Prescription management firm Medco Health Solutions is taking its first major step into mobile healthcare with the launch of the Medco Pharmacy application for Verizon Wireless BlackBerry and Android smartphones.

By offering patient-specific pharmacy information, Medco hopes the app can provide patients with information they can present to physicians and pharmacists and help improve the relationship. The plan is to have one app and enhance it over time.

?We wanted to make sure we were in the mobile space as more and more people migrate to it and get healthcare information from mobile,? said Amy Foley, chief Web officer at Medco, Franklin Lakes, NJ.

?We will continue to enhance the app with abilities around prescription management and push the envelope on creating and bolstering the patient-medical professional relationship,? Ms. Foley said.

Just what the doctor ordered
The application is personalized to a person?s pharmacy benefit plan and has a patient?s medication history on file. So, when a consumer downloads the app, she sees pricing and other information that is relevant to her healthcare plan.

Verizon Wireless and Medco collaborated on the app.

The medication history is integrated with Medco?s program to run safety checks and help avoid harmful drug interactions.

?We saw a huge opportunity to put this information in patients' hands so they could have a more proactive discussion with their doctors,? Ms. Foley said.

The safety check is run every time the application enters a new prescription and alerts the Medco.com member.

The app works even if members are treated by several doctors or fill prescriptions at several different pharmacies.

The app also guides patients and their doctors to the lowest-cost prescription drug specific to the patient?s prescription drug plan. 

The Medco Pharmacy app is available to download for free in V CAST Apps. It is built on Medco?s My Rx Choices prescription savings and patient safety program, which was launched online in 2006.

Once registered at http://www.medco.com,  patients will have their complete medication history and drug plan at their fingertips.

Three's the charm
The Medco Pharmacy mobile app offers three key features.

First, My Rx Choices delivers on-demand personalized cost information for any prescription medication as well as lower-cost options.

Patients can share this information with a doctor or pharmacist to find out if there are any drug plan rules that require a physician?s authorization before the drug can be dispensed.

According to Medco research, 500,000 prescriptions that have a lower-cost option available are written daily for Medco members. 
 
Next, My Medicine Cabinet allows users to view the medications that they are on and set reminders to take or refill the medications. It also lets users check for possible drug interactions between their prescription medication and any over-the-counter medications, vitamins and supplements.

Finally, the Prescription ID Card provides access to a member?s prescription drug card. It is an actual visual representation of the front and back of the card.

Healthy market for mobile services
The Medco app joins a growing number of mobile pharmacy services from big box retailers and large drugstore chains, including CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreens, Target and Wal-Mart.

Each marketer has a different take on mobile for health. Target, for example, values mobile as a service tool when promoting its mobile pharmacy (see story). 

The Medco app is different in that it provides Medco members with information about all of their prescriptions.

?This is all in one," Ms. Foley said. "It doesn?t just deal with where consumers get their medication from."

Medco has 65 million members who use its service to fill prescriptions via mail-order.

Medco plans to add additional functionality to the app this year, such as the ability to refill mail-order prescriptions and alerts for when users are not taking their medication as prescribed.

?We want to make it as easy as possible for consumers who are Medco members to access this information wherever they are,? Ms. Foley said.