with its stores in the Indianapolis market. The new format is designed to meet the changing needs of customers while offering more quality, cost-effective health care options. Attendees to the Walgreens TEDMED booth will be able to view iPad video tours and renderings of the new stores, whose features include:
- A pharmacist desk area in front of the pharmacy counter to provide greater accessibility for consultation about medications and to provide additional clinical services.
- Private or semi-private consultation rooms that differentiate Walgreens from other drugstores and provide a customized environment for services such as immunizations, blood pressure and blood glucose testing, and help with self-injectable medications.
- A designated Health Guide - a Walgreens employee who is available to answer product and service questions.
- An open, redesigned layout with expanded fresh food and beauty products, and more accessible shelving and checkout lines.
- State-of-the-art technology, including Walgreens Web Pickup service, which allows customers to shop online and pick up orders in store, as well as self-serve touch screen kiosks that enable pharmacy patients to quickly refill prescriptions.
"Walgreens has a long-standing history of innovating to meet the evolving needs of our customers, which is why we've taken an approach to move beyond the traditional drugstore format and deliver a differentiated shopping and pharmacy experience based on what consumers have told us," said Colin Watts, chief innovation officer at Walgreens. "These new stores improve the design, convenience and quality of our pharmacy services, more effectively utilize space, and fully leverage the expertise of our highly-trained pharmacy staff to help deliver an experience that reflects our capabilities and commitment to cost effective health care."
Improving Access in a Multi-Channel World
Attendees will also be able to experience first-hand the range of ways Walgreens is leveraging technology to develop new and different ways for patients to manage their health - wherever they are and when it's most convenient. Throughout the conference there will be interactive demonstrations at the Walgreens booth of mobile applications for iPhone®, iPod®, AndroidTM and Blackberry devices, which includes Refill by Scan - an exclusive feature that allows patients to simply scan the barcode of a prescription and order refills in seconds. Additionally, attendees can learn about Walgreens refill reminder text alerts, a new service which notifies patients when a prescription is due for refill.
On Thursday, October 27th from 4:00 p.m to 6:00 p.m PST, Walgreens will also host a live Facebook chat on the evolving role of the pharmacist. This social media event will engage attendees, as well as some of the more than 1 million Walgreens Facebook Fans, in an interactive discussion with a Walgreens pharmacist, who will discuss the ways in which the role of the pharmacist is changing in today's health care environment and what patients should know to get the most out of their pharmacy experience. Participants can log on to their Facebook and visit the Walgreens Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/Walgreens) to participate. Prior to the chat, conference attendees can text TEDMED to 21525 to submit their questions.
"People value choice, control and convenience, and the online and mobile channels are great ways to deliver health care tools and information to our customers," said Sona Chawla, Walgreens president of e-commerce. "These applications have been widely adopted in helping people manage their health 24/7, wherever they are."
About Walgreens
Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) is the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2011 sales of $72 billion. The company operates 7,779 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Each day, Walgreens provides nearly 6 million customers the most convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services and advice in communities across America. Walgreens scope of pharmacy services includes retail, specialty, infusion, medical facility and mail service, along with respiratory services. These services improve health outcomes and lower costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. Take Care Health Systems is a Walgreens subsidiary that is the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.