Pharmaceutical retail titan Walgreens is deploying mobile and web applications, as well as mHealth devices tethered to a Qualcomm Life platform, to provide remote patient monitoring related to transitional care support and chronic care management.
The system will be tied to Walgreens' customer Balance Rewards for healthy choices program, which will provide customer rewards for mHealth device and app use. The biometric data collected by Walgreens branded devices, which initially include two blood pressure cuffs and blood glucose meter, will be shared with pharmacists via Qualcomm Life's 2net Platform, according to an announcement.
The device, app and data system, due for deployment in the next few months, is just the start of big changes technology will bring to healthcare, Rick Valencia, senior VP and general manager at Qualcomm Life, told FierceMobileHealthcare via email.
"Mobile healthcare will just become healthcare," Valencia said. "Connectivity will become more and more pervasive in healthcare and ultimately we see healthcare services and sensors available in the palm of a consumer's hand."
The is just the latest mHealth consumer-focused effort by Walgreens. The drug store chain and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs joined forces to improve care coordination for veterans by providing flu and other CDC-approved vaccinations last October. That partnership, called first of its kind, provides veterans greater access to immunizations.
In December, Walgreens partnered with telemedicine company MDLive to provide users of Walgreens' website round-the-clock access to board certified doctors through its mobile application. Rival companies are also embarking on similar initiatives. Starting this year records from CVS pharmacies and the chain's Minute Clinics will be integrated with electronic medical records from MedStar Health's 10 hospitals and 4,000 doctors in the District of Columbia and Maryland.
For more information:
- read the announcement
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