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Lisa Kroon, PharmD, CDE, professor and department chairperson of clinical pharmacy at University of California, San Francisco, School of Pharmacy, talks about some ways smoking cessation can improve patient health and manage chronic conditions.

CVS Health Corp said..its decision to stop selling tobacco products last year led to a 1 percent decrease in cigarette sales...The September 2014 decision hurt sales, with general merchandise revenue at CVS pharmacies open at least a year falling 7.8 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier,.., CVS said it benefited in others ways…nicotine patch purchases rose 4 percent…visits to its retail clinics for smoking cessation counseling nearly doubled.

Kristene Diggins, MBA, manager of professional practice at MinuteClinic, discusses what pharmacists should know about clinical inertia, and its effects on diabetes. (video)

CVS Health has transformed its business model in recent years to give itself a more healthy image. Consumers can no longer buy tobacco products in its stores, and now, they can get health care services at the Minute Clinics　in 860 of its locations. Investors have liked this strategy, and the stock has been on a momentum run-up since October 2011, including a 16.8% gain so far in 2015.

Hy-Vee announced…that it would be placing retail clinics in two new Twin Cities-area stores opening in September…in the New Hope and Oakdale stores, Hy-Vee has teamed with North Memorial Health Care, whose physician assistants and nurses will staff the North Memorial Express Clinics…customers will not only have access to our in-store dietitians and pharmacists, but now they will be able to seek health, wellness and preventive care services all in one stop,..

CVS opened its first local Minute Clinic in 2007 in its pharmacy on the Strip near the Monte Carlo. To date, it has 11 Minute Clinics throughout Nevada, eight in Las Vegas and three in the Reno/Sparks area. All clinics are open seven days a week with weekend and early evening hours available...Walgreens has 13 clinics in the Las Vegas area, none in Northern Nevada. And like CVS, its clinics are open seven days a week with similar hours of operation. From 50 clinics in 2007, the pharmacy has grown that number to 400 nationally.

..more and more, health care providers are teaming up with drugstores to provide care via in-store health clinics…trend based around convenience..shifts to focus more ..on the consumer, adapting means providing more services,..same-day access to a doctor, allowing people to interact with the health care system easily, and providing transparency...about the costs of procedures and quality of care.

'We've started by pairing the oldest and the newest tools in the medical toolkit – the stethoscope and the smartphone.'…The FDA has cleared Eko Core, a digital stethoscope designed by medical devices startup Eko Devices..."a next-generation" stethoscope – billed as the only one on the market to wirelessly stream heart sounds to a HIPAA-compliant smartphone app. It is also the first to integrate heart sounds directly into the patient's EHR.

ACA (Affordable Care Act), primary care doc shortage, aging population, chronic disease make this telehealth's moment..CVS is working with three telehealth companies -- American Well, Doctor On Demand and Teladoc -- on how, together with pharmacies, they might expand and improve on...patient care.

Washington and Oregon Walgreens locations will be getting new retail clinics through a new partnership with Providence Health and Services…The partnership will see three new Swedish Express Care and Providence Express Care clinics…Walgreens is harnessing Providence’s name recognition in the region to create a more coordinated care effort for retail clinics and move them beyond urgent care...