FMI strengthens ties between food and pharmacy segments

BY JIM FREDERICK

LAS VEGAS — With consumers clamoring for more healthful eating alternatives, nutritional counseling and a more holistic approach to preventive health and wellness that goes beyond basic prescription therapy, supermarket pharmacies could gain a critical edge in today’s turbulent drug store market, supermarket industry leaders asserted.

Speaking at the Food Marketing Institute’s annual meeting and trade show and at the 2008 FMI Supermarket Pharmacy Conference, which ran concurrently, Cathy Polley, FMI’s first vice president of pharmacy services, was quick to point out the one-stop advantages enjoyed by supermarket pharmacies. “If I was practicing in a store today, I don’t think there’s any better location to be a pharmacist,” she

said. “What can we do in this pharmacy department that’s not being done elsewhere in the industry because of that unique location?”

FMI president and chief executive officer Tim Hammonds agreed. Kicking off the main FMI show at its opening business session, Hammonds said growing awareness of nutritional issues, wellness and preventive health among consumers has handed the supermarket industry a golden opportunity to build stronger ties to the U.S. population—and to strengthen its long-term business model.

Both Hammonds and Polley stressed the need to forge closer links within food-drug combo stores between the pharmacy and food sides of the store. The goal: to more effectively key in on the healthcare system’s growing awareness of the role good nutrition plays in health and disease prevention.

Consumers, Hammonds said, are demanding both nutritional advice and pharmacists who can bridge the gap in the supermarket between medicinal counseling and nutritionally-driven wellness programs.

“Health and wellness … is a space that supermarkets can own,” Hammonds told members. “This is a great opportunity … connecting the dots between health and wellness.”

Supermarkets that contain in-store pharmacies, Hammonds added, also derive “a tremendous halo effect from the pharmacist being there.” In line with the growing movement to connect nutrition and health, FMI announced that the organization will host the inaugural FMI Health and Wellness Business Conference at the Baltimore Hilton from Sept. 23 to 25.

The current economic downturn also can spell opportunity for supermarket retailers, said Hammonds,

Cathy Polley leads a “health and wellness” tour on the trade floor of the FMI annual meeting and trade show.

who announced plans to retire after a successor is named, following 15 years as head of the organization.

“Food retailers can turn these economic challenges into benefits for consumers and the industry,” he said. “As people eat out less often, we can help revive the great American home family meal tradition.”

Study

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Several reports show an overall shortage of healthcare workers, the authors noted, but the situation is worse in geriatric care “because it attracts fewer specialists than other disciplines and experiences high turnover rates among direct-care workers.”

Exacerbating the shortage is the unequal levels of pay for healthcare workers dedicated to treating older Americans. “Salaries of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, social workers and others who specialize in geriatric care lag behind those of their counterparts in other fields,” the IOM stated. For

instance, “A geriatrician earned $163,000 on average in 2005 compared with $175,000 for a general internist, despite the extra years of training required for a geriatric career. Physicians who choose dermatology can earn over $300,000 a year. Registered nurses who work in nursing homes or other long-term care facilities earn less on average than their counterparts, despite working longer hours with more overtime.”

The study’s authors fault Medicare, whose “low reimbursement rate for primary care is the foremost reason that geriatric specialists earn lower salaries, given that so much of their income comes from the

government program.”

Medicare should increase its reimbursement rates for services delivered by geriatric specialists, the report urges.

Shortages of healthcare workers to treat conditions related to aging already are a problem, according to the report. “There are just over 7,100 physicians certified in geriatrics in the United States today—one per every 2,500 older Americans,” IOM stated. “Turnover among nurse aides averages 71 percent annually, and up to 90 percent of home health aides leave their jobs within the first two years.”

In its report, the committee urges that all health professional schools and healthcare

training programs expand coursework and training in the treatment of older individuals. The authors also recommend that Medicare change its focus, from “treating short-term health problems” to “ managing chronic conditions or age-related syndromes. The program should also shift its coverage to focus more on preventive services and a more collaborative approach to health care, involving doctors, nurses, pharmacists, caregivers and patients themselves.”

The report also urges that states provide tax incentives for nonprofit hospitals and other entities to train those who care for the elderly. “In addition, federal agencies

should support the advancement of assistive technologies that can help older patients manage their conditions and handle the basic activities of daily life and also can help informal caregivers take care of their loved ones,” IOM stated.

More than 90 percent of older adults who receive care at home rely in part on informal caregivers, and nearly 80 percent rely solely on family or friends. However, little is done to ensure informal caregivers have the necessary knowledge and skills.

The committee set a target date of 2030—the year by which all baby boomers will have turned at least 65—for the necessary reforms to take place.

Med use

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 safe and compliant with their medication therapy.

The system, which also can be harnessed for clinical trials and other uses, includes a wireless device for use in a patient’s home, along with Web-based services that collect and distribute information between the

patient and clinician, the company stated.

“eMedonline can be thought of as a ‘smart service’ that leverages the inherent abilities of wireless technologies like cell phones and radio frequency identification to facilitate medication compliance and remote patient monitoring,” Leap of Faith said in a report. “It functions as a system that includes a cell phone,

RFID and Web-based services that collect and distribute information between the patient and clinician.”

The system works via smart-phone technology, and either bar code scanning or RFID technology, to track and record the medication package. The eMedonline system automatically collects and transmits specific data for individual patients—includ-

ing dosing times, missed doses and outcomes data—in real time from a single device. “Medication data read from an RFID tag is collected in real time and helps patients verify that they are taking the correct medicine at the correct time, while helping caregivers and clinicians appropriately intervene in the case of missed medications or adverse events before they

become a significant health risk,” Leap of Faith reported.

“The data can be analyzed through the eMedonline clinical interface or exported for use in other clinical monitoring systems,” the company noted. “It provides important information on the medication and health status of an individual patient and on the patient population as a whole.”