The NACDS Total Store Expo Rewind | Part Two

0:00You are listening to the Global Network of Podcasters dedicated to the Pharmacy profession. Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network. We're here in Boston at the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Total Store Expo at booth of 2021. First, a data bank. Are you a pharmacist, Jedi, or a pharmacist, fossil? Master your universe with revolutionary pharmacy tools. More coming from first data bank here with our podcast, Press Coverage, the NA CDS Total Store Expo Rewind. NA CDS Total Store Expo 2026 in Boston here with Stephen Beckman.

1:00Hey, Todd. It's always a pleasure to be at NA CDS and always a pleasure being on the mic with you. I appreciate it. The vibe here is all about our chain pharmacy, the transition between focused on prescription and now adding in other things to the front end. Making our pharmacies more profitable. I've talked to several organizations and people who are taking their independence, the two three stores, and they're starting to combine under larger groups of pharmacies and starting to now put big opportunities to merchandise and to put different products, skincare out front. What have you noticed at NA CDS, Stephen, that's coming into you? Well, I think NA CDS, I had the opportunity to sit on a roundtable on Saturday and it brought in members from across the supply chain from manufacturer down to pharmacy and I think NA CDS is doing a really good job of trying to start to tackle some of the challenges

2:05that we have. And it was real pleasure for me because you don't get better if you don't listen. And that's what I was there to do. But what I shared with them is that these challenges or opportunities that we need to make sure that healthcare flows all the way through from start to finish is better, these are big issues that affect all of us. So I think we have to learn how we can do it as one voice, not individual voices. So NA CDS can do some great things and they have done some great things and moving things forward at a state level or a government level or all moving towards better patient care and improving the ability for pharmacy to be successful. And I think what I learned a lot about what from that event and plus just being here for the week is that the service component of the pharmacy is going to change and going to change dramatically. So whether as you said the service and product variability or dynamic that changes on the

3:05front end, but also the services and the importance that pharmacy is going to play going forward, right? We know that it's not too far in the future that we will literally have less primary care physicians to treat patients and the pharmacist is going to be on that forefront. And when we bring this all together and figure out how pharmacy can deliver those additional services beyond just filling prescriptions, then they will become what they've always been, but it'll be seen in a brighter light, meaning that they'll be seen as a core part of delivering healthcare. And when that happens, then all the other things start coming together, right? Reembursement starts to change, things like that change. And now they can be a profitable organization because they're being seen in the right light, the delivering expanded services. And that's what's really important for a company like us to be here, is to hear and listen to where that is going because it's coming. And if we're smart enough as an organization, we'll learn how to work even better with the pharmacy community and channel. I like the insights and with 2030 being the estimated time in the United States where

4:13our population will hit the pinnacle of our baby boomers, there's going to be a lot of need for additional senior care services and also testing services and also very specific like durable medical equipment into the home, long-term care pharmacy at home. There's huge opportunities for pharmacies that are preparing to be the central hub of healthcare in their community. I think that's a really good word, central hub because I think whether it's a region that doesn't have a lot of services with a pharmacy by definition becomes important. But I think what you're talking about is the fact that pharmacy is many, many different things than what most people think of pharmacy, right? They're doing long-term care. They're delivering at home and now they're adding in services to go with that. But we have to find that platform that service and the tools in order to make it efficient, effective, reimbursed correctly so that they can continue to do that.

5:14But we're going to have to solve that because if we don't solve it, those needs are still going to be there but we're not going to be able to deliver it effectively. And ultimately I think pharmacy and the pharmacy channel is so important. So for us, we just try to continue to listen and learn and know that we are at some tipping points and some dynamic changes are going to happen. And we just have to actually work together to make sure that the service side, with the pharmacy side, with the data side, all those things can come together so that we can do what we're all talking about. We're all talking about the same thing, right? That is improving patient's outcome, improving patient lives, and the pharmacy is going to play a bigger role than ever has as you said. Steve, I want to pull out something you just said about data. So in our hometown, the great still city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of the major things that just took place is Kroger bought Giant Eagle. Yeah. And Giant Eagle pharmacy and Kroger pharmacy are both separately doing an incredible job

6:16at combining food as medicine, education. For example, the advantage card, which is Giant Eagle is kind of lead every time from a retail perspective, every time a customer goes there and buys their groceries. If you use your advantage card, you know how much vegetables you're buying, you know what kind of processed foods that you're buying. We talked with Humana about two years ago with Best Buy Health and Kroger about using the data to start incentivizing people to eat better and to take care of themselves better. I could see pharmacy coming alongside that kind of data and really making some very diverse and personalized treatment plans depending on what's going on in those people's lives. Yeah, that's a really good topic. And it was one that was actually brought up at the round table. And I think look at, I mean, it should be common sense, right? We know that if we exercise and we eat well and we use a combination of prescription and

