Pod Insights Pharmacy Podcast Network Beyond Downloads: Pharmacists, Listener Metrics & AI’s Next Wave | TWIRx About this episode In this episode of This Week in Pharmacy, we explore how the Pharmacy Podcast Network (PPN) is deepening connections across healthcare by elevating pharmacists’ voices in the conversations that matter most. Inspired by the recent partnership between podcasting giant PodcastOne and the AI-driven analytics platform Listener, we highlight how PPN is using the same type of advanced engagement metrics—combining podcast listener data, social media signals, and network insights—to measure true influence, not just downloads. With Listener’s powerful data, PPN can now identify where pharmacists are making the greatest impact and uncover new opportunities to expand pharmacist positioning with other providers, industry leaders, and the public.
Plus, Todd sits down one-on-one with Kris Rhea of Pharmacy Market Place for an insightful conversation on AI in pharmacy—exploring how artificial intelligence is shaping workflow, clinical decision-making, business operations, and what pharmacists need to know to stay ahead in a rapidly changing healthcare landscape.
Transcript 0:02 Speaker 00 Welcome to twerks. Can you believe it? It's twerks already? January 23rd, 2026.
0:11 Speaker 01 Back to twerks.
0:28 Speaker 02 Welcome to This Week in Pharmacy. Twerks is the number one weekly talk show about the profession of pharmacy. And now here's our host and founder of the Pharmacy Podcast Network, Todd Urie.
0:40 Speaker 00 Hey, welcome to This Week in Pharmacy. I am your host, Todd Urie, from the Pharmacy Podcast Network. I hope you're having a great week. It is a snowmageddon in these United States and especially over here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. We are getting ready for a whole lot of snow. I remember 93, we had 27 inches in like, not even four to six hours, and then we ended up having about 36 inches, which was crazy, but this won't be at that level, but it's gonna be fun. I like driving a, I like driving my ATV and plow on the driveway.
1:25 Speaker 00 Just getting things done. What a great week. I am coming off of a high from the Pharmacy 50 Awards. If you didn't get a chance to listen to that episode, it will be coming out as a special series, so you can hear from those in our pharmacy profession who are really making a huge difference in pharmacy care and the innovation of pharmacists in, in different sectors of pharmacy and just excited to share the leaders that you voted for. And I really appreciate everybody that voted. We had so many people involved and it was a, it was a big deal for, for me. It was the fourth time, the fourth annual and
2:09 Speaker 00 How much growth we experienced, it was, uh, it was absolutely crazy. And thank you so much for, for being a part of it. Hey, we are so excited today because we, um, we're going to dive into a whole bunch of different news segments, obviously twerks news. Chris Ray is coming on from pharmacy marketplace. I can't wait to talk with Chris. Definitely want to talk with you about what's going on in the profession. But before I get into that, I do want our listeners to know what happened this week in pharmacy in the, in the realm of podcasting. And, and I'm going to be talking a little bit about podcasting.
2:53 Speaker 00 And I'm so, I'm sure you saw me talking about Pod One and listener.com. And we're gonna, we're gonna review that too. But what I, what I want to start out with, and when you're driving in your car and you're walking or whatever, is how are you using podcasting? Because there's so much ability for you to use it, not only as an education and as a news source, and which ones you should be searching for and tap it into, but getting on shows and representing what's happening in pharmacy and how pharmacists and pharmacy operators and technologists and people in AI are leveraging the same
3:32 Speaker 00 thing happening in different sectors of healthcare, but how pharmacy is leading. Today, um, we are going to be talking about the impact of data and total podcast listenership engagement, how important that is. But first of all, Framework Focus released cybersecurity in long-term care pharmacy and how important cybersecurity is. And it's really interesting conversation with the expertise that came from that interview with both Scott Beatty, CEO of Soft Riders, that's the largest.
