Kevin Minassian, President, Datascan

For ComputerTalk’s November/December 2020 cover story, The New Vision: The Next Big Thing, we asked a range of pharmacy experts to share their thoughts on what innovative pharmacies, technology vendors, and pharmacy organizations see as the biggest and best moves for 2020.

Kevin Minassian, president of Datascan, a pharmacy software developer located in Bohemia, N.Y., finds that pharmacists are underutilizing areas of the software that can benefit them.

He says, “Independent pharmacy owners need to harness the technology already built into their existing systems and put it to work.”

Minassian finds that the large majority of independent owners tell him they don’t have the time, or they are afraid to automate certain processes. “This leaves them overstaffed and with declining reimbursement; this is something they cannot afford to do,” he says.

“I do not feel that pharmacists are taking advantage of the functionality we offer that can improve their profit margins,” says Minassian. Specifically, he points to the underutilization of the adherence dashboard in the system to build medication adherence and star ratings, and of course increase revenue from higher refills. The dashboard can also be used to organize requests sent to doctors that require follow-up, and is a timesaver. Another feature that he finds lacking use is a profit optimizer to help choose an equivalent lower-cost drug to dispense. “We are giving pharmacists the tools to help improve their margins, and it is frustrating to see the lack of uptake,” he says.

Minassian suggests that pharmacists dig into their software to find out how they can put the technology they have to better use. CT