Q&A: PerceptiMed’s Maione talks engaging patients through Rx tech

With consumers taking greater control of their own health, pharmacy technology companies are playing a pivotal role in helping community pharmacists better engage patients through improved in-store experience and better communication. Drug Store News spoke to PerceptiMed chief business officer Frank Maione about how PerceptiMed is working to help pharmacies deliver on these goals. 

Drug Store News: The National Association of Chain Drug Stores Total Store Expo was last month — what were some of the pain points that came up in your meetings with potential partners?

FRANK MAIONE: Here are some notes I have from the business session at NACDS Total Store Expo —

“Free the Pharmacist.”

“Our Pharmacists can redefine convenience.”

“Seventy-five percent of patients don’t take their meds properly, [accounting for] $300 billion [in] costs…”

Both of PerceptiMed’s technologies enable workload redeployment in numerous ways. Our ScripClip technology aids the pharmacy will call area, saving time and money. Our IdentRx technology Triple counts all [Schedule 2] meds, creates a real-time balance-on-hand and audit log, and for retailers looking to balance the verification process the IdentRx Remote enables that need with state of the art remote verification.

DSN: As pharmacists work to achieve provider status and continue to play a greater role in healthcare delivery, how is your company enabling community pharmacists to practice at the top of their license?

FM: It is necessary for community pharmacists to utilize technology that can help their businesses run more efficiently and effectively. The PerceptiMed suite of technologies enables greater levels of overall pharmacist engagement with the patient through a variety of applications. PerceptiMed’s technology applications are cost-effective and have already helped our community pharmacy clients to maximize their time and the time of their staff effectively, while reducing errors.

DSN: Medication adherence remains one of the most cost-effective ways to lower total healthcare costs and deliver improved outcomes. How is your company helping community pharmacy solve for this big opportunity to improve health care?

FM: PerceptiMed’s technologies enable the pharmacy to free the pharmacist up and to redeploy labor in numerous ways creating more opportunities for the pharmacist to practice at the top of their license. Remote Verification and workload rebalance through effective use of leading-edge technology is at the core of the PerceptiMed promise. The amount of time spent double-counting Schedule 2 drugs or dealing with name error and mis-files in will-call can be significant, and this is where technology can aid in the long-term process. The reduction in error also results in time and cost savings.

DSN: How is your company helping community pharmacies drive greater efficiency in their business whether in terms of inventory management, optimizing workflow, or keeping ahead of reimbursement challenges, etc.?

FM: Our community pharmacy partners have already experienced efficiencies through our ScripClip application. The technology utilizes a proprietary RF signal that when tagged to prescription bags become directly connected to the patient’s name and age. The duplication of names and mis-filings of prescriptions is no longer a factor and the technology saves significant time without significant training to use the system. Where the ScripClip system is being utilized, the chain of custody applications has enabled a significant reduction of internal shrink to almost zero. This allows for more of the pharmacist’s time to be spent on patient care and also helps to optimize workflow.

DSN: As pharmacy continues to focus more broadly on outcomes and implementing more clinical services, how is your company helping pharmacy retailers better manage the vast amounts of data they need to deal with on a daily basis that comes as a part of that?

FM: Our proprietary Artificial Intelligence in our technology serves the purpose of assisting in the automating and reduction of error in the medication dispensing process. It also has applications for DEA Audit controls and BOH in real time, which helps to solve problems before they occur.

DSN: As healthcare providers look to form unique partnerships to better manage patient populations, deliver improved outcomes and better manage financial risk, how is your company helping to connect the expanded patient care team?

FM: PerceptiMed’s technology is applicable to pharmacies, hospitals, and long-term care facilities. All of our technological applications serve the purpose of pharmacy workload redeployment while saving time and money and reducing error. The technologies are easily integrated into existing systems and allow for automation and efficiency. As patient populations continue to increase, time savings and verification are becoming increasingly important and we have applications throughout the supply chain.