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Walgreens Latest API Program Allows Mobile App Developers to Leverage Prescription Refill Technology

Mon, 02/04/2013 - 09:01 - Drew Schweinfurth

 

Making prescription refills easier can help patients get the most benefit from medication and lower overall health care costs

 

DEERFIELD, Ill., Feb. 4, 2013 – Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) (Nasdaq: WAG) today is making available a new application programming interface (API) that allows third-party mobile app developers to integrate the drugstore chain’s prescription refill technology.  Developers who have scanning functionality within their apps can easily integrate the API to enable their users to order a prescription refill by scanning the barcode on a Walgreens prescription bottle.   

 “People continue to become increasingly engaged with their mobile devices and use the technology to help make their day-to-day lives easier,” said Abhi Dhar, Walgreens e-commerce chief technology officer.  “By incorporating the Walgreens Prescription API, mobile app developers are providing users with an easy way to refill prescriptions and help them properly take their medication.”

Eleven percent of hospital admissions and 40 percent of nursing home admissions are attributable to medication non-adherence, which has been estimated to cost the U.S. health care system $290 billion annually.1,2  In addition to tools such as Refill by Scan, Walgreens pharmacists can significantly improve adherence to medications through face-to-face interaction and counseling.  One recent study demonstrated a nearly 5 percent increase in adherence rates among patients who received regular counseling from their pharmacist over the course of a year.3  

The Walgreens Prescription API marks the first time such technology is available for adoption among mobile app developers who focus on health and wellness, and it is the second API program offered by Walgreens.  Last year, Walgreens launched its QuickPrints SDK and API, which provided third-party developers with the ability to integrate in-store photo services for its users.  The Walgreens Prescription API already has been adopted by several app developers including Healthspek and PocketPharmacist.  

 “We are excited about our relationship with Walgreens.  Walgreens leadership position in technology and consumer empowerment fits perfectly with Healthspek's message to consumers ‘Own Your Chart!’,” said Randy Farr, president of Healthspek.  

"PocketPharmacist is thrilled to offer iOS users both the convenience and ease of refilling their Walgreens prescriptions," said Michael Guren, founder and CEO of Danike, Inc.  “We believe this adds to our goal of helping people better understand and manage their medications.”

Detailed information for the program can be found on the Walgreens Developer Portal at developer.walgreens.com.  The Healthspek and PocketPharmacist apps can be downloaded through the following links:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocketpharmacist-drug-information/id387365379?mt=8

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/healthspek/id576488481?mt=8

 

About Walgreens

As the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2012 sales of $72 billion, Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) vision is to become America’s first choice for health and daily living. Each day, Walgreens provides more than 6 million customers the most convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services and advice in communities across America. Walgreens scope of pharmacy services includes retail, specialty, infusion, medical facility and mail service, along with respiratory services. These services improve health outcomes and lower costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. The company operates 8,061 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Take Care Health Systems is a Walgreens subsidiary that is the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.

 

1 Osterberg L, Blaschke T. Adherence to medication. N Engl J Med. 2005; 353(5):487-497

2 New England Health Institute. NEHI Research Shows Patient Medication Nonadherence Costs Health Care System $290 Billion Annually. 2009. Available at http://www.nehi.net/news/press_releases/110/nehi_research_shows_patient_medication_nonadherence_costs _health_care_system_290_billion_annually. August 11, 2009. Accessibility verified December 19, 2011.

3 Taitel M, Jiang J, Rudkin K, Ewing S, Duncan I. The impact of pharmacist face-to-face counseling to improve medication adherence among patients initiating statin therapy. Patient Prefer Adherence. 2012;6:323–329

 





Join Walgreens at the Sprint Hackathon

Wed, 10/10/2012 - 06:23 - Drew Schweinfurth

 

Join Walgreens, Facebook, Samsung, Evernote and more 

at the Sprint Developer Program Hackathon!

