DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreen Co. has added new capabilities for mobile device users to help them better manage their prescription drug needs and stick to their medication regimens.
Walgreens on Friday said it has launched features called Pill Reminder and Transfer by Scan.
The drug chain has also added a new photo service function dubbed QuickPrints.
Billing its mobile Rx offering as a "drug store in the palm of your hand," Walgreens noted that its mobile pharmacy tools, which include medication adherence-based resources, are the most popular features of its mobile applications and helped boost use of its mobile apps by nearly 500% last year.
Pill Reminder enables Walgreens iPhone mobile app users to track medication schedules and get alerts via nine reminder options, such as daily, hourly, weekly and other custom selections. Reminders can be set up by scanning a prescription bar code and choosing alert preferences. Users, too, can add multiple prescriptions, vitamins and other supplements to one reminder notification.
Meanwhile, Transfer by Scan lets Walgreens mobile app users on iPhone and Android devices transfer a prescription from another pharmacy to Walgreens in two steps. Patients can complete transfers by taking a picture of their prescription bottle and providing their name, birth date and phone number and then sending to Walgreens with one click.
Walgreens noted that its Refill by Scan tool, which was launched in November 2010 and allows patients to order refills by scanning a prescription bar code with their smartphone, now generates over 40% of all the chain’s online refills and accounts for more transactions than any other feature within the application. Also, the retailer said refill reminder and prescription-ready text alerts are used by more than 2 million Walgreens pharmacy customers.
"Mobile is an important channel for us and brings great opportunities for technology innovation and providing pharmacy features to millions of our mobile customers," Sona Chawla, president of e-commerce at Walgreens, said in a statement. "We’ve extended the convenience of Walgreens’ pharmacy through a number of intuitive, easy-to-use tools that can be very effective in helping patients better manage and improve their overall health.”
On the photo side, the new QuickPrints function enables mobile customers to order prints directly from an iPhone or Android device without logging in. They then can pick up their photos in as little as an hour at any Walgreens.
