Case Study — StrandRx (Creative Pharmacist)
How did a small web app aimed at providing patient-engagement resources for independent pharmacies become the industry's first cloud-based, electronic health record (EHR) servicing the largest pharmacies in the country?
2012 — Healthy Heart Club
The Creative Pharmacist story begins back in 2008 with co-founders David Pope & Dan Lawson providing a service that helped independent pharmacies pro-actively engage with their patients. This included marketing resources, and education materials. In 2012 I partnered with them to do maintenance work on Healthy Heart Club, their existing patient management tool.
2014 — StrandRx
In 2014 I was tasked with revamping the Creative Pharmacist patient portal to create a new generalized application that would include other programs similar to Healthy Heart Club. This rebuild would also provide an opportunity to improve the platform's scalability and maintainability. Initially called Spark, this would be the first version of what later became StrandRx.
This version of StrandRx allowed pharmacists to manage their patients including meds, labs, health goals and more. Patients could also login to review their data and provide check-in updates for their pharmacist.
2015 — StrandRx Mobile Apps
After a successful launch of the new patient portal, Creative Pharmacist hired me to build a new iOS and Android app that would drive patient engagement with the Strand-Rx platform. This included wireframes, design, implementation and provisioning of the new mobile apps on their respective app stores. The mobile apps would allow patients to find healthy recipes with the Meal Mixer tool, track their weight & exercise progress, and provide check-in updates for their pharmacist.
2016 — Apple TV & PMS Integrations
In late 2015 I began work on a tvOS app that was added to the StrandRx platform. This Apple TV service allowed pharmacies to educate in-store patients of the many services offered through StrandRx. I also implemented several integrations to make it easier for StrandRx to plug into a pharmacy's existing workflow. This included integrations with Pharmacy Management Systems such as PioneerRx, Rx30, CompRx, and more.
2017 — Clinical Documentation & eCare Plan
I officially joined the Creative Pharmacist team in 2017 to provide ongoing support and enhancements to the growing StrandRx platform. At the same time, the role of pharmacists in health care was evolving. New legislation allowed pharmacists to play a greater role in patient healthcare. StrandRx was positioned to capitalize on the need for an EHR built specifically for pharmacists. Exploratory work began on defining and implementing the industry's first eCare plan based on the HL7 FHIR standard.
2018 — Electronic Health Record (EHR)
Creative Pharmacist was rebranded to align the company name with its flagship clinical intervention platform, StrandRx. As the landscape of pharmacy evolved, it became clear that StrandRx would become a full-fledged EHR and clinical documentation application. This was a major shift & turning point which made clear the need to revisit the platform architecture to better suit this new direction. With a growing team of developers & engineers, we started work on redesigning the system architecture. Adopting a cloud-based, micro-service architecture would position the app to quickly scale and grow based on projected usage.
2019 — StrandRx Acquired by OmniSYS
The success of StrandRx's role as a clinical documentation service led to it's acquisition by OmniSYS, a leader in retail pharmacy. This accelerated the StrandRx growth, making it available to larger chains & pharmacies.
2020-2021 — COVID-19 & XiFin Acquisition
The COVID-19 pandemic led to even greater demand and adoption for StrandRx clinical documentation services. In late 2021, OmniSYS was acquired by XiFin, a leading provider of SaaS-based revenue cycle management (RCM) solutions.
The COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst for expanded pharmacist provider status at the national level, providing U.S. pharmacists the ability to prevent, test and treat the virus. This, coupled with the increasing consumerization of healthcare and strained provider networks, has cemented retail pharmacies' role as a centralized and convenient location for patients to receive primary and preventative care services such as diabetic counseling, vaccinations, and diagnostic testing. This transition from the traditional drug dispensing business model to the pharmacist as a provider of enhanced medical care requires technology solutions that facilitate communication between pharmacies, payors, laboratories and patients, including electronic medical benefit claims submissions, and improved clinical workflow and documentation.
– XIFIN PRESS RELEASE
This led to further growth & improvements of the StrandRx platform.
In 2021, OmniSYS made significant enhancements to Strand-Rx®, the industry's first pharmacy-specific electronic health record (EHR). Two new modules now help pharmacies provide and get reimbursed for select primary and preventative care services. Strand-Rx supported over 1.2 million pharmacist-provided clinical encounters last year.
– XIFIN NEWS
StrandRx in 2024
Throughout this entire journey I was considered the SME (subject matter expert) of the StrandRx platform. As a senior software engineer on the team, I led the implementation of many additional features and enhancements to the product. Details on the latest StrandRx offerings can be found here.
Today, StrandRx serves over 14,500 stores nationwide including four of the five largest pharmacy retailers in the country. The platform can easily handle an average of 220,000 requests per day. With pharmacies set to take on an even greater role in health care, StrandRx is poised to drive this progress moving forward.
Client Feedback
Peter has consistently been the most knowledgeable subject matter expert on our product from the onset. His deep understanding of the technology, coupled with his ability to understand the product team’s needs and expectations, positioned our company at the forefront of innovation. Whether it was developing new features, optimizing existing systems, or troubleshooting complex issues, Peter always delivered exceptional results and went above and beyond what was asked of him.
Dan Lawson
VP, Technical Product Manager - Xifin, Inc.
Creative Pharmacist Co-Founder
Peter is among the most talented developers I have encountered. His expertise spans numerous areas, and he has applied his skills to develop and support a complex, full-stack product that serves thousands of users daily. This product, built on Azure and comprising multiple interconnected microservices and databases, demands not only technical proficiency but also a deep understanding of both business and user needs ... His technical acumen, problem-solving abilities, and dedication make him an outstanding candidate for any team.
John Winkeler
Senior Engineering Manager - XiFin, Inc.
Peter is a key team member whose presence makes the Strand product possible. Peter is THE SME for the Strand product, knowing the historical background and all the nooks and crannies of the product.
Blaine Cavasso
VP, Software Engineering - XiFin, Inc.
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