Sprint Open Solutions Conference

When: October 23-24, 2012

Where: San Jose Convention Center - 150 W. San Carlos St - San Jose, CA 95113

Cost: $20

How: Register at sprinthackathon.eventbrite.com

Learn More: Win Big With the Walgreens QuickPrints SDK at the Sprint Hackathon!

 

[About the event:]

Join the Sprint Developer Program and WIP on Tuesday, October 23 in San Jose for the official hackathon of the Sprint Open Solutions Conference. Sprint wants to see your best apps, and has stacks of cash and devices for prizes -- and the top app will get special recognition during Thursday evening's keynote from Sprint CEO Dan Hesse.

You'll get a chance to meet and get direct support from the Sprint Developer Program, as well as a host of great API and developer tool providers. All attendees will also get a code to register for FREE for the Sprint Open Solutions Conference ($350 value) when they attend the hackathon (these codes will be distributed onsite)!

Whatever your platform of choice or your area of expertise, you're welcome to join the fun (and if you don't have a team, we'll help you find one). 

 

[Walgreens & the Sprint Hackathon]

Walgreens will be featuring its QuickPrints SDK for iOS and Android at the Sprint Hackathon for developer attendees to utilize within their application hacks.  

Walgreens will feature multiple representatives on-hand at the event to discuss the QuickPrints SDK and Partner Program.  If you want to reach us at the event, feel free to send a tweet to @WalgreensAPI or email us at dev-events@walgreens.com.

Walgreens is excited to be a part of this event and look forward to seeing you there! The event is free to attend, and you can register at sprinthackathon.eventbrite.com.

 





Walgreens Developer Program Sponsors Health 2.0 Chicago Conference

Tue, 09/25/2012 - 16:32 - Drew Schweinfurth

 

The Walgreens Developer Program is pleased be the flagship sponsor for the first-ever Health 2.0 Chicago conference which will occur on Friday September 28 and Saturday 29.

Event Overview:

Chicago Health Tech and Health 2.0 is hosting the very first Health 2.0 Local conference focused on fostering the growth of the health tech ecosystem in Chicago and the greater Midwest.  Health 2.0 is bringing together the entrepreneurial and innovator community with the goal of sharing lessons learned and identifying opportunities for growth and innovation.  Health 2.0 believes that connecting health technology stakeholders, such as entrepreneurs, startups, providers, payers, investors and government policy makers in a vibrant environment for sharing are integral for this growth.

Event Times:

Fri, Sept 28, Day 1 - Main Conference at Spertus:  8:30 am – 6:00 pm / After Party at 1871 in Merchandise Mart : 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm

Sat, Sept 29, Day 2 - Code-a-thons/Make-a-thons and Innovator Fuse at 1871 in Merchandise Mart : 8:30am – 5:30 pm

Who should attend?

  ·        Anyone who wants the pulse on health technology in Chicago and the greater Midwest.

  ·        Entrepreneurs in health technology

  ·        Established healthcare stakeholders interested in collaborating with startups

  ·        Healthcare professionals with entrepreneurial interests

  ·        Technology innovators looking for opportunities in health and healthcare

  ·        Investors

To learn more information about this great event, please visit http://www.health2con.com/chicago/conferences/2012fall.  If you'd like to register for Health 2.0 event, you can do so at http://www.health2con.com/chicago/?ee=1.  You can also follow the event on Twitter via #H20Chi.

 





QuickPrints for iOS SDK - Version 1.1 Available

Tue, 09/25/2012 - 16:31 - Drew Schweinfurth

Attention all iOS Developers:

The Walgreens Developer Program team has just released version 1.1 of our QuickPrints for iOS SDK.

After the final version of iOS6 was released to developers on Wednesday September 12, we encountered an issue in our testing relating to how the final version of iOS6 leveraged the new armV7S framework. 

We have worked quickly to resolve that issue and are happy to report an updated version of our SDK is now available for iOS developers.

 

We don’t believe a SDK update will be required for all partner applications (depends on how/if you leveraged the armV frameworks, but wanted to let all of developers know either way.

Version 1.1 of the iOS SDK (and updated set of sample application source code) can now be downloaded on our iOS SDK documentation page.

