Making Sense of Recent Direct-to-Patient Trends in Pharmacy

In this session, Timothy Aungst, PharmD, professor of pharmacy practice at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and Ravi Patel, PharmD, MBA, MS, a pharmacist at Blueberry Pharmacy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, unpack what they call massive changes sweeping pharmacy, the direct-to-patient model. Both have spent more than a decade at the intersection of pharmacy, digital health, and innovation—evaluating thousands of mobile health tools, advising major digital health organizations, and building frameworks to integrate technology into clinical care.

The conversation traces the rise of telehealth and remote monitoring; the explosion of lifestyle-focused platforms selling birth control, erectile dysfunction treatments, hair-loss therapies, and—most recently—glucagon-like peptide-1 weight-loss drugs; and the growing role of big tech and retail giants like Amazon, CVS, and Walmart. But perhaps the most disruptive shift is pharmaceutical manufacturers creating their own direct-to-patient programs, controlling not just the drug but also the distribution, pricing transparency, and even the patient relationship.

As these models proliferate—from coupon-based access to exclusive dispensing partnerships—community pharmacists are forced to confront a new reality. Are these platforms competitors, partners, or both? And what does “owning the patient relationship” mean when prescriptions may bypass the local pharmacy entirely?

This session explores those questions—and what frontline pharmacists must do now to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving ecosystem.

“By 2020, when we started seeing COVID[-19] come on board. We saw also a movement towards remote care,” Aungst said. “Telehealth really exploded at this point. We saw remote patient monitoring tools come into play. We start having conversations around, ‘Can we manage patients’ chronic diseases remotely?’”

Explore more of our coverage from the Total Pharmacy Solutions Summit Spring 2026: Growth Prescribed.