4:10 Speaker 00 Largest client base driven by long-term care pharmacy operators platform, framework LTC and how Chris Callahan of Echelon Risk and Cyber dives into that conversation. You don't want to miss that one. It's really interesting. It'll open your mind up to the, to the realm of, of how non-secure the internet can be and scary place out there like hackers and all that stuff. Hey, geriatric pharmacist focus with Tamara Rugals. They dive into new diabetes care ideas and standards for older adults and your seniors. If you're in senior
4:51 Speaker 00 care, if you touch long-term care, you're definitely going to want to listen into Tamara and special guest, Dr. Diana Isaacs, who's a, is a returning guest on the Pharmacy Podcast Network. So excited to have her back. Then Dr. Biskov dives into the latest episode of the Holistic Pharmacy Podcast, Reducing Inflammation with Science-Backed Natural Solutions. You're going to want to listen to this with the rise of inflammation hypertension. You're going to want to listen into that conversation. Extremely interesting. And then finally, the
5:31 Speaker 00 executive dose talked with political leader in Western Pennsylvania, Representative Clarity Grimm Krupa. Hey, let's, let's get into twerks news. I'm excited to just realize that the Pharmacy 50 never really had much of an international presence. We, we did have Katrina Azar, who just released a brand new book. You got to reach out to Katrina and engage with her. And, and then Anisha Patel and, and, and her pharmacist diaries and where they were going.
6:14 Speaker 00 We are now seeing a huge expansion into the global connections of leaders and innovators in pharmacy. I'm so excited. We had, I think, five or six international Pharmacy 50 most influential, and I can't wait to get them on twerks and talk to you and have them talk to you, our audience, which is about 90% of our audience is coming out of the United States. So it's time to go big, time to go global, much more so. This article came from The Pharmacist. You can find it thepharmacist.co.uk, thepharmacist.co.uk, and that's out of London.
6:56 Speaker 00 The title is Pharmacy Leadership Board Issues Call for Unity in Open Letter. An interesting article where the Primary Care Pharmacy Association and the UK Clinical Pharmacy Association will be publishing plans for an ambitious new approach to leadership as the Royal Pharmaceutical Society becomes a Royal College in April of this year. And how integrated this can become between sectors of pharmacy, hospital system, clinical research, clinical trials,
7:36 Speaker 00 community pharmacy, and it will include even pharmacy technicians across the UK, pharmacy teams in Northern Ireland, members of specialist professionals, groups and students and trainees. And I'm looking back to us here in the United States. Are we working more seamlessly than ever? Are we pulling down the walls between specialty and community and long-term care? I see a lot of even feuding behind the scenes, and most of the time it's tied to PBMs and how they're perverting the relationships and the differences of our sectors of pharmacy,
8:18 Speaker 00 but then how we work together. But in the show notes, take a look at this and read this article. Very interesting. Up next from Specialty Pharmacy Continuum.
8:30 Speaker 00 The NCPA expands the pharmacy closure mapping tool.
8:36 Speaker 00 You can go to the interactive mapping tool and dig into where pharmacy deserts are increasing based on the closure of independent community pharmacies and the tool defines pharmacy shortages areas based on travel distance to the nearest pharmacy, more than two miles in suburban areas, more than one mile in urban areas, and more than half a mile in low-income neighborhoods with low-vehicle ownership.
9:09 Speaker 00 This is eye-opening and it should also be an opportunity for independent community pharmacies and small chain pharmacies to start pinpointing where they could expand business and coverage and seeing if there's an opportunity out there. If you are in a position to do so and expand those cash-based systems, but this is an important tool, take a look at it. Thanks for covering this specialty pharmacy continuum.
9:42 Speaker 00 Hey, everybody knows if you aren't living under a rock, hopefully you're under a blanket, that we are going to be plunging into some very cold temperatures. Here in Pittsburgh, it's definitely going to be negative. And from CBS News, it says Pittsburgh area pharmacist says to refill prescriptions ahead of the major winter snowstorm.
10:05 Speaker 00 Just a shout out to our independents once again. Are you able to get messaging out to your community today through social media? Get it on your Facebook? Get it on Instagram? But let everybody know what's going on with your services over the next 20 to 48 hours and just hope everybody stays safe and that operations...
