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WOONSOCKET, R.I. — MinuteClinic has announced that this spring it is offering a free monitoring visit for patients with diabetes to help keep their health in check between visits to a primary care provider.

The complimentary monitoring service, which is available seven days a week, is administered by a MinuteClinic nurse practitioner or physician assistant and includes:

• Hemoglobin A1C and blood-glucose test (as needed);

• Blood pressure check;

• Body mass index (BMI);

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Tuesday released case studies presented last week before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2012 National Immunization Conference on how retail pharmacy can expand access to immunizations and help support disease-prevention initiatives.

The studies demonstrated the impact of three Walgreens initiatives aimed at increasing immunization rates: off-clinic hour vaccine administration, a pharmacist-led meningitis vaccination program and expansion of access to immunization services in underserved areas.

A few weeks ago, we joined some 37,000 of our closest friends for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) annual conference. HIMSS is a cause-based, not-for-profit organization focused on providing global leadership for the optimal use of information technology and management systems for the betterment of health care.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — One of the long-term goals of many drug companies has been to win Food and Drug Administration approval for cholesterol-lowering statins as over-the-counter drugs. But it's a goal that has long eluded them due to the agency's concerns about patient safety.

(THE NEWS: FDA mulls making some prescription drugs available over the counter. For the full story, click here.)

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark has announced that its EVP and chief medical officer Troyen Brennan has been named to the National Commission on Physician Payment Reform, an independent commission that will assess how physicians are paid, and how pay incentives are linked to patient care.

CHICAGO and WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark's MinuteClinic has announced that it will transition from its existing proprietary electronic medical record system to the Allscripts MyWay Electronic Health Record.

Ever wonder how the convenient care industry blossomed into what it is today? One could say a fortune cookie.

“I love Chinese food, and my kids always get me Chinese food for dinner on Mother’s Day. My Chinese fortune cookie said, when I opened [it]: ‘You will be offered the opportunity of a lifetime, say yes,’” explained Sandy Ryan, Walgreens’ Take Care Health Systems chief nurse practitioner officer and clinical advocate.

WASHINGTON — CVS Caremark's chief healthcare strategy officer on Tuesday outlined how the company's integrated pharmacy-based program for such chronic diseases as diabetes, called Pharmacy Advisor, increased medication adherence rates and physician initiation of prescriptions for concomitant medications to improve patient health.

While physicians and pharmacists alike generally view electronic prescribing with favor, several barriers stand in the way of their realizing its full benefit, according to a November government study.


WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT — "I am appalled that politics has once again trumped science," wrote Brooklyn College Health Clinic director and nurse practitioner Ilene Tannenbaum in a letter to the New York Times. That reaction summed up much of the medical community's response to the Department of Health and Human Services' overruling of the Food and Drug Administration's decision to make the Plan B contraceptive pill a full nonprescription product.

PHILADELPHIA — The Fellowship of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia on Friday elected the first nurse practitioner to its ranks: Sandra Ryan, Walgreens' Take Care Health Systems chief nurse practitioner officer and clinical advocate.