A new partnership between health care data repository IBM Watson Health and CVS Pharmacy could have huge implications for prescription-holding customers yearning for relevant, up-to-date data that could help them make better health-related decisions.
Under this alliance, the former will use the latter’s database to develop cloud-based applications that will allow 70 million people to mitigate or prevent chronic illness. Though plans are still in the works, engineers discussed the possibility of prescription-tracking programs and a system that that can help people predict when they might develop complications.
This announcement comes less than a year after CVS ceased tobacco sales, perhaps another sign of its efforts to appeal to an increasingly health-conscious populace. The pair said the pilot application, which will focus on heart disease and obesity, will launch in early 2016. IBM officials cited CVS Pharmacy’s national network and presence as an impetus for the collaboration.
“If they don’t see the benefit, they won’t support and use the service or the app on their phone, then the impact that you can have will be modest…what motivates individuals will largely influence the directions we take in developing these solutions,” Gold added.
More than 125,000 people die from improper use of prescription medication annually, according to U.S. government estimates. Such mistakes cost hospitals $100 billion in hospital costs, emergency room visits, and physician visits. Access to medical data also counts as a hurdle for nearly one in three patients eager to improve their health outcomes, especially if such information is spread across different health care facilities.
That’s why CVS/Pharmacy customers stand to benefit from this partnership. First, the corporation’s more than 7,200 locations would turn into a one-stop shop that includes a pharmacy, retail clinic practitioner, and primary care physicians and specialists. The Washington Post’s Ariana Eunjung Cha also wrote that IBM, currently in deals with leading cancer centers, could connect community medical professionals with a cancer advisor service.
Looking beyond its advantages, the IBM Watson-CVS Pharmacy merger counts among a string of recent attempts to integrate technology into the U.S. health care system.
During his State of the Union address earlier this year, President Barack Obama unveiled his administration’s precision medicine plan that, if approved, would allow doctors to accurately predict one’s likelihood of developing cancer using a complex health information database. Earlier this year, guests at the annual SXSW festival witnessed the launch of Healthiest You, an all-in-one app that allows users to compare prescription drug costs and virtually contact health care providers. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation jumped into the fray last year, announcing plans to finance a remote control birth control implant that could last for 16 years and be controlled via wireless connection.
The growing appeal of technology is not limited to government officials and entrepreneurs. A survey conducted by the Health Information and Management Systems Society found that more than 80 percent of providers and organizations have embraced cloud-based applications. Supporters say technology has great appeal to an industry that has long relied on paper medical records. This shift to what’s known as an information-centric delivery model eases cooperation and data sharing between hospitals, medical practices, research facilities, and insurance companies. It also allow companies to quickly analyze and track information related to treatments, costs, performance, and effectiveness.
“When doctors can access, update, and share patient information with ease, they can diagnose with greater confidence, avoid redundant tests, and improve patient safety, Todd Rothenhaus, MD, chief medical officer at Athenahealth, Inc., wrote in Forbes earlier this week. “Your important data — medical history, current condition, insurance package details — can move right along with you, accessible by any caregiver you choose to see. [T]he entire industry can identify trends in population health, costs, insurance reimbursements — and use that insight to better serve both patients and providers,” Rothenhaus added.
With so much medical information online, however, comes new security risks. Earlier this month, CVS announced a breach of its photo website that threatened the security of customer credit card information. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that more than 6 million Americans had their data compromised in 2014. Attacks that year included one carried out by a Chinese group during which they swiped 4.5 million hospital patients’ personal data. More recently, attackers collected the information of more than 1.1 million patients during a security breach of BlueCross BlueShield’s database.