7:17OTC medicines at different times, if we're doing it in a more holistic way and a more comprehensive way and we actually understand the dynamics, then we should see better outcome. So why not? And we do have within the pharmacy channel, we do have the food channel. So they're actually a pretty interesting channel because most people don't really think a lot in my past experience about pharmacy at the food store or food chain, right? Now all of a sudden, that's a pretty interesting dynamic. So as that really starts to take off, then the people that are more true pharmacy, you're going to have to think about how they're incorporating the stores, how they're designed, their stores in terms of the food dynamic. And yeah, I do think that it makes reasonable sense. I'm not an expert in it, but as an average human being, I would say yeah, it makes sense that if we can understand the dynamic between what we eat, what medicines we take, what things that we do preventively, all that comes together in a better way. And if there's platforms and services like what you just articulated, then we should

8:17have to have to believe that patient outcomes are going to be better from it. NAACDS Total Store Expo 2020 6 were really excited to be here. A shout out to the NAACDS communications team. Thank you so much for the press pass. A shout out to you, Steven and your team for having us here at your booth and broadcasting and collecting insights in the future of chain, drug and chain pharmacy. So thank you. That's a pleasure. As frontline healthcare providers, pharmacists like you understand the importance of personalized care, especially in acute pain management. Yeral Pharma is dedicated to providing high quality, generic products tailored to meet your patient's needs. The company aims to serve a diverse range of patient populations, including athletes recovering from intense training, weekend warriors managing minor injuries, and those seeking a practical and best free option for acute pain management. Take your all in your toolbox of pain management options and join the ranks of pharmacists leading

9:20away in personalized care. To learn more about Yeral Pharma and its products, including full prescribing information, box warnings and important safety information, visit Yeralpharma.com. That's Y-A-R-A-L, pharma.com and connect with them on LinkedIn. Hi, I'm Mark Superswale, CEO and co-founder of Nirologics, and you're listening to the pharmacy podcast. Hey, welcome to the NACDS Total Store Expo Rewind. Marzio, it's so good to see you. Thanks for being on the show. It's a pleasure to be here, Todd. All right, we're talking about mass opportunities for pharmacies without having to be without revenue having to be connected to just a prescription and really think of holistic health. Talk to me about your technology because I find it fascinating of what you guys are doing.

10:24Share this with our listeners, what you guys are doing here at NACDS Total Store Expo. So we created something called a longevity mirror. It's an actual mirror. And if you sit in front of it in a 30 second scan, has a little camera built into it, it will then reveal over 30 health insights, health and wellness insights about, for example, your blood pressure, your metabolic health, your heart health, your longevity. We have specific algorithms that we developed that it'll make a prediction over the next 20 years about your likelihood of living a healthy life. We had a funny incident happen when we premiered at the Consumer Electronics Show, where it was one of the highlights of the show, where some people were afraid that, oh no, no, it's going to tell me what I'm going to die. No, no, no, it's not. Please, it's not going to tell you that. But it will tell you what the next 20 years look like from a health and wellness point of life. That is really interesting. And then our consultative pharmacist could have an opportunity to make recommendations

11:28based on those outcomes. Also are you sharing that information with the physician or the other teams that the providers are out there waiting for that data? The answer is yes, the short answer is yes, all of that yes and yes. And we have, we give the pharmacist or the company that's putting the mirror in the pharmacy. So for example, we have Nestle Health Sciences using it, we have Opella using it, we have Bear, Osprey using it. And when the information comes back, they will share that information with the user and it'll, it'll, it'll appear as a QR code and get popped right onto their phone. So you'll walk away with all those results and then you can share that, you choose to share that with your doctor or your, your spouse, like in my case, if I tell my wife, then I have to go to the doctor, but you know, that's what you can do with it. That's a really fascinating technology. Do you see this being set up in pharmacies and then announcing to the public that this is an available tool for them?

