An overwrought U.S. healthcare system in desperate need of new solutions and new ways to cut the unsustainable cost spiral will demand a new, more engaged and more patient-centered role for community pharmacists.

So research indicates that the majority of consumers who would be eligible for new healthcare coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act have never heard of the state-based healthcare exchanges, and many believe they will need help in understanding healthcare insurance terms and descriptions. Really? Of course! That's because it's confusing!

An article recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shed a highly positive light on the convenient care industry, and outlined significant ways in which retail-based clinics are playing an important role in today’s U.S. healthcare system by improving access, cost and coordination of care for patients.

Researchers from the Duke University Medical Center on Monday released a public health study finding that even maintaining the current prevalence of obesity in the United States would realize savings of almost $550 billion over the next two decades.

In excess of $102 billion. That's the value over-the-counter medicine delivers to the U.S. healthcare system, Consumer Healthcare Products Association leaders shared with attendees of the CHPA Annual Executive Conference held here Friday morning.

Chances are, you didn’t enroll in pharmacy school to count out pills behind a counter. As part of the next generation of clinically driven PharmDs, you’re probably looking for a lot more.

The role of the pharmacist has evolved considerably over the past decade, and few things exemplify that evolution more than pharmacists taking an active role in patients’ medication therapies and consulting with them one-on-one.


In recent months there have been a string of key milestones within the convenient care industry, and now the new Rand Corp. study indicates that clinic usage climbed tenfold between 2007 and 2009 — impressive growth and a clear message that retail-based health clinics are a significant player within the U.S. healthcare system.

The convenient care industry continues to hit noteworthy milestones as it grows and becomes an increasingly important player within the U.S. healthcare system. And now the fellowship of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia has elected its first nurse practitioner to its ranks.

The news that Take Care Clinic nurse practitioner Penny Strong has been honored by the Illinois Society for Advanced Practice Nursing is important as it further promotes and supports the convenient care industry at large.

How many times have we heard it said that one day in America there will be a nationwide health information network that will link patients, providers and payers seamlessly, efficiently and securely, across a universal standardized system?

“Dispense-as-written” prescriptions are exacerbating medication nonadherence and costing the U.S. healthcare system up to $7.7 billion annually, according to a study by researchers at Harvard University, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and CVS Caremark.