Routes to Health:
Developed with a small group of students, a patient-centered service, Routes to Health provides one-on-one home visits by traveling pharmacist in collaboration with community pharmacists and referring physicians, serving individuals whose medical conditions are impacted by Low English Proficiency.
By returning to the house call, Routes to Health provides patient-centered medication support, and expands the reach of community based pharmacies. With over 13,000 community pharmacists in the United States, over 40% of nation’s retail prescription drugs are dispensed through them. These pharmacists are critical to ensuring optimal medication therapy outcomes and contribute to the lowering of overall healthcare costs.
In addition, there is an opportunity space surrounding Low English Proficiency (LEP) adults in the U.S. Currently they number over 22 million, with a growth rate of 2.5 million new LEP adults each year. These 22 million patients account for 336 million prescriptions annually. We find that LEP and low health literacy leads to high risk of unsafe use of prescription medicines, especially when health care providers do not provide adequate time or verbal communication to these patients.
Routes to Health addresses this need through the one-on-one home visit, allowing pharmacists to spend time with patients and help them understand how to properly take their medicines, and following up on side effects and environmental factors that may contribute to their condition.
Lastly, as part of an integrated technology solution, Routes to Health monitors disease tracking indicators over time in neighborhoods. Research shows that prescriptions are often the first indicator of a disease epidemic within a community – heart disease, diabetes or otherwise. Through careful monitoring, pharmacists can know when an education and intervention campaign should be launched for a particular community.
Date: Fall 2008
Class: Innovation Studio
Contributed to: Primary and Secondary Research, Concept Development, Logo Design, Persona Development