Johns Hopkins, Walgreens Partner on Improving Health Outcomes

Johns Hopkins Medicine and Walgreens said Wednesday they will collaborate on population-based research and jointly develop protocols to improve outcomes of patients with chronic diseases, which will include training programs for the pharmaceutical retailer's 70,000 healthcare service providers.

"Improving the care of people with chronic conditions, like asthma, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease, is a central goal of health professionals, health systems and U.S. policy makers," Fred Brancati, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said in a media release. "It makes sense medically, and under health care reform, it makes sense financially, too. It's a part of the Hopkins mission that Walgreens can help us advance. Combining our clinical expertise and research know-how with their nationwide resources — including pharmacies, clinics, worksite health centers, information systems and 70,000 health care service providers — will generate new approaches to improve population health."

The collaboration will examine areas such as:

• Research Programs. JHM and Walgreens researchers will work jointly to develop new ideas for disease management, screening and prevention that they will spin off into proposals for funding.
• Clinical Protocol Development/Review. JHM faculty will share their expertise with Walgreens in developing healthcare protocols, medical guidelines and algorithms for chronic disease management.
•  Professional Training. Using JHM's expertise in onsite and distance education for physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, technicians, pharmacists and others, the collaborative will expand and enhance professional education of healthcare workers in the Walgreens network.
• Clinical Program Development and Health Plan Services. JHM and Walgreens will consider developing joint lifestyle, chronic care and disease-specific programs.

"By collaborating with Johns Hopkins Medicine, we will access some of the best expertise in healthcare to develop research, protocols and training programs designed to improve patient outcomes through our nationwide network of accessible community pharmacists, nurse practitioners, physicians and other clinicians," Kermit Crawford, Walgreens president of pharmacy, health and wellness, said in a media release. 

Walgreens is the nation's largest drugstore chain, with fiscal 2010 sales of $67 billion, and 7,709 stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Patricia Brown, president of Johns Hopkins HealthCare LLC, said drug retailer's large patient and client base and sophisticated IT infrastructure "provides us with a unique opportunity to conduct large-scale population-based research. It also affords us the chance to augment Walgreens' existing quality and education programs to enhance care and outcomes for a very large number of people."

All patient information used for these studies will be anonymous.