 

Link - /api/quickprints/apimethod/quickprints-sdk-ios 

 

 

 





Walgreens Mobile Photo Hack Day Promotes Developer Innovation

Tue, 08/14/2012 - 16:28 - Drew Schweinfurth

 

30 developers attend Walgreens event to integrate QuickPrints technology into prototype photo applications in under 5 hours

Hack day highlights company’s continued efforts to foster mobile innovation through relationships with third-party developer community


DEERFIELD, IL – Aug. 13, 2012 – This past Saturday, Walgreens hosted its first Mobile Photo Hack Day at its downtown Chicago office. The event gave developers the opportunity to meet, collaborate and showcase their creative implementations of the QuickPrints SDK in their applications.

The successful, single-day hackathon attracted a total of 30 developers making up 14 photo hack application demonstrations. Developer demos were judged based upon the unique features and functionality of the application and the completed integration of the QuickPrints SDK, which was determined by the photo print output created at the on-site photo lab.

The applications were reviewed by a panel of judges that included: Scott Regan (head of marketing, Apigee), Ari Fuchs (lead API engineer & developer evangelist, Aviary), Brett Goldstein (commissioner, Chicago Department of Innovation & Technology), Kevin McGinnis (VP of product platforms, Sprint), Terry Howerton (founder, TechNexus) and Jasbir Patel (senior director and general merchandise manager for photo, Walgreens).

“I would like to thank all the talented programmers who found very creative ways to use QuickPrints SDK in third party apps,” said Abhi Dhar, Walgreens chief technical officer for e-commerce. “Although ‘appathons’ are more common in places like Silicon Valley, it was our goal to bring the concept to Chicago and take advantage of the city’s burgeoning tech industry and its growing pool of talented programmers.”

The winner of both the Judges’ and People’s Choice Awards was Smilesback, developed by the husband-wife team of Mr. Bhabani Sahu and Mrs. Prachi Sahoo. Smilesback (watch their app demo video) reminds people about important dates such as anniversaries, birthdays and others occasions that are perfect for personalized, last-minute photo gifts.

“We wanted to build something that helps people and can make a difference in their daily lives,” Bhabani Sahu said. “QuickPrints is about convenience and speed and that really fits with our goals for the Smilesback app.”

The Smilesback team won a total of $5,000 in cash prizes along with a 6-month mentoring and residency program through event partner TechNexus, a Chicago-based technology incubator and collaboration center.

In July, Walgreens extended its innovation in mobile technology with its developer portal that allows third-party software developers to integrate the Walgreens QuickPrints software development kit (SDK), which allows iOS and Android mobile users to print photos directly from their smartphone to most Walgreens stores nationwide in about an hour. The launch of the QuickPrints SDK marked the first time that Walgreens has provided an open interface for third-party application developers to integrate Walgreens in-store services.

The Walgreens QuickPrints SDK, already implemented within seven partner applications, allows third party developers to integrate a print service within their existing mobile application and earn a revenue share from photo orders printed and picked up at a local Walgreens location. More information about the QuickPrints SDK program and its partners can be found on the Walgreens Developer Portal and through a dedicated Twitter handle @WalgreensAPI.

About Walgreens

As the nation's largest drugstore chain with fiscal 2011 sales of $72 billion, Walgreens (www.walgreens.com) vision is to become America’s first choice for health and daily living. Each day, Walgreens provides nearly 6 million customers the most convenient, multichannel access to consumer goods and services and trusted, cost-effective pharmacy, health and wellness services and advice in communities across America. Walgreens scope of pharmacy services includes retail, specialty, infusion, medical facility and mail service, along with respiratory services. These services improve health outcomes and lower costs for payers including employers, managed care organizations, health systems, pharmacy benefit managers and the public sector. The company operates 7,919 drugstores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Take Care Health Systems is a Walgreens subsidiary that is the largest and most comprehensive manager of worksite health and wellness centers and in-store convenient care clinics, with more than 700 locations throughout the country.