10:31 Speaker 00 Are not as disrupted as is probably what they're going to be in some areas. We expect Brownsville, Pennsylvania, I'm south of Pittsburgh by an hour. I'm sure that we'll probably get between five and seven inches. It won't really be that big of a deal, but um, it's still, it's going to impede delivery, obviously, and people, people get scared and, and sometimes you're the closest, you're the closest provider of healthcare to them and, and being available is, is pretty
11:15 Speaker 00 important. So remember to communicate with your community today and let us know the stories that come out of this. If, if you have a story to share on this week in pharmacy, want to get you more involved, the listeners more involved, or pharmacy owners more involved, we are going to have some follow-up interviews with Pharmacy 50 winner from last year, Anthony Maminie, who runs a cannabis pharmacy out in New Jersey, as well as Camden Apothecary, his pharmacy in New Jersey, and some of the changes that are coming in cannabis. And we really had an interesting conversation, like I said, with Representative Krupa out
11:58 Speaker 00 of Western Pennsylvania, and she agrees that cannabis could be leveraged for medication use. However, she's concerned with the non-medical purposes and, and how that may or may not impede functionality of, of who we, who we are as a, as a culture, but there's so many sides to it. I love hearing from pharmacists on this. If you want to talk about medical cannabis, cannabis in, in therapies, the topicals, compounding, please reach out to me. I'd love to have you on the show and let's talk about it.
12:42 Speaker 00 All right. I mentioned this. This is interesting.
12:49 Speaker 00 We are big into metrics here at the pharmacy podcast and the importance of understanding where our listeners are coming from. If you're engaging the pharmacy podcast and our client content, or really any of our content, and where are you hitting, where are you getting this? Are you getting it from social media? Are you engaging on LinkedIn? Are you just going to your podcast feed and looking for a keyword as to what subjects you're looking for?
13:21 Speaker 00 And how easy is it to access information in podcast form for you? It could be clinical, or it could be a discussion of something that you really want to dive into. You just listened to, you just listened to, you know, something on a blood disorder, and you want to know, is this trustworthy information? Who's it coming from? Who's talking about it? I talked about this on LinkedIn. If you're on my LinkedIn, or you're on the pharmacy podcast networks LinkedIn, please follow us and read up on some of the things we're hitting. But Podcast One, who is a podcast network giant, partners with listener.com.
14:04 Speaker 00 And PPN has been using listener.com for about three to four months now. And this really completes the analytics that we need as a podcast network, and should give you also trust in podcasts that are being measured by listener, because they really take in total encompass of content in different forms, and in being delivered in different ways, not only through podcast feeds and where you're linking up, but it's really a super interesting story in metrics around how our pharmacists have a huge opportunity to build content.
14:51 Speaker 00 That impacts public health. And I do want you to think more about this. So I want you to think, are you publishing journal articles? Are you in pre-stage of publishing something? Have you published something and it's just not getting enough traction? Are you working on VC, getting any venture capital and funding for your small startup business? How do you leverage what 147 million Americans are listening to? Which is the media of podcasting? And, and that's the macro thought of it. But what about the micro?
15:33 Speaker 00 What about your community? Are you in a position where your pharmacy, whether that be your chain pharmacy or your grocery store pharmacy or your standalone independent? People like Ken Tai out of 986, for example. They definitely have talked about podcasting and they should do it because they have a collective audience, which is their customer base, to deliver non-bullshit information about healthcare to their clients. And start talking about contraception. Start talking about HIV care.
16:17 Speaker 00 Talk about cancer. Talk about pediatric needs and begin giving your community the trusted information that they desperately want and they look for. And now it's coming from their hometown pharmacist that they trust. And you start to weave in other things in those podcast discussions that center the listeners.
16:46 Speaker 00 Into content that's, once again, it's trustworthy, it's entertaining. Pharmacy Podcast Network wants to partner with you. If you're listening right now, you want to build a podcast for your regional pharmacy, your independent pharmacy, your pharmacy community, your pharmacy association, even for the state associations. We have so much work to do and we have to start taking this initiative to our consumers. And that's definitely one of our plans and what we're doing and positioning. And getting out there and talking with you as pharmacy owners. I want to talk to pharmacy owners in person more than than ever. We have to get together.
17:29 Speaker 00 So we let's start thinking about the conferences that we're going to be attending. I'm hoping to to be going to the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association Annual Event, which is going to be February 20th through 22nd on a weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Be wonderful to see you in Pennsylvania. Obviously, PPA is my home state pharmacy association. So definitely want to support that. Went there several times, but geez, schedules just get crazy with this conference season. You can only go to so many conferences per year. I think I hit 12 last year and that was probably four too many.