12:29That's actually what's going on right now. We have a lot of, and we started in Europe. We have the companies that I just mentioned, putting it in pharmacies. We have a beautiful video that being used at, by Tofan Makeyo, which is a Greek online pharmacy. And it's lovely, delightful video. If you want to see exactly how the mirror works and how it's being used to promote and health products, right? A particular brand or to send people to, to, for a particular service, to get a checkup, et cetera, et cetera. You can do all of that with it. That's fascinating. Tell our listeners where they can learn more, share your website or something so listeners listening in says I want to know more about this. Well, for sure you can come to our website at www.neuralogics.com and you are a-l-o-g-i-x.com. If you're here at the show, come to 2213, booth 2213, and we'll measure you and tell you something about yourself. In particular, we have a fun thing in there where we predict your physiological age and

13:33your facial skin age. And I get into lots of arguments with people about that. And I tell them that the facial skin age is never wrong because what the mirror is doing is it's telling you how old you look, not your chronologically, just saying, under these conditions of lighting and makeup, you look like this and you can't argue because it's always right. Wow. That's when she tells me things, right? It's always right. The mirror is always right. It's always right. It's with women intuition, right? All right. Hey, this has been really interesting interview. We appreciate you being here. It was a pleasure talking. Rob Hedman here with First Data Bank here at the Total Store Expo. Rob, thanks for being on the show. Todd, thanks for having me. Really appreciate it. All right. I've been to, oh my goodness, four, five, six, maybe six conferences so far. This one really drills down into profitability in our chain stores, tools that people are

14:35going to be using, expanding on our front end. First Data Bank is leading in technology. E-Perscribing is one. I want you to talk about a specific topic and product that First Data Bank has for our pharmacies. And explain kind of what it is and how pharmacies would use it. Thanks, Todd. I appreciate that intro. And I will tell you that for 25 plus years in the prescribing world has all been done through one network. And that is one point of failure as we see it. So FDB came up with an alternative network about five years ago. We started with pet meds and some innovative things around patient facing pricing applications. But more so, what we became is really that second rail in regards to delivering an E-Perscription from a provider into the retail pharmacy.

15:37And if you think about how many prescriptions a day of pharmacy sees, if you can imagine if that one network went down, what a catastrophic event that would be in the United States. And so FDB looked at that and said there's a glaring issue here. Let's set up another network that will deliver these scripts into the retail pharmacies in the same manner that they're accustomed to. So if there is an outage and anyone's electronic medical record, the fax machine will not start going off the rails. We are able to deliver those scripts electronically. So a better way to deliver that script into a retail pharmacy. Once the prescription reaches the pharmacy management system within the retail pharmacy, what communication if changes are requested or maybe someone's catched something, one of our pharmacists during P2 picks up on an issue, talk to me about the communications at that

16:38point. Yeah, so really the one of the value ads of the FDB Viva solution is that it's seamless for a pharmacist. A pharmacist won't have any determining identifier as to whether or not a script came over the existing network that they have been accustomed receiving it for the past 20 plus years or from FDB Viva. The workflow doesn't change. So that's really important that the pharmacists continue the same workflow that they always have. They're not selecting the network as to how it comes in and they don't need to select the network as it goes out from an NCPDP compliant transaction such as RX change or cancel that they would start. If it came through on the Viva network, they would simply just click the button and it would automatically go through the Viva network back to the provider to have that communication

17:38if there was anything to be changed about the drug or if there was a therapeutic alternative or if they had questions about a PA, all that happens and the pharmacist is still doing the exact same things and still sees the exact same screens because we're truly just a network of request and response. All right, so what about here being here in Boston, how has TotalStorexpo been going for you in First Data Bank? I just, it's now, what, 315 and I've just come out of that meeting room. It's been fantastic. We love coming to TSE. It's just all the right people, all the right folks that talk to, or the stakeholders that are in this e-prescribing world. And we're just fortunate to be here and have all these great meetings and all these great partnerships. Pharmacy Podcast Network is very grateful to First Data Bank. We're going to be doing some additional work and coverage with you at the NASP in DC this year and focusing on specialty.

18:39So thank you for being our sponsor here for the TotalStorexpo. We appreciate you. Appreciate you too. We'll see you there. Hi, this is Justin Hammerling with Infinite Track in your listening to the Pharmacy Podcast. Justin, with Infinite Track here at TotalStorexpo, thanks for spending time with me. Oh, absolutely. Thanks for the time. Appreciate it. Bring us up to date. Stop and start. Stop and start with DSCSA. You don't know if I'm up. I don't know if I'm down. Infinite Track has been tracking this for years. And the technology that you developed is something that every pharmacy in the country should be invested in understanding how it's going to impact their operations. So give us an overview. Yeah, absolutely. It's an extension for the small business exemption for the FDA. 25 pharmacists or pharmtex and or pharmtex or less, those size pharmacies have an FDA

