| [May 19, 2008] |
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Walgreens Partners with Google to Provide Pharmacy Patients Access to Their Prescription History Through Google Health
DEERFIELD, Ill. --(Business Wire)-- Walgreens (NYSE:WAG)(NASDAQ:WAG) is partnering with Google to provide pharmacy patients access to their personal prescription history through Google Health, a new product that was launched today that helps users store, organize and manage their medical records online. Google Health complements the patient history currently available on Walgreens.com and will help patients and doctors get the most benefit from the patient's drug therapy.
"Doctors often don't have access to a patient's complete prescription history, which can lead to harmful drug interactions," said Don Huonker, Walgreens senior vice president of health care innovation. "While many patients use Walgreens online pharmacy to access their prescription history, they don't always provide that information to their doctor. By partnering with Google Health, we can securely link a patient's Walgreens.com pharmacy information with their Google Health account on their request. This will make it even easier for patients to communicate their information to multiple doctors and their caretakers, who can be granted access to their Google Health account with the patient's permission when the feature is enabled in the near future."
The Walgreens.com pharmacy is fully integrated with Walgreens retail pharmacies, ensuring the patient's online prescription history is complete. Once a patient requests the service, Walgreens will securely transfer an updated copy of their prescription history to Google Health on a daily basis.
"This is all about providing health care practitioners and caretakers better access to medical information," said Huonker. "Google's brand recognition and the popularity of its health search make the company a leading partner for an initiative like this."
Walgreens has a long history of pharmacy technology innovation. In the early 1980s, the company was the first retail pharmacy chain to computerize all of its pharmacies nationwide and link them via satellite. In 1992, Walgreens invented the electronic prescription, which is seen today as one of the leading ways to enhance pharmacy safety and lower prescription costs. More recently, Walgreens was the first pharmacy to fully integrate its online pharmacy with its retail pharmacies and was the first to offer prescription label directions in 14 different languages.
"All of these initiatives, including our Google partnership, are aimed at improving patient care and lowering health care costs," said Huonker.
Google Health is available on the Web at www.google.com/health.
About Walgreens
Walgreens is the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2007 sales of $53.8 billion. The company operates 6,204 drugstores in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Walgreens is expanding its patient-first health care services beyond traditional pharmacy through Walgreens Health Services, its managed care division, and Take Care Health Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary that manages 168 convenient care clinics at Walgreens drugstores. Walgreens Health Services assists pharmacy patients and prescription drug and medical plans through Walgreens Health Initiatives Inc. (a pharmacy benefit manager), Walgreens Mail Service Inc., Walgreens Home Care Inc., Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy LLC and SeniorMed LLC (a pharmacy provider to long-term care facilities). More information about Walgreens is available at Walgreens.com.
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