HealthTab brings chronic and infectious disease screening to pharmacy, empowering patients and pharmacists with data for better health outcomes.
In many provinces, and around the world, pharmacists now have the authority to assess and treat minor ailments, offer screening and testing, and prescribe certain medications.
“This gives pharmacists greater ability to use their medical training,” says Hector Bremner, CEO of Avricore Health, a pharmacy service innovator. “With chronic disease on the rise and driving a large portion of rising health care costs, pharmacists are being engaged as a part of the healthcare to provide patients with low-barrier, easily accessible care in a timely fashion.”
Expanding the scope of services that pharmacists provide is also aimed at reducing pressure on primary care physicians and emergency departments while improving access to care for Canadians in rural and remote communities and for residents who don’t have a family doctor.
Supporting better access to care
“We now have quick and much easier access to the care we need, when we need it. The pharmacy is the only place, besides an emergency room, where you can walk in and get care on demand,” Bremner says. “With better access to regular care, hopefully many people won’t need to go to the ER, because their concerns can be addressed earlier.”
Bremner says that improved access to primary care services through pharmacies will hopefully mean increased prevention of disease and earlier detection of conditions that are already present, leading to better management and treatment.
“For decades, the healthcare system has been treating disease symptoms, not the fundamentals of health. That means we’re spending billions unnecessarily on crisis issues related to strokes, heart attacks, and even cancer because we wait until late in the game to help the patient,” Bremner says. “With easy access to regular care in community pharmacies, using tools that drive evidence-based decision-making, we can keep millions of people out of hospitals.”
Enabling personalized treatment plans
Avricore Health, founded in 2016, delivers new technologies to empower pharmacists to be even more effective in their expanded roles. Its flagship offering, HealthTab, is the world’s first fully cloud-connected point-of-care testing platform to better screen for and manage chronic and infectious disease.
With about 800 locations across Canada, HealthTab provides pharmacies with a sophisticated testing and data-management platform, which uses best-in-class instruments from its partner, Abbott. Its cloud-based data management tools securely interpret results, track progress, and ensure patients and their care teams have the best information possible to develop a successful care plan.
“The future of pharmacy is here. It can now deliver life-saving services quickly and cheaply compared to the status quo,” Bremner says. “The healthcare system must support pharmacy based chronic and infectious disease screening, right now — not just because it will equal billions in savings to the healthcare system, but because it’s the right thing to do and will save lives.”
Learn more at HealthTab.com to find a location.