19:42exemption until next November. Here's the tricky part about all of us that your listeners really need to know is the federal law itself never changed. It actually went into effect November 27, 2024. So it's like the local cops letting you speed through town for another year. You can do it, but if something happens, you get in a car accident, your insurance isn't going to cover you for speeding and having an accident. So this is where it's important for these small pharmacies and even the chains that are have a solution and are looking at something else to be compliant with our solution because we have the industry leading integrations. We've got pioneer, we've got Liberty software, we've got Primarx, now we've got Icon as a double check on the pill count in space. So there's really no excuse anymore. The FDA delayed it to get the small independent pharmacies time to be compliant and now is really the business imperative to do it. All right, talk to us about how it actually works, how Infinitrack integrates with my

20:47PMS system. Yeah, so it's all through something called an API, an application program interface. So that API is what our biggest stitching factor from the technology standpoint is, is because we can integrate into all these software systems because our technology is so simple and easy to use. And then we've carried that through the API layer. So home-brew solutions for the larger chains that have their own internal system, we can API into those. We've got APIs into the PMS system, so you don't have to leave the system that you're in, your current work flows are in to be DSTSA compliant in, or you can do it right through the interface. That's nice to subscribe to something and then I'll have to worry about it and then talk to me about auditing and talk to me about checks. For example, if I am audited as a pharmacy, a chain pharmacy, for example, talk to me about what happens and how Infinitrack kind of gives me some assurance. Yeah, absolutely. So we know there's going to be three types of audits that are going to be happening.

21:49Two of our already started by PMS groups. So one's a date range audit. They were given, some of our clients were given a range of a month to produce all the track-traced data for all NDCs that they received. The second is a NDC-specific audit. So they were asked to provide their track-traced data for all 13 NDCs that they were given, obviously, the higher cost ones. From back to the beginning of the long 2024, so this is happening. And then we know the third one, they're going to be bottle audits by the FDA and state boards of pharmacy where they're actually going to pull bottles off your shelf and show me the compliance data for this particular bottle. And Infinitrack takes care of all of that. We have full-time audit support. So when you are audited, you've got that assurance that someone that knows the technology will walk you through getting your data and be able to present it to the auditor when it's requested. Listeners, if you are tuned in to the NACDS Total Store Expo, rewind here on the pharmacy

22:52podcast network, I want you to take a look. Go to Infinitrack.us. Once again, that's INFINITRAC-T-R-A-K dot US. Or reach out to Justin Hammerling on LinkedIn. And thank you so much for spending time with us here at the Total Expo 2026 in Boston. All right. Thank you very much. Thanks to everyone listening. Hey, this is Matt Gilbert, Chief Revenue Officer for MedSense Health, and you're listening to the pharmacy podcast network. Matt, welcome to the NACDS Total Store Expo 2026 Press coverage. It's great to see you. Great to see you, Todd. There's always 30 dates I think we have on the road with each other each year, so it's always good to spend a little quality time with you. Yes. The whole vibe here at Total Store Expo is profitability, expanding out your front end,

23:53merchandising, having the right products in your pharmacy to engage your community. A part of this that's really a behind-the-scenes solution that only people in pharmacy really understand is the opportunity that our small and regional chains have to grow out their long-term care pharmacy at home business and using their pharmacies as the platforms to educate people that are coming in. They might be talking about their mother or their father or someone senior that is going through a lot of difficulties getting to the pharmacy themselves. MedSense has been a catalyst in helping our independent community pharmacies employ in blueprint out the difference between community and long-term care pharmacy at home. So talk to me about the chain environment and what MedSense has been doing. Yeah. Well, we've had great reception here. It'll be 50 plus meetings by the time we wrap up today in three days, which I am tired.

24:55You could probably hear it in my voice. My dad always said I had a face for radio. I don't know if my voice is too sharp for radio too. But yeah, it's really MedSense offers clinical services who are going to markets pairing with pharmacies, no matter independent chain. The model stays the same. We're letting pharmacies practice at the top of their license. They're helping their patients be healthier through hypertension and adherence programs. And they're making some revenue on the back end of that, all with no cat-becks or any upfront or ongoing cost from us. So to go to a chain and say, hey, I need one pharmacist resource, no cat-becks, and we can have you running in seven days, that's pretty huge. And we've had 300 store chains that we're moving forward with out of here. And then we're talking to five or six others that are pretty serious about moving forward in the next few months. So to go from no traction, call it a year or two ago, and MedSense was first kind of bubbling to the surface to now going through and meeting with these folks three, four, five times. They've come around to see that, hey, we mean what we say.

25:57We've onboarded over 600 stores already throughout the country, license and contract at an all 50 states and bringing a real revenue to the bottom line of these chains. So when I think of the environment and the knowledge that the communities and that the patients and people have, the public understands Uber driving and Lyft and they know about delivery, they get it. So when I think of, I'm going to use Giant Eagle and Pittsburgh as an example. So Giant Eagle has, I don't know, 200, 300, 400 stores, they just got bought up by Kroger and they have a pharmacy division. Imagine we tie in that advantage card, we know what people are buying, we know food as medicine, there's kind of leverage there. We get a clinical pharmacist involved in digging down into hypertension or delivering something. We can deliver groceries, durable medical equipment, medications, being able to do remote patient monitoring.

