bringing supermarket pharmacies into the Whole health loop

The General Merchandise Distributors Council has rolled out its continuing pharmacy education program in whole health with a series of well received sessions at major retailers.

The program, Whole Health Initiatives for Retail Pharmacists including Whole Health Continuing Pharmacy Education, is a four-hour live seminar on the subject of whole health produced in partnership with the Food Marketing Institute. GMDC has been, and will continue, taking this program into supermarket and grocery wholesaler operations on an individual basis.

The program is designed for non-pharmacists as well as pharmacists. It defines whole health, demonstrates pharmacists' role within whole health, shows them a disease-state management approach to counseling whole health customers, and provides education on nutrition?a central aspect of the concept?and herbal and natural products. The program finishes with roundtables for discussion of whole health implementation.

The program has been conducted at such companies as Bi-Lo, Giant Eagle, Stop & Shop, Valu Merchandisers, Copps, Spartan Stores and Ukrops. Many more will follow in the year 2000. At one chain, 80 percent of the attendees rated the program with an A, and 17 percent with a B. At another operation, 99 percent of attendees rated the program either A or B. Bill Clarke, vice president GM/HBC/RX for Bi-Lo and immediate past president of the GMDC Educational Foundation Board of Directors, says: "The CE session was excellent, very professional, and gave our pharmacists and other store personnel a solid grounding on whole health and practical learning on pharmacy's role within it."

The seminar series is being managed by Willard Bishop Consulting. Jim Wisner and Ray Stone are the lead executives responsible for its management; they also authored the program along with a speaker bureau of pharmacy professors. Both Wiser and Stone participate in the presentation, but the speaker bureau of three pharmacy academics handle a major portion of the seminar. Each of the three professors not only has a Pharm.D but also has an undergraduate degree in nutrition or is a registered dietician.

The program is accredited by Temple University School of Pharmacy and provides participating pharmacists with three continuing education units. It is one of the most ambitious programs ever put together by GMDC's Educational Foundation, and its long-range goal is to bring supermarket pharmacy into the whole health loop.



A Single Umbrella

GMDC and FMI are defining whole health as a concept that brings together under a single umbrella several different product areas, all of which enhance health and wellness. The symbol chosen for the whole health concept, the wheel of health, features those categories: healthy foods; health monitoring devices; over-the-counter products; pharmaceuticals; and natural products, herbals, vitamins and supplements. But the idea behind whole health goes much further than products. It is the ability to provide wellness and health to customers by making available health information, positioning the store as the place for health solutions, and creating an organization dedicated to healthy living.

Many companies are executing whole health concepts and are making the GMDC/FMI CE program a centerpiece in their launch. Copps used the seminar to help launch their Food for Life whole health program, which includes pharmacy, as well as educational binders on herbals/naturals and other subjects. Valu Merchandisers has used the CE program in conjunction with a half-day session by a nutritionist to move their whole health concept forward.

Pharmacy is at the heart of whole health. The pharmacist is typically the only health professional in the supermarket, and he or she is well positioned to act as gatekeeper for a whole health strategy, directing customers to the appropriate department or providing valuable health information. The GMDC/FMI whole health continuing education program establishes pharmacists' roles and gives them needed nutrition and herbal/natural product information.

Whole health is in many ways a partnership between retailers and wholesalers, and suppliers. For example, important contributions for Whole Health Initiatives, includ- ing Whole Health Continuing Pharmacy Education, were readily forthcoming from many major suppliers. Procter & Gamble took a lead position in the support of the program, and Bayer Consumer, Schering Laboratories/ Key Pharmaceuticals, Mead Johnson division of Bristol Myers Squibb, McNeil Consumer Healthcare's Benecol Group and SmithKline Beecham all were very generous in their support.

The GMDC/FMI Whole Health Initiatives for Retail Pharmacists, including Whole Health Continuing Pharmacy Education program, is available for eligible retailers and wholesalers. Call us at the GMDC Educational Foundation, (212) 679-6026, and we can discuss if this program is right for you.

The GMDC Report was prepared by Roy White. The views expressed are not necessarily those of Supermarket Business.