ALEXANDRIA, VA – Later this month, ChainDrugStore.net will provide pharmacy analytics to manufacturing partners, managed care organizations and pharmacy members.
Manufacturing partners and managed care organizations, which use the company’s online communications network, will now be able to measure the success of their messaging to pharmacies.
The network, which is also used by regulatory agencies and pharmacies, provides a direct link for users to dispense product and safety announcements and clinical information.
“The struggle is, how do we measure the value of pharmacies to manufacturers and managed care organizations?” asked Todd Grover, president of ChainDrugStore.net. “How do we quantify what retail and independent pharmacies mean to their business?”
Pharmacies may not drive market share, but they can hurt it if they are not well informed, he said. For example, if local and chain pharmacies are not informed of a new drug on the market or a change in a managed care organization’s formulary, they may be unprepared to handle demand.
Grover acknowledged that pharmacies are slow to move on trends.
“We’re using the same data to target pharmacies. We’re prioritizing messages for pharmacies – which messaging from which manufacturer has the biggest impact,” he said. “If pharmacies execute correctly, then everyone wins.”
Within 90 days, Grover said ChainDrugStore.net will be able to see trends in claims data that will demonstrate a positive shift in market share for manufacturers and managed care organizations. “Pharmacies have a valuable role in your business model and here’s the analytics and data to prove that,” he said.
The biggest test of the success of the analytics tool for managed care organizations will be in 2008, when managed care organizations sign contracts directly with ChainDrugStore.net.
Matt Simas, president and CEO of MedInitiatives, said that through its partnership with ChainDrugStore.net, the healthcare analytics company’s technology will be available to a large, established provider base through one entity.
The success of the partnership for MedInitiatives will be in the uptake of the use of the system itself, he said.
“It has been long a desire and goal of our organization to provide real-time analytics at the point of care (for doctors) and at the point of service (for pharmacies),” Simas said. “This is a very powerful opportunity to influence provider behavior.”