A Cure for What Ails Rural America?

Miller, who graduated from The University of Iowa in 2009, heard about a program in North Dakota that was financing grants for telepharmacies, a business model that blends traditional pharmacy services with telemedicine technology. Miller was inspired and intrigued by the program. "I began building a similar platform for my family's business," he said.  Even so, the family was forced to close one of its pharmacies and sell another. The remaining four the family owned were at risk, and Miller knew he needed a solution to save them. So he did, with something he called TelePharm Technologies.  Miller's initial goal was to set up a software solution that allowed several pharmacies to share in the cost of a pharmacist. Utilizing Miller's software platform, one pharmacist is available to both fill and approve prescriptions remotely. In addition, the pharmacist can consult with patients via a videoconferencing feature on the software. "It allows the pharmacist to work in a traditional town and also be in the small town with certified technicians working in the store," Miller explains. Once they got the TelePharm software platform down pat, Miller and the team he enlisted to help support the pharmacies expanded their business model. "We either help a current pharmacist keep a store open, or we go into a community and work with them to put in our own pharmacy," Miller said of his "any pharmacist, any pharmacy" approach. With this model, Miller is seeing a sort of anecdotal ripple effect in small, rural communities. "A pharmacy or drugstore creates a storefront back on their main street, which adds more foot traffic," he explains. "There are few certified pharmacy techs [in rural America], so adding one to a pharmacy creates educated jobs for the community."