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October 22, 2024: Amazon is taking bold steps to change how we receive prescriptions, pushing the boundaries of technology and logistics. Could drone deliveries and same-day medications become the new norm? In this episode, Sarah Richardson and Kate Gamble dive into Amazon Pharmacy’s latest expansion and discuss how it might disrupt traditional pharmacy models. What challenges could arise, and is this the future of healthcare?

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Transcript

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📍   Today in Health we are discussing Amazon Pharmacy, set to transform medication delivery with rapid expansion.

Today's episode is brought to you by SureTest, revolutionizing healthcare IT with automated testing solutions. Learn more at thisweekhealth. com slash suretest. Okay. My name is Sarah Richardson. I'm a former CIO for several healthcare systems, most notably within HCA and Optum, and now president of the This Week Health 229 Executive Development Community, where we host a set of channels and events dedicated to transforming healthcare, one connection at a time.

And I am joined by Kate Gamble, Managing Editor here at This Week Health. Kate, welcome to the show. Thank you, Sarah. Looking forward to it. Always. And this one's fascinating because Amazon aims to transform retail pharmacy landscape by applying its e commerce principles to enhance convenience and access.

What's interesting, this only launched in 2020, and they introduced features like automatic medication discounts and a pilot drone service. targeting 60 minute prescription deliveries. They want to expand services to 20 new cities in 2025, seeking to improve same day medication access, especially during high demand seasons.

also interesting is Amazon, unlike traditional pharmacies, their digital first model will Their digital first model minimizes wait times and leverages its logistics capabilities for rapid delivery. And in true Amazon form, to further enhance the customer experience, they're going to integrate clinical teams with engineering experts to streamline the checkout process, improve price transparency, and position itself Competitively within the market.

That's a lot. When you saw this article and thought about what this means for Amazon, who's always willing to try a little bit of nuancing before they jump into a space and really figure things out, what came to mind for you?

So there is a lot about this. That's interesting to me. First of all, it's. The intersection of technology, logistics, and patient care. Those are three huge areas and to see Amazon get involved like you said, is a mammoth company as its name suggests, but also to see how they're approaching it is also is, interesting to me too.

It first came around in 2020, but now it has seen a little bit more growth and I'm really interested to see what happens because we've seen the success of the company, but will this translate to pharmacy, which is such a different space that's, One of the many things about it that interests me.

You're absolutely right. I thought about their logistics capabilities. Quick delivery, prescription management, to get something within 60 minutes, that is prime on steroids, literally. And you think about how quickly you can get something. You go into, you go to Amazon, if your prescription is there waiting at Automatically, it's going to be at your house.

And it's super interesting when you saw that they are going to expand the delivery capabilities, e bikes and drones in places where there may be traffic or congestion otherwise. So if you talk to your physician, you've got a telehealth visit, as an example, you get off the phone within 16 minutes, your prescription has been delivered to your house via drone.

What do you think about that as a consumer and a patient? Is that a way that you want to receive your care? I think that's really exciting. We've heard about drones for a while, but this is such a practical use for it. And it does bring up some questions though how scalable is this? Will they be able to do this in every area?

And that's going to be interesting to see, because one of the things I really like about this is that it can help solve a problem, which is pharmacy deserts. And Just the inaccessibility to pharmacies in a lot of areas. And maybe that's where drones could serve a purpose. But, I think one of the concerns I have is supply chain.

We, we know that there's supply chain issues in a lot of areas and how is Amazon going to be able to get through that? You think about the fact that medication adherence is often be an issue and that is accessibility to care and even the equity that gets established through that. And you and I talk about that often because we care about it a lot that if this starts to improve access for others and it's cost efficient and it's going to drive competition by other pharmacy chains because they are rapidly expanding these solutions, to your point, does it start to eliminate areas where there's quote unquote deserts?

And I have to believe that. Amazon's ability to really understand logistics and get things to locations faster than other providers, as an example, may be able to get in front of you getting that prescription timely. And if it may, if it's not in 60 minutes, what if it's 24 hours, which may possibly have taken a week otherwise?

Yeah, you got to pay close attention to it because that disruption is going to create different types of problems that have to be addressed. Yeah, disruption is definitely the key word. And you, mentioned before that clinical teams are being partnered with engineering experts, and that I'm sure is going to play a huge part into how they're developing the infrastructure for this, how they're going to be able to meet those needs.

And that shows how serious Amazon is about this. I think a lot of health system leaders have to watch this carefully and see what happens Amazon will put their resources into it. And granted, if they fail, we know that they will fail and move on as they did with their telehealth service.

But if Amazon gets the right traction with this, I think this could really be a disruptor. We love that word, right? We love the word because they're going to start. You think the RxPASS program, it's expanded to include Medicare beneficiaries. And if you help tens of thousands of the Prime members save money on common prescriptions, and you think about rolling out same day delivery across the U. S. cities, it starts in places like New York City, L. A., Austin, Indianapolis. We've also heard of Miami, Phoenix, Seattle. College Station, Texas. What was interesting about College Station is that's where they're trying out the drones and ensuring medications are delivered swiftly and accurately. And I think about drone traffic eventually in some of these bigger cities and the whole impact that, to your point, start thinking about supply chain.

As drone traffic has to be monitored, how different companies will position themselves to have that accessibility. The one thing I do worry about is competition, because if Amazon has the resources to be able to prioritize their drone traffic over another distribution method, does that create unfair competition for something that they are solving for in today's world?

Yeah, I agree. What does this mean for pharmacies? Not just the big CVSs and the Walgreens, but what does this mean for smaller pharmacies? So this is really going to be one to watch. Sure is. And so do you trust Amazon to deliver your prescriptions? Yes. Do you trust them to already have all that information about you because they likely have most of your personal information anyway?

Quite possibly. And the next step is, how comfortable are you with the type of delivery mechanism that's going to create something to pay attention to moving forward? No solution gets presented without creating a different consideration. to a degree, I'm actually grateful that it's Amazon trying this out because they will be able to adapt fastest to the nuances that require this to become mainstream, yet not without a cost towards potentially lack of competition the concern that Amazon will drown out competition in a place where it's trying to create lack of disparity in the solution that it's bringing to the table. Yeah, said. I'm I, for one, as a consumer, would be willing to try it, and I think a lot of people will too, and it'll be really interesting to see what happens going forward.

100%. Couldn't agree more. I remember during the pandemic, Bill had said, Hey, would you let Amazon come to your door and deliver a, Vaccination. And I'm like, sure, we probably would have had the whole country vaccinated in about seven days because there were times during the pandemic that we'd have so many Amazon boxes in front of our house, you literally couldn't get out the front door, like a box fort had been built.

And so therefore they're already so ingrained in our lives that I'm comfortable having them be part of my medical solutions as well.

Kate, as always. Love our conversations. And remember to share this podcast with a friend or colleague. Use it as a foundation for daily or weekly discussions on the topics that are relevant to you in the industry. 📍 You can subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. That's all for now. Thanks for listening.

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