26:58Like there is an evolution in pharmacy driven by pharmacy as the hub of healthcare to really do so much more in collaboration with some of the models that the chain stores, aka these grocery store chains, have really have this amazing infrastructure. Yeah, well, you talk about a typical pharmacy, even a mom and pop independent. They're seeing a patient 12 to 14 times a year on average. So a grocery store seeing them once a week, they're going in, they're shopping, they're popping into the pharmacy. So to have that pre-built in relationship with the patient, a lot of these, especially these grocery store chains, they have that on a regular basis already. So now let's take care of the patient, make them a little more healthier in the home, keep them living at home longer. There aren't enough assisted living skilled beds out in the country to take care of all these people as we teach aging that baby boomer population. So these types of tools are needed. It's not an option. It's something that's needed to make sure we're keeping people healthy. Matt, 20, 20, 30, 20, 31, 32 is going to be the height of our baby boomers in population.

28:06And that means a lot more people are going to need services brought to their home side, especially if they're able to get out of their home, just as even an option. Next to us about some of the planning that MedSense is doing to assure that people in organizations that are reaching out and asking, what's next, what step should we be taking? What do you guys say to that? Yeah, I mean, we've got two core programs right now, an adherence program and a hypertension program. We're rolling out constant new programs. So we've got a weight loss GLP1 program coming out with a digital scale later this year, an asthma program, a diabetes program. We just rolled out on our adherence program a kind of a device that will monitor in the home patient's blister cards, which were first to mark an arm fully designed, built all by our own US resources. So you take whatever type of card that card stock the patient's using, drop it in our device and we're monitoring them when they're punching out the bubbles.

29:07And that's a billable service through Medicare. So we kind of think of ourselves as that last mile, right? You're looking at a patient and you might med sync them, okay? That's great. You might put them in blister cards. Well, I used to have 250 patients at my store in blister cards and I would call the patient for a med rep call and a med sync call and they'd have a week of cards left when we were two days before the building. So it's that last mile, a short of putting a camera on them and making sure the pill goes down their throat, but we're making sure they puncture that pocket. So we're listening to market reception feedback and we're designing products and programs that people want and need. All right. A shout out to our operators out there in our microchains and our regional chains. Reach out to MedSense. Reach out to Matt Gilbert. Give us a place and a way to get a hold of you Matt. Yeah. So on my email, mgilbertatmedsense.health. Can check us out at MedSense.health. We'll also be at the Missouri Pharmacy Association Show Thursday and Friday this week.

30:08We're doing an hour CE there on RTM and RPM and then follow up later this year. We'll be at the Juryman Show. We'll be at NCPA. We'll be at ECRM Pharmacy Technology. So like I said, 30 trade shows a year and we're out every month. The cheques keep clearing with my wife. So she's okay with it. Like it. All right, Matt. Thanks so much for being part of the NAACDS TotalS Directs Boat 2026. Thanks so much Todd. You're advocacy as always. What's going on? This is Anthony Dragasas. I'm a co-founder of a company called Elos Thermal and you're listening to the Pharmacy Podcast Network. Anthony, welcome to the TotalStore Expo 2026 here in Boston. It's great to connect with you. It's great to see you as well. All right. So we're talking pharmacy, chain pharmacy, regional chain. We even know of microchain where we have the independence starting to bring together their three and another six and another 18 and really starting to grow the space.

31:09The important thing is to constantly have products that you can put in pharmacies that now are coupled with healthcare services. Talk to our listeners about your product. I found it really interesting. Right. And you hit the nail on the head there, Todd. We've been here at all week at all the panels that we've gone to, the front end of an assortment at any pharmacy, especially independent pharmacies, is becoming increasingly more important. And a product like ours where we truly bring innovation to a space that in our opinion, I think, to the public side as well has been underutilized on the innovation side. And so with Elos, the problem that we've been trying to solve in the foot care category, being a heated insult is how do we best service the customer? And the core value proposition of this category, which is comfort, right? In five to six months out of the year, in cold states and in Canada and anywhere else. You're not getting that comfort, right? You can buy that top end insult, a highly custom insult.

