I was having drinks and talking with Henrike Boysen from MISI and we were talking about pharmaceutical companies since so much work in the Philly area is for them. We were talking about value and we stumbled across this great idea.
Current Situation:
Doctors write scripts which get sent to pharmacy to be filled out and the patient shows up to pick them up. Some Doctors now write electronic script which get sent to the pharmacy and is filled out and ready to be picked up by the time the patient gets there. About 1/3 of scripts written by patients never end up being filled/picked/used by the patients. 3 Billion scripts written a year in US. $300B value a year. $10 a script average.
Possible Future Situation: When the Doctor is filling out the electronic script (and she is in front of the patient), she asks the patient for an email address. 2-3 days after there is a reminder email sent out automatically to patient.
Market Size: . 33% of 3B scripts is 1B scripts not used. If we use a 1 percent conversion of email marketing to those 1B unfilled scripts (respectable amount) that gives us 100,000,000 scripts we could hope would be filled after someone gets an email reminder. 100,000,000 multipled by the $10 value of each script gives us 1 Billion Dollars.
Other possible Issues/Ideas:
- Not all Doctors use PDA to fill out and make electronic scripts. But with this kind of $, Big Pharma could subsidize.
- After the 3 day period and no pick up at pharmacy, the email could include a additional percentage off like 10% to incentivize.
- The email could include additional information about the benefits of the drug to incentivize.
- The email could have a link so the patient could do “mail” fulfillment.
Market Size of prescriptions in US
Tags: billion dollar idea, Idea, innovation
This is really interesting on multiple levels. One quick observation: this certainly aligns well with the CEO of CVS Pharmacy’s focus on getting patients to stick to their drug regimes: http://tinyurl.com/bflm7w
Include SMS messages and/or twitter integration and I’m in! Great idea.
You could also get the patient to enroll for auto-pay – the moment the Dr. prescribes the med, the patient is billed, which will thereby increase the likelyhood that they pick up their meds. Then reminder emails and SMS will be reminding them to pick up what they already paid for.
Ah, thanks for sharing this! Excellent idea, and many thoughts are brewing…
Definitely agree with proactive notifications and incentivization as two key approaches towards making up that lost $1B, but they seem reactive to the symptoms. The predictors outlined in Box 2, as admitted in the abstract, speak to the cause of these unfilled scripts and might represent an additional opportunity.
One quick thought on the incentivization – financial incentives are appealing, but maybe consider coupling them with education around the consequences of non-adherence. The Intentional and Clinician points in Box 2 seem like good places to start.
Again, thanks for sharing this!
I am in complete agreement with your ideas. All of us need reminders!!!
As a pharmacist, turned software developer, I’ve spent the past 14 years working on OnTimeRx, a simple patient-focused reminder solution for this very complex problem. OnTimeRx comes in assorted flavors for most hand held devices, and PCs. We also have an automated phone, email, SMS and pager reminder service that does exactly what you’re suggesting. http://bit.ly/19Vsrm
Back in 2001 a nursing informatics instructor told me that OnTimeRx for the Palm was about 15 years ahead of its time. However, the use of technology in health care is finally beginning to pick up. Palm even came out with the PERFECT device for a medication reminder, the simple little Z22; but now it’s gone! …abandoned because it wasn’t “sexy” enough. (If you’re lucky, you might still find one or two on eBay.) I guess Palm and Apple think they know exactly what everyone wants and needs. Not so.
A simple dedicated device is far better for this purpose. The Z22 was affordable ($99), reliable, white and medical-looking, and it was light – basically the perfect size device for anyone to carry around – with a basic cell phone. (Who needs a Swiss Army Knife cell phone? Too many cowbells and whistles just makes it harder to make a call !)
Here’s some more “out-of-the-box” thinking for you. IMHO- big pharma should be passing these Z22 devices out to patients like popcorn, as a proprietary, branded giveaway. It could be preloaded with OnTimeRx software and have reminders already set up for their products.
Who knows… Maybe it’s not too late for some innovative marketing guru to buy the rights to manufacture these little gems again. Do you know the right people to make that happen.