SHOW / EPISODE

S2E3: Andy Burstein - Medication You Can See

30m | Aug 25, 2022

In this episode, Marcela Salmon speaks with Andy Burstein, founder of Accessible Pharmacy Services for the Blind, a home delivery pharmacy and health care company. Marcela expresses how excited she is to learn more about how Andy got started with the company, which is the largest, blind-owned healthcare company in the world, and the only provider of its kind.

Andy explains how his business model merges accessibility and health care, and works with individuals on a personal basis providing personalized medication. By working with the individual, identifying specific challenges the company can then assemble a collection of solutions that empower individuals to lead more independent, and ultimately, healthier lives.

Andy shares that he idea of the company started five years ago. At the time, Andy was running a healthcare marketing firm and he wanted to educate his clients on how to be more accessible and how to experience patient growth. Andy explains that he met another cofounder of Accessible Pharmacy, Alex, because their sons both played Little League baseball together. Alex, who is blind due to Retinites Pigmentosa, had earned a PhD; his dissertation focused on accessibility in the American retail space.

Marcela asks how Andy became interested in accessibility to which Andy replies that he has been very aware of the “DEI space.” And that, as a consumer, parent, and member of society, he always tries to be inclusive, especially in the healthcare field. It was important for Andy to be able to answer questions to his clients and staff about ways to be more inclusive.

Alex learned about the Americans with Disabilities Act, and about online accessibility and the inability of individuals to gain access to websites and information. He learned how blindness intersects with online accessibility. Andy explains that for individuals with low vision, screen readers are used to read the content of websites out loud, but not all websites are compatible with the screen readers.

Andy continues, saying that if someone can’t access a website, no matter the tools available to them, what would happen if someone couldn’t read their medication? He then discusses how critical it is for people to be able to read the expiration dates and labeling on prescriptions. They also might not be able to understand the drug interactions or the time of the day, or how many refills are left and so on. While Andy discusses the layers upon layers of challenges, his company is learning every day how they can empower the individual to understand and manage their medication and do it in a way that reduces stress, time, and helps them live healthier lives.

Andy says that then, he and Alex asked themselves the question, what would it be like if they created a pharmacy experience that was tailored towards individuals who are blind? After getting feedback on their business plan from many blind organizations, such as The National Federation for the Blind, the American Council for the Blind, the AFP, the ACB, The Foundation for Fighting Blindness, they realized there was indeed a real need for this in the marketplace. After a few months researching and learning the pharmacy industry they started to look for a partner who could help them realize the opportunity in the healthcare space, which led to their third business partner, Dr. Jason Becker.

Jason had an existing business model, where he spent the first 25 years of his career focusing on patients with intellectual and cognitive disabilities, who more often than not lived in group homes. He helped his two partners, Andy and Alex, realize they need to focus on the individual. They realized the key was to have a conversation with a patient first. They need to learn as much as possible about them because they have a collection of high tech, low tech and different audio label solutions that can be provided. Once they get the information, the company will reach out to the prescribers to get feedback and then they contact the insurance company to confirm eligibility.

Andy stresses how they also offer a concierge capacity, making the phone calls to the doctors or existing pharmacists on behalf of the patient. They will also be the main contact for the insurance company to confirm eligibility. For patients who are deaf blind, they have those conversations via text, and email.

Their company mission is to eliminate barriers to communication and accessibility. So, they provide free home delivery, all the support and education for free as they make their money by being reimbursed by insurance companies to the patient.

Marcela thanks Andy who then informs the listeners where to get more information.

What We Discuss in this Episode

01:58

…Accessible Pharmacy Services for the blind. We're a home delivery pharmacy and health care company. And we focus on supporting patients who are blind, deaf blind, and have low vision. We're the only provider of its kind. We're the largest blind owned healthcare company in the country.

02:49

…Our whole model is about merging accessibility and health care and working with individuals on a personal basis. Personalized medication, identifying the individual, identifying what challenges they may already have with their existing medication with their diabetes, how they're currently managing it, and assembling a collection of solutions that empower them to live more independently, manage their own medication, manage their own diabetes, and ultimately live healthier lifestyles.