32:11But if your feet are cold, it doesn't really do much for you. And so that's the problem that we're trying to solve at Elos. And we're really excited. This is our first time exhibiting at TSE and our new partnership with New Fabrics is essentially allowing us to really meet the right people, get the distribution in place for this category and then test the right way. Historically being a sporting goods, solely sporting goods product. That jump is obviously complex and a little bit different. But with new fabrics and their current brokers and distribution in place, it should make it a lot smoother for us. I'm going to give a shout out to the Sports Pharmacy Network. And I'm going to get you in touch with Dr. Brandon Welsh down in Miami who helped to start the organization because there are pharmacists out there who are dealing with athletes, professional and amateur, where there is cold involved in what they're doing, jogging, long distance skiing, cross country, like whatever it is.

33:13This product would really make sense to kind of couple it with some of the things that they're focused on. Right. You have to know on the head. The versatility of it is where we shine. And you talk to it, you go around the show, you show everyone the product, make them feel to heat and you get a different reaction from everyone on how they could use it. Where they would use it for. Oh, my grandma. Oh, my kids. Oh, on the ski slopes. Oh, on what I'm training for my next marathon, right. I think the versatility of it is why we exist and why the pharmacy network is a perfect location for us for sure. All right. So let's talk about other applications because my wife's a nurse, she's on her feet all the time. She doesn't sit down hardly at all. Then our own pharmacists who are working 8, 10, 12 hour days, they're on their feet all day. How does heat kind of play into comfort where it's not necessarily about temperature, but it's more about comfort, right? And that's, you know, that's a really great point to add. I think when you address the problem, it starts with circulation, right?

34:16And that's, you know, ultimately a lot of people, especially as you age, circulation becomes a major issue in the, you know, hands and toes. And so for the everyday person, you know, that's a core problem that is really, as I mentioned earlier, under-addressed with current product offerings. And so for us, you know, as we kind of look at, you know, our current offering, our hero product being, you know, just the standard ELO-seated insulin, as we kind of look forward, there's real opportunity for us and what we're dedicated to do is, you know, launch medical lines and really address these problems more holistically. But even right now, with our current product line, the temperature, you know, the temperature regulation that you get from the insul, that allows you, you know, that obviously services that need a more circulation, right? So anytime, you know, even though we don't have it on the box yet, just yet. But, you know, our customers are already using it for that purpose and, you know, we're trying to really make a stronghold on that space, too. All right, shout out to IPC Independent Pharmacy Cooperative, shout out to APCI and other buying group. There's these buying groups that are always looking for new solutions to be able to build

35:17programs around, to be able to deliver these interesting products to their community, because sometimes the community doesn't even know this stuff's available. So ELO, it's good to have you here excited that your first total store expo, if you ever want some insights where to find the pharmacist, we absolutely know our next show that's going to be very intensive to supporting the future of independently owned, privately owned pharmacies, what we call the NCPA, the National Community Pharmacist Association in Kansas City. That'll be October, nice conference, even if you guys go to walk around and meet some people. Awesome. But appreciate you being on the rewind show. Yeah. No, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. If you'd like to learn more about ELO's, check out our website, ELOSTermal.com, or on Amazon. ELOSTermal.com. Thanks, man. Thanks. Hi, this is Richard Vosk, born and grew up from Walter's Clure. He lives into the pharmacy podcast.

36:18Richard here with me at the NA CDS Total Store Expo, 2024 in Boston. Thank you so much for being part of the show. Thank you for your time. For your shirt. Walter's Clure, I remember them way, way, way back in my day in the usage of MedEspan, pulling up all of the clinical information on medications for pharmacists to be able to make clinical decisions, drug, drug interactions, drug allergy. Things have really accelerated. There's more products and services that are coming from Walter's Clure when we're in a chain environment, really concentrating on profitability, running operations better. Talk to us, what's your focus on here at NA CDS? Yeah. Absolutely. I'll start off by giving the background on Walter's Clure. We've been empowering professionals to give them the tools they need to succeed for almost 200 years, and within that, the health division focuses on all types of innovations, technology,

37:22for clinical decision support, but even across the entire containment healthcare. One of the product lines, if your point is, is MedEspan. We've been in the business for over 50 years with the drug intelligence, clinical decision support, and powering innovation. And today, we expand our portfolio into veterinary care. All right. So, when I think of our pharmacy operators, people trying to build their business. There isn't any insurance involved in that line. There's cash-based opportunities. Plus, people love their pets. I have three corgis. I absolutely adore my pets. Treat them like my little furry kids. So, talk to me about that opportunity for our microchains and regional chains to really capitalize on building their vet support business. Yeah. Absolutely. It is a cash business, high margins, a definitely a growth opportunity. The veterinary prescription business continues to grow at high gagers.