18:11 Speaker 00 And then we're going to be headed to Assamia and dialing into and digging down into specialty. If you are going to Assamia, I'd like to talk to you there. Let's schedule time together. Let's let's talk about what you're doing in specialty pharmacy. And also, we're going to be going to the Pharmacy Profit Summit 2026. Shout out to Lisa Faust and her team that built the first conference of its kind. I think it's five or six years in now, if not longer. We're all getting sold, time's going by. But a shout out to Lisa and and her team. Look up the Pharmacy Profit Summit 2026.
18:53 Speaker 00 You can go to Pharmacy Profit Summit and Google Pharmacy Profit Summit comes right up.
19:01 Speaker 00 We're thrilled to be going there and talking with pharmacy owners and operators that are doing things above and beyond. They are not standing still. They are developing cash-based systems and programs. They're developing new access to healthcare through pharmacies, infusion, compounding, technology, wearable information being pulled in, data, the use of AI. This conference is going to be really interesting. So if you're going, please connect with us, connect with me and let me know. And like I said, it's if you are building
19:45 Speaker 00 any content, if you are a pharmacy student and you are wanting to build your reputation,
19:55 Speaker 00 this is all tied back to how the profession connects with you and sees you and trusts you. And then the consumer world, and there's always two sides, your B2B network and your B2C network. And which one fits you and your businesses and your business models? Are you a standalone consultant? You are hearing more and more about consultancy and pharmacists building their own business. And that is going to increase. And are you, are you in a side hustle level right now? And you're looking to expand? So I love working
20:41 Speaker 00 with pharmacists and pharmacy operations who are building new ways that pharmacists are existing in their careers and what they're doing to build small businesses. I think of the contraception angle, and I'm not sure if you've listened, but if you go to getprismrx.com
21:08 Speaker 00 That's getprismrx.com. I should have that on the screen for you. Getprismrx.com. So this is a platform that will enable you to not only launch your contraception business as a pharmacy and a pharmacist, but in the, what, 34, 36 states, you're able to prescribe, you're able to manage this, keep track of it, and get paid for it. So that's the important part, is getting paid for it. So we have a series, if you go to getprismrx.com,
21:51 Speaker 00 go to their about section, and you'll see a multiple-part series, three-part series from them about their model and how pharmacies, both in the chain space, both in the outpatient health system space, and most importantly, in the independent community pharmacy space, that you can build a profitable new program that you will be launching into the community, and you will be communicating with the press, you'll be developing some web-based content, and extension of your website should be all about your contraception system and business,
22:34 Speaker 00 your offerings, you could do a scheduler, that people have only a certain amount of time to schedule their contraception visits with you. We can start using tools like Calendly, Calendly, I can't say that. I love Calendly. I think it's 10 bucks a month. You're going to embed that into your website, into this contraception section, or you could even do it through a blog, and push traffic to that, and announce that on social media. We'll have social media kits for you. You'll be able to engage the team at getprismrx.com,
23:10 Speaker 00 talk with Mary, talk with Dr. Devon, and launch your program to build a cash-based consultancy, cash-based business, and how
23:24 Speaker 00 Maybe it's not as simple for people that need contraception. Definitely, there's going to be some fast turnaround, but you still should use that opportunity to build consultancy and opportunity to talk with them about other things and bringing in supplements and consult, I mean, just your knowledge, you know, as a healthcare provider. But what a wonderful opportunity in the areas that Planned Parenthoods have been shut down for one reason or another, to be able to deliver a contraception service, a birth control service to your community, along with whatever you want to tack on to it. So we work with GRX Marketing, Nicole McLaurin team.
24:08 Speaker 00 We work with their other division, which is their B2B division, which is Finch Marketing. And they will have a turnkey marketing program for you to help launch this. So once again, you come to us, send me an email, yuri@pharmacy, excuse me, [email protected] . Reach out to me, I will send you the pieces of the puzzle. They work together very well and stop thinking about it. Just, I mean, do this as an extension where it fits of your pharmacy services and how
24:51 Speaker 00 it can deliver those, those needed services that your patients desperately want. They want, they were getting it somewhere else. And like I said, in the Planned Parenthood neighborhoods that were mostly the services they were providing was contraception. When those disappear, where are the, where do those patients go? That's an opportunity to not just get their contraception 30 day, 90 day fill, but what about everything else that they may be on or their family members may be on?
