This story appears in the September–October 2026 issue of Dispense Times.
By Bruce Kneeland, Pharmacy Goodwill Ambassador
“The way to ensure the future of pharmacy is so obvious we are overlooking it.”
That’s my take-away from the conversation I had with Chris Antypas on my PharmacyCrossroads podcast show earlier this year.
Antypas, PharmD. and owner of a high-volume independent pharmacy as well as several other pharmacy businesses was talking about a new company he has started. Called, Medesto Health, it is addressing an obvious flaw in our healthcare system. “It’s time someone developed a way to make sure that the medications a person is taking are actually working,” says Antypas.
His comments reminded me of a highly publicized study I read years ago. A ChatGPT pulled up this quote.
“For decades, researchers have estimated that medication-related problems cost the U.S. healthcare system roughly as much as the medications themselves. A landmark 1995 study estimated the annual cost of treating medication caused problems at $76.6 billion, just about the same amount people paid for them. And the Institute of Medicine later summarized the finding by noting that for every dollar spent on outpatient medications, another dollar was spent treating medication-related illness.”
Antypas has experienced these kinds of problems personally in his retail pharmacy, Asti’s South Hills Pharmacy in Pittsburgh, PA.
Realizing that little progress has been made in this area, Antypas and his partners decided to invest the time and money it would take to create a practical solution.
As Antypas framed the opportunity he commented that the profession’s work on improving compliance was a decent place to start. Still, he says, “Compliance does not improve outcomes if the patient is taking the wrong drug.”
Consider this example; hypertension. A doctor’s appointment alerts a provider of a problem. A patient’s blood pressure and history are taken. Other parameters are considered resulting in the patient being prescribed one or more medications.
The patient fills the script and goes home. Six months later the patient shows up at the doctor’s office. Only then it is discovered no improvement has been made.
So, the provider interviews the patient, explains the importance of taking the drug and prescribes another medication. Meanwhile, money has been wasted and a critical health condition has worsened.
As I learned during our podcast discussion Antypas and his team have now launched Medesto Health. This totally new type of technology will allow pharmacists to combine prescription data, lab results, clinical notes and other health metrics and determine if the medications a patient is taking are actually working. This is way more than adherence and MTM.
It is a totally new paradigm for pharmacy care.
Antypas was joined on the podcast by Robyn Amberg who has known Antypas for several years. She was aware of the new technology being developed and suggested the podcast. In her career Amberg has been a key player in helping to encourage pharmacists to adopt technology designed to enhance patient care.
She reiterates that ensuring people are taking the right medication, not just taking it correctly, is a problem that needs addressing. Meanwhile, Antypas acknowledges fixing the problem in the real world is complex.
Handling this complexity is the problem Medesto is designed to solve.
Because addressing this problem is multifaceted, Antypas is convinced the only practical way to address the problem “at scale” is with technology. The Medesto portal can be accessed by a pharmacist from any connected device. It is able to read physician notes, patient’s medical history from all the patient’s providers.
It also can see lab results and a complete medication profile.
The system can communicate with and capture key pieces of information from the patient as well. One example, asking questions to ensure patient is taking their medication appropriately. He says, “Any pharmacist who has been in practice for any amount of time has a “funny” story about patients misunderstanding instructions.”
Medesto has access to a number of clinically validated patient tests, feedback forms and other assessment tools that are sought out and then entered into the system. Remote patient monitoring devices can report into Medesto too. Then, all this information is cut, sliced and sorted, compared to base line and national norms and then it can provide timely reports on the patient’s progress.
Here is where the magic occurs.
After careful analysis, using proprietary algorithms the system alerts the pharmacist and recommends a logical course of action. Antypas says he is well aware of alert-fatigue and his team has built Medesto to avoid this problem.
As appropriate the pharmacy will share that information with other members of the care team. The result? Improvements can be implemented months before the provider would normally be aware of an issue.
Now, if you are following along, you’ll have a few questions.
This is how Antypas answers them:
1. Who pays the pharmacy for the intervention?
Currently the only Payor stepping up to pay for outcomes is CMS with the ACCESS program. Commercial Payors, Self-Funded Employers, and Pharma Manufacturers are all interested in getting the positive clinical outcomes from the drugs they pay for or manufacture. If you build it (and prove it) they will pay!
2. How much will it cost a pharmacy to become a Medesto user?
The cost will vary based on the utilization of the different capabilities, such as pulling medical records or bi-directional communication with physicians in their EHR. The goal is to get the platform completely subsidized by the Payors with significant upside opportunity for delivering clinical outcomes. It could cost a few hundred dollars per month, up to a few thousand dollars for an average community pharmacy. But no one expects a pharmacy to make this type of investment without an ROI.
3. How and when will the provider(s) be included?
Providers will be engaged out of the gate. Medesto is certified to communicate with Physicians and Providers in their EHR system.
The goal is to leverage this direct communication to coordinate care and deliver clinical recommendations. Because Medesto is a data-centric platform, all recommendations are delivered with objective data-points for the providers to consider.
4. What happens if providers aren’t willing to make changes proposed by Medesto?
There’s no doubt that providers will not agree with every recommendation. Pharmacists are no strangers to pushback. However, that doesn’t mean we should stop making recommendations. Ultimately, the proof is in the pudding which is the actual health status of the patients we serve.
As for me, I am no neophyte, nor am I overly optimistic.
With over 50+ years in the industry I have seen some really good ideas, tools and programs fail to catch on. Still, this new technology appears to be a major step forward for the profession, patients, providers and payers.
Any healthcare professional with integrity wants the treatments patients receive to be helpful. Yet, as far as I know there is not yet a well-accepted system for checking to ensure a prescribed course of therapy is working, in real time.
So now, the question is, who will step up and give Medesto Health a try. Antypas says his company is eager to work with both pharmacies and well-established companies to accelerate adoption.
You can contact Chris Antypas at crantypas@astisrx.com or via text at (412) 498-9338.