38:25FZBS just had a press release that they're providing the pet prescriptions to the entire family and nationwide they've rolled out. So, you can imagine from a consumer ecosystem that we are all going to be looking to match that all the micro as well as the regional chains. Consumers are going to be expected that our pharmacies in our neighborhoods will be able to fulfill these prescriptions just like we get at the usually other veterinary clinics having said that there's also laws being passed, for example, in Florida that require veterinarians to inform that there's a choice to fill your prescriptions. You don't have to fill your prescriptions at the veterinary clinic. You can get your prescriptions filled at the pharmacy of your choice so you can have yours, your child's and your pet child's prescription filled all in one place. We've recently put out a survey to nationwide and nine out of ten customers actually prefer

39:31they would like to have their prescriptions filled at their neighborhood pharmacy and nine out of ten would require that their pharmacists have access to veterinary specific resources. So talk to us about your gathering, that information, the manufacturer, resources, the partnerships that you've created with those manufacturers. How are you pulling that information into a database that then can be pushed through the pharmacy management software? Yeah, so we've gathered, building upon the foundation for medicine, we've incorporated animal products as well as human medications that we've already, that we have and we've already delivered in our current form because human medications are dispensed of the majority of the time in our pharmacies. So we're incorporating that, embedding that into workflow such that our pharmacy operators are able to confidently and safely responsible dispense those medications just like they do

40:37with our human medications. And that includes species specific dosing, interaction checks, allergy checks in any contraindications. Today one of the veterinary prescriptions received by the pharmacy, either they get an alert that says, I don't know what this prescription is or they get an alert that's not relevant or example. This dose is too high for a six-year-old child but in fact it's a six-year-old hundred-pound dog. Or worse, they get an alert at all and it could be a dangerous combination or dangerous product to dispense. So what we've brought to the market is a vet-med screening solution to help install those guardrails so pharmacists can't appropriate dispense to those pets without disrupting the workflow. Very good. I want to expand upon this. Maybe we'll have someone new on your team talking with some of our pharmacy operator and

41:41owners who can make examples of how they've used the information to not only keep the pets safe but also the education to the pet owner and really explaining if there's special circumstances how to follow up with topicals or giving medication. But this is a huge opportunity for our community pharmacies to capitalize on this and build more business through the community pharmacies like you were saying for our pets. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for being part of the show. Thanks, Todd. Appreciate it. Hi, this is Chris Cress with NACDS and you're listening to the pharmacy podcast. Cress Total Store Expo 2026 in Boston is so good to see you. So good to see you, Todd. We've done this a few years now together and this is fantastic. This is our six year. The NACDS, your communications division has been so good to us giving us a press pass,

42:42realing, realizing how popular podcasting has become. Where the OG we released the very first podcast in pharmacy in 2009. We now have 85,000 listeners and we know that the chain store environment is so important, especially for communities who have suffered the loss of their pharmacies, have closed down with some of the right aids, independent community pharmacies are now becoming microchains that are actually growing. This has been an amazing conference and experience, Chris. Give us a little bit of an overview of the success of this year's Total Store Expo. Well, based on what you just said, Todd, I just need to thank you first. I mean, we always say that NACDS is a force multiplier. That's what we do. Whether we're advocating on behalf of the industry to address some of the things that you just talked about or whether we're bringing folks together at an event like Total Store Expo, we are the force multiplier, but in order to be the force multiplier, you need to motivate that force and that's what you do. I think it's a tremendous service to the profession, to the industry, that you are bringing

43:44these issues directly to the people who can make a difference. So thank you for all you do. This has been a fantastic gathering. The energy is strong. Clearly, there are challenges, right? And there are opportunities. And that's what this is all about. We often talk about the programming of NACDS and what we do throughout the year, but you just can't underestimate the power of bringing people together to meet the challenges, to address the opportunities. And that's what's happening here with every single meeting that takes place at, meet the market, or whether you're in here in the exhibit hall and just seeing all these people getting together in these meetings. And you just know that every one of those 10 minute blocks, 30 minute blocks, that is going to be a force multiplier in the lives of those companies and those individuals, and that's the people they serve and the communities that they bring services to. So it's just invaluable to what this profession and what this industry is all about.

44:44We've seen how do we strengthen the front end of our stores, how do we strengthen the profitability of our microchains and regional chains. It's been so important. So talk to us about things that you've seen and you wanted to highlight today here at TSE. I'll tell you what in our business program on Sunday, I thought that our chair, Dave Warner with KPH Healthcare Services and NACDS President and CEO Steve Anderson, they did a fantastic job of laying out the strategic framework that really is going to help guide NACDS moving forward. And the board has done tremendous work in identifying those opportunities, identifying those challenges, and really mapping out the ways that NACDS can help transform the industry and can continue to drive that value to chain members and associate members and all of their teams. And that really is going to be the priority now is executing on that strategic framework, putting a little more meat on the bones, continuing to listen to the membership.