03:37

… Our goal was to reach back out to our clients and educate them on how they can be more accessible, to be able to expand their offering and their messages to their existing patients, and also to experience patient growth. I decided to reach out to friends and family and people I knew who either had familiarity with the disability world or had a disability themselves, who could give me insight into their experience.

07:45

…As a business person who was working in the healthcare field, it was important for me to be able to answer questions to my clients, and to my staff, about how we can be more inclusive.

…So learning about the Americans with Disabilities Act, learning about online accessibility and the inability of individuals to gain access to websites and information, and learning about blindness in particular, and how it intersects with online accessibility.

Individuals who are blind, the way that they use the internet is that they use an Assistive Technology called a screen reader…But for the most part, the screen reader is essentially a software that accesses websites and essentially reads the website out loud to the consumer.

…One of the challenges that exists is that not all websites are compatible with screen readers. Through a combination of awareness through lawsuits, through the knowledge and growth of the industry, people are learning more and more about online accessibility. Individuals with low vision may use magnification, may use oversized monitors, may sit closer to the screen, and there are a lot of solutions to gain access to online accessibility.

…Our goal as I mentioned, as a consumer, is to learn more about accessibility, but also to be able to create solutions for our clients in the healthcare space.

10:27

…If a website’s not accessible, it doesn't make a difference what type of assistive or adaptive technology an individual has, or their desire to gain access to that information. They just can't access it. Now imagine taking that concept of a website and imagine applying that to medication. Someone has a pill bottle, and they don't know what the pill bottle is. They can't read the instructions. They don't know what the expiration date is. They don't know what the warnings are… The good news is we're learning more every day about how we can empower that individual to understand and manage their medication and do it in a way that reduces stress, reduces time, and helps them live healthier lives.

12:05

…We have a dynamic in our company. It’s a living ecosystem. And every time we solve a challenge for a patient, because of their unique set of circumstances, we then learn that we can now say okay, here's a collection of solutions that we can apply to a similar individual with similar circumstances.

…What would it be like if we created from the ground up a pharmacy experience that was tailored towards individuals who are blind?

… No one was really providing an A to Z solution focused on identifying all the different challenges that may exist in medication matters. It validated for us that there's a need for this in the marketplace.

18:22

…We need to understand the individual. What is this person's cognitive issue? What's their intellectual issue? Is it deteriorating? Is there a caregiver in their home? Or, are they living in a facility? Are they a caregiver for someone else? Are they also a caregiver for a spouse? What's their level of sight?...How are they currently managing their medications?...A combination of those things can create unnecessary and unintended side effects that range from something problematic where a person is experiencing a side effect, or sometimes a combination of those things can impact the body's ability to absorb those medications and process those medications. Ultimately, they're not getting the benefit from those medications.

…We also work in a concierge capacity. So we're the ones who will make the phone calls to the doctors and will make a phone call to the existing pharmacist to get feedback on behalf of the patient. We will call the insurance company to confirm eligibility and confirm that the copays are staying the same. That conversation more often than not happens on the telephone. For patients of ours who are deaf blind, we also have those conversations via text, and email.

23:56

…One of the questions we ask the individual when we have that initial conversation is what's the best way to communicate. It's all about identifying how they want to communicate, as opposed to saying you have to go to our website, you have to go to our store, you have to call us. Our whole thing is let's eliminate any barriers to communication and accessibility. We don't charge anything for our services. There's no fee. We provide free home delivery, all the support and education we do is free. We provide a whole collection of accessible packaging and accessible labeling, We make our money by being reimbursed by insurance companies to the patient.

25:52

…We want to package and label everything so that everyone in the household can understand what's behind the medicine cabinet.

… We have individuals on staff who have macular degeneration, who have retinitis pigmentosa, who have diabetic retinopathy. It gives us credibility to be able to speak to a patient. It also gives us knowledge.

…There's an enormous amount of people with macular degeneration who would benefit from our services. And a lot of groups, specifically healthcare groups and organizations know that if they have a patient who was diagnosed with macular degeneration, who is struggling, they refer them to us.

Recommended Resources

* Note: All listed transcript timings and wording are approximations.

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