1 Million Prescription Text Alerts Using Walgreens Prescription App

I really love when people say that mobile healthcare is never going to happen. Of course, many people really don’t mean what they’re saying. What they’re really trying to say is that there’s not a full industry for just mobile healthcare apps. Instead, they argue that mobile will play a role in healthcare, but it will likely come from existing healthcare industry players.

I think this news coming out of Walgreens is an example of that. Last week, we got word that 4 months after its launch, the Walgreens prescription refill by scan has over 1 million subscribers to the prescription text alert service.

I saw this application at the CES conference (or maybe it was from one of Walgreen’s competitors). Sweet and simple. Just like consumers want in their apps. Props to Walgreens for launching their Refill by Scan application on both the iPhone and Android app marketplaces.

Here’s a quote from Walgreen’s President of e-Commerce, Sona Chawla:

“Our customers have enthusiastically adopted our mobile applications and we’re continuing to bring innovative technology to our online and mobile platforms to enhance the customer experience,” Sona Chawla, Walgreens President of E-commerce, stated in the company release. “With refill by scan, prescription text alerts, unique photo features and the ability to shop or browse products all available on a mobile device, we’re adding new levels of choice, control and convenience for our rapidly-growing numbers of mobile customers.”

I’m still interested to see how all of these mobile health applications evolve. Are we going to end up having 20-30 apps on our smart phones? Or is there going to be a few apps that take over and do most of the heavy lifting for mobile healthcare? Either way, I can tell were at the very beginning of what will be an exciting change for smart phones in health care.