45:45Is this entire framework was built on listening to the members, like everything that NACDS does that's successful? So we're going to continue to do that and we're going to drive that strategic framework into the future. It's a very exciting time. All right, so give us some numbers of how we did this year at Total Store Expo because it was crowded over the last two days and the exhibit hall has been pumping. This is our second day and it's still busy. Well, you know, anytime you're bringing together nearly 4,000 people from 800 companies and when you have the power of the pharmacies and of the suppliers, the suppliers are so, so critical to everything that's going on. You're talking about suppliers of products and services and technology and just all the insights that they bring. So you have the retailers and you have the suppliers here doing business and that matters. But when you think about just those ideas that are firing with, as I say, with every 10 minute block of meetings or 30 minute blocks of meetings, those insights that are firing

46:48are going to ignite something into the future and you just know that that's happening throughout this exhibit hall. And here we are, Todd, the last day of the event, nearing the closing bell, if you will. And this place is still energetic and the meetings are still happening. The exhibit hall is still buzzing and that really is symbolic. I think of the energy of this industry, the energy of this event and of NACDS. Yeah, the going into 2027, knowing how seniors are going to be reaching the pinnacle of the demographic in 2030 with baby boomers reaching that top, it's going to be a cry to the end, it's going to be a cry to the community pharmacies into the chain pharmacies to back up other healthcare services that are needed. We're seeing testing happening. We're seeing pharmacies more engaged in disease state management. It's so good to see suppliers here not only supplying their products and services, but it's the mind share, it's the insights that's infusing, like what's the next thing we're

47:49going to do to stay profitable in pharmacy. Todd, I'm glad you brought that up, specifically the seniors. This is I think a great opportunity to talk just a little bit about how the NACDS total store expo and the advocacy agenda of NACDS really do align. Right now, NACDS and many others are advocating for an incredibly important piece of legislation in the U.S. Congress. It's the Main Street Pharmacy Access Act. This is all about seniors. It's almost unthinkable that while many states have taken action to allow pharmacists to provide more and more services to their customers, to their communities, that seniors, because of shortcoming in public policy, seniors in Medicare are not able to participate in many of those services. Well, this legislation would fix that. You talk about how pharmacists, pharmacies are constantly ranked as the most accessible healthcare destinations.

48:49Certainly among the most trusted. We've been polling on these issues for about 20 years. Well, pharmacies and pharmacists are so highly regarded by the American people, by the American voter. You pretty much have to add 10 percentage points to all of those positive stats when you're looking at how seniors perceive the pharmacists and the pharmacies. They need these services. They want to get them from their trusted pharmacy. It really has to happen. We're closer than ever. In May, the Key House Committee passed the legislation for the first time. Now we have to get it over to the finish line. Chris, I love how NACDS holds the hands of other associations, your partnership with NCPA, your partnership with the ASCP, posting on our consultant pharmacists, the APC focused on compounding. NACDS has always done an amazing job of being collaborative. So I'm very much appreciating that. Todd, I think what you just said doesn't need to be underscored because collaboration and

49:53speaking with one voice is simply not a nice to have when it comes to public policy success. It's a must have. I can't tell you how many members of Congress have said if you had not been aligned for the entire pharmacy community, if you had not been aligned on PBM reform, pharmacy benefit manager reform, those reforms would not have been enacted in February of 2020. That certainly was a long time effort. You know that as well as anybody. We've talked about it for quite some time. It wouldn't have happened if the independence, the chains, people throughout the profession, if they hadn't been aligned on what reform means and just how important it is for the future of all Americans and their pharmacy. So that's what got it done. We need to stay united. I love it. All right. NACDS, Total Story Expo 2027. Tell us what we're going to be. We are going to be in this beautiful San Diego. Boston sets up fantastically for this meeting.

50:54San Diego does as well and it has really become a powerful duo for this industry and for this association. We can't wait to be in San Diego. We look forward to welcoming everybody back. We can't wait to hear how everybody's built on the progress of the 2026. It's a total story. So we're looking forward to rolling right from this into the new year, the regional chain conference, the annual meeting and then right into 2027 Total Story Expo in San Diego. We'll be there. East Coast, West Coast will definitely be there, Chris. Thank you so much for being on the rewind show covering the Total Story Expo. Todd, thanks for all you do. You're pivotal to this profession, to this industry and to NACDS. We really appreciate you. Thank you.