Jump start your creativity—and your business—with help from Creative Pharmacist.
Creative Pharmacist provides clinical pharmacy solutions designed to help pharmacies improve patient outcomes and find new revenue streams. The company offers programs for diabetes, heart health, asthma and COPD, transitions of care, weight loss and immunizations, and it gives pharmacies the tools, technology and marketing to provide these clinical programs and services in their stores.
David Pope, Pharm.D., CDE, chief of innovation and co-founder of Creative Pharmacist, talked with us about his business, the pharmacy landscape and why pharmacists need to get creative.
How did Creative Pharmacist start?
Creative Pharmacist was born out of a partnership between myself (a pharmacist) and my college roommate, Dan Lawson, (a computer major.)
We saw a strong push in the marketplace toward chronic care management, and as the nation struggled to find a way to reach people in rural areas with quality programs for diabetes, heart health, COPD, smoking cessation and the like, we found that community pharmacists are the primary professionals to do that.
In small towns throughout the country, there’s almost always a community pharmacy, so we combined the pharmacy-side with the technology-side to give pharmacies throughout the country chronic care management tools.
What’s the aim of Creative Pharmacist?
We want to empower pharmacists to engage with their chronic care patients and to improve their outcomes. We use a variety of tools to do that. In all things, our aim is to grow pharmacists’ clinical abilities so they have a more informed decision-making process.
What makes your services unique?
Within the pharmacy landscape everyone is asking pharmacists to do something outside of their comfort zone, from adherence programs to diabetes education. We package those programs with a bow on top, so it’s all completely done for them. We’ve combined technology tools, word-for-word scripts for pharmacists and our business expertise, so all the pharmacist has to do is unwrap the package.
How did you decide what clinical service to focus on?
I’m a pharmacist myself and I serve a low-income population that has a high incidence of chronic disease, which is echoed throughout communities across America. We looked at the primary drivers for chronic disease first, and identified which ones offer pharmacists a strong return when they invest time or money into a specific disease state.
Why is focusing on chronic care patients important?
Pharmacists are in an ever-changing landscape, and in order to avoid getting caught in the cracks, pharmacists need to not only improve outcomes, but they also need to have a strong return on investment.
We know that when pharmacists get involved, patient outcomes improve. But we also know that when a pharmacy attracts a chronic care patient, they are, in essence, your dream patients. Not only can you change their outcomes, but they also spend more in the pharmacy than any other type of patient, so it’s worth your time to focus on them.
What do you want pharmacies to know about Creative Pharmacist?
Creative Pharmacist allows you to compete in today’s new landscape, and not just survive, but thrive. We offer a lot of tools, and not everyone will use every tool, but we have programs for different levels of investment of time. The more time you invest in the program, the better the return. Regardless, every tool is available at no additional cost. We also have a team of Pharm.D.’s, nurses and marketing experts who work with you to ensure your success.
The other thing that we want pharmacists to know about Creative Pharmacist is its simplicity. We’ll give you the right tool, at the right time, for the right purpose.
How can pharmacies benefit from the tools and resources Creative Pharmacist offers?
Creative Pharmacist is a game changer for the independent pharmacy. They’ll see both an improvement in patient outcomes, which is a requirement in today’s landscape, and they’ll also see a strong return on investment, as much as 40 to one, with each of our individual solutions.
Why do pharmacies need to focus on clinical services—today?
The rest of the world is focusing on it now. If we want to continue to get paid in new ways, and to compete in today’s landscape, then we have to be able to show strong clinical outcomes.
We’re leading the charge to develop and provide new payment models for pharmacists, but we can’t do that unless our pharmacists are clinical in nature.
What’s next for Creative Pharmacist?
We’re working on several new payment models for pharmacists. We’re working with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) to develop a new payment model so pharmacists can get paid for managing patients with COPD.
We’re also working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on a new pre-diabetes program for pharmacists that we’ll be launching this winter.
We also have some incredibly cool technology pieces coming out that make immunizations simple, and allow pharmacists to connect with their patients in new ways.
Services offered by Creative Pharmacist
Creative Pharmacist offers a variety of programs and services to help independent community pharmacies complete—and get paid for—chronic care services. Here’s a quick look at the services Creative Pharmacist offers and how they can benefit your pharmacy.
Air Ways
Air Ways is a three-pronged program that includes fully scripted quarterly COPD and asthma curriculum and a complete smoking cessation program. Creative Pharmacist worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create its nationally recognized smoking cessation program. Air Ways also features a 2-minute consultation for asthma patients via iPad.
The Beat
Attracting one heart failure patient to your pharmacy can result in more than $6,000 per year in total sales, according to Creative Pharmacist. The Beat is a heart health solutions education program to help pharmacies attract patients with heart failure, hypertension and other heart-related issues.
The program includes a two-hour continuing education and certificate program on heart failure and fully scripted monthly curriculum so pharmacies can offer their own heart health classes.
Jump Starts
The Jump Starts program encompasses immunizations, transitions of care and weight loss: three building blocks of clinical practice that are both clinically and financially beneficial.
For those pharmacies that don’t immunize, Jump Starts is a starting point, and for those that do, the program takes pharmacies to the next level with comprehensive immunization reviews.
Jump Starts also helps with transitions of care by creating partnerships between pharmacies and local hospitals. Creative Pharmacist provides pharmacies with materials to create an agreement with a hospital, and will even work with your pharmacy to pursue an agreement.
And, the weight loss portion of Jump Starts includes curriculum for pharmacists, and technology to connect patients with recipes, workouts and support from their pharmacist to help them lose weight.
The Sweet Spot
The Sweet Spot is a diabetes education solution for pharmacists. You start by taking a two-hour continuing education and certificate program on diabetes, and then the Sweet Spot provides you with everything you need to offer diabetes education classes once a month. It’s a one-hour-a-month solution for pharmacies to attract new patients with diabetes and positively influence their outcomes with education. It includes scripted curriculum, patient handouts and marketing materials.
For pharmacies that want to go further, there’s the Sweet Spot Evolution, which enables pharmacies to bill for diabetes education by helping pharmacists attain accreditation through the American Association of Diabetes Educators.
Spark
The newest offering from Creative Pharmacist is a patient management system that increases communication and information sharing between pharmacists and patients. Spark enables patients to provide their pharmacist with weekly updates about their progress on diet, exercise, blood pressure readings and more.
The web-based platform asks patients disease-state specific questions, so pharmacists can hold patients accountable, provide support, and identify and intervene to fix problems earlier. The Spark platform is also available through the Spark Health app for iPhone and Android.
About the expert
David Pope, Pharm.D., CDE, is the chief of innovation and co-founder of Creative Pharmacist, a company dedicated to providing community pharmacists with tools to improve the outcomes of chronically-ill patients. Find out more about Creative Pharmacist at creativepharmacist.com.
