Rural Pharmacy Desert Initiative Uses Tech, Partnerships to Expand Access

For the roughly 800 residents of Lanesboro, Minnesota, accessing pharmacy services has long meant traveling far outside their small rural community. This was a reality that Mayor Alicia Pearson refused to accept when she took office, finding herself unable to recruit health care providers in a town too small to offer a viable return on investment.

“There’s just no single organization that could solve a healthcare or pharmacy desert problem alone,” Lisa Lavin, founder, chairman, and CEO of Ōmcare, told Drug Topics®. “It takes a collaborative—local leadership, clinical expertise, pharmacy infrastructure, and technology that brings it all together. That’s what makes this model scalable, and that’s what we intend to prove.”

That collaborative vision gave rise to the Rural Health Innovation Initiative, a 6-month pilot program led by the University of Minnesota Center for Healthy Aging and Innovation, designed to demonstrate a scalable, replicable model for remote pharmacy access in underserved rural communities.

By pairing Ōmcare’s Home Health Hub technology with PharMerica’s senior care pharmacy infrastructure, including centralized fill, home delivery, medication optimization, and 24/7 clinical support, the initiative is delivering white glove pharmacy services directly into patients’ homes.

What makes the model distinct, according to Lavin, is its emphasis on partnership over technology alone. Mayor Pearson provides the community trust no outside organization could replicate, while the University of Minnesota lends the academic rigor needed to validate the model’s scalability. And finally, Lavin’s organization provides the necessary technology through Ōmcare’s Home Health Hub.

Learn about the drivers of this initiative and stay tuned for more of Lavin’s perspectives on pharmacy access and addressing rural pharmacy deserts.

READ MORE: How Pharmacy Deserts Threaten Access as Closures Rise Nationwide