In collaboration with academia, the drug-dispensing giant seeks better care through prescription adherence, patient management.

A Deerfield, Illinois based Walgreens has launched its Center for Health & Wellbeing Research, a new website featuring Walgreen’s outcome studies from the past six years. Visitors to Walgreens research and information web page will be able to view and download more than 50 Walgreens outcomes studies covering a variety of research areas including access to care and patient experience, dose adherence and clinical outcomes, digital health and member engagement, care costs, HIV, specialty pharmacy and vaccinations.

To help promote health and wellness across America, Walgreens’ collaborates with a number of prominent academic institutions including Johns Hopkins Medicine, San Francisco - School of Pharmacy Scripps Translational Science Institute, University of California, and the University of Chicago Medicine. These schools and institutions provide insight needed to contribute to Walgreens outcomes research.

Harry Leider, Walgreens’ Group Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, explained the company’s excitement about the launch: “We are thrilled to be unveiling the Walgreens Center for Health & Wellbeing Research,” he said. “Our goal is, through scientific research, to help improve patient care and outcomes while lowering health care costs. We are dedicated to providing value to health care on a national scale and the Walgreens Center for Health & Wellbeing Research will showcase the work we are doing every day to advance that mission.”

Recent findings in some of the recent research include a study of pharmacy patients enrolled in Medicare Part D plans which found that when Walgreens’ issued follow-up calls, patients demonstrated a 23% greater adherence within the first 14 days of the expected refill date of their prescriptions. Another collaborative study examined the length of the therapy and factors associated with HIV pre-exposer prophylaxis (PrEP) medication adherence, which the company said demonstrated significantly higher dose adherence among certain patient groups, such as older people including males, users of specialized services and people with insurance. Walgreens said the study found patients used PrEP on average of seven to eight months in the first year.