25:33 Speaker 00 Takes a little hustle.
25:36 Speaker 00 The business is out there. I hear more and more of our independent community pharmacies
25:44 Speaker 00 just doing so much and building so much worth in their pharmacy beyond just a dispensing pharmacy. And that is so exciting to watch you expand services. Be sure to
26:05 Speaker 00 talk to each other. Tell us where you're going to be in your
26:11 Speaker 00 in your conference circuits. And like I said, PPA, ASIMBI,
26:18 Speaker 00 Pharmacy Profit Summit Live. We're definitely going to be going to NCPA later in the year. Idea Share, The McKesson Show, I think that's probably in July. Cardinal Health, RBC, the retail business conferences, one of the most amazing conferences we go to. Definitely probably going to be focused on APHA, the annual. So what conferences are you going to? What, which ones make the most sense? And don't just go to go, obviously, you want to go to ones that are going to, you're going to get something out of it. We should talk more about that. We should talk about picking the right conferences for you and your career and your sector of pharmacy.
27:04 Speaker 00 Hey, a shout out to Independent Pharmacy Cooperative. Thank you so much for your sponsorship of the Pharmacy 50 Awards Event and for sponsoring today's episode. Quick message from IPC and we'll be right back.
27:28 Speaker 01 This episode is sponsored by Independent Pharmacy Cooperative, widely known as IPC. Established in 1983, IPC is the nation's largest group purchasing organization owned by independent pharmacy. With a mission of maximizing the success of community pharmacists, IPC works to provide members with access to effective programs and services designed to enhance profitability for independent pharmacy. Read more about our mission by checking out our website at ipcrx.com. That's ipcrx.com.
28:14 Speaker 00 We really appreciate so much of the so much of the value of think about the relationships that you have in your business and the physicians you work with at the hospital, the nurse practitioners that you have on the phone that you talk with, the vendors, your partnerships that are critical that you work with. We work so well with IPC, Independent Pharmacy Cooperative, and it's more than the buying group. It's really paying attention to the profitability of pharmacies. And some of the most creative pharmacists and pharmacy owners
28:57 Speaker 00 keep pushing the envelope with IPC and IPC services. And we very much appreciate them. We really appreciate how they work with other
29:11 Speaker 00 clients that we have. Ural Pharma, for example, works with IPC. And having that cross-reference, having that ability to
29:21 Speaker 00 Talk about issues and how are you working with a generics wholesaler?
29:27 Speaker 00 How are you working with a secondary wholesaler? And where's the strategy and price savings, especially with the volatility of the market right now and what we're still going through?
29:40 Speaker 00 You know, we, we always look for good information to share on this week in pharmacy, but also in the world of LinkedIn. And like I was talking about social media earlier, engage with us, our hosts, as well as our clients, as well as ourself and myself and my internal team. If there is an issue, if there is something that is impeding your, preventing you from being the best pharmacist that you could be, or the best pharmacy operations, I want to talk about it.
30:16 Speaker 00 I want to talk about how to help each other, remove barriers, how we can leverage artificial intelligence, who's learning to do it the right way.
30:30 Speaker 00 I was excited to see the article that came out in Dispense Times. Not sure if you subscribe to Dispense Times, but check them out at dispense, dispensetimes.com. Their latest issue is out. It's their January, February 2026 issue. And the author of this article, article that I want to reference, it's on page 45, is by Chris Ray, and he, that's titled How Tech Rewired Pharmacy From The First Computers, From The First Computer Script To The AI Era.
31:12 Speaker 00 And I think he even references the timing of like right around 1983. And there was like this first wave of digital instead of being on your typewriter. And I know you youngin' kids, you youngin' kids that are listening right now. You don't know we had a typewriter, but literally think of how crazy pharmacy was back then when it was handwritten and it was like typewriter and now we're now we're light years. Please go get me a pharmacy owner in 1983. I think of the Zillner family up in Diamond Pharmacy, not not picking on you.
31:52 Speaker 00 Mark, it's not Mark, Mark is the son, he's still young, but his dad that that passed away. He imagine what he went through in the beginnings of how pharmacy and where the changes were. And if you could take him at that level from 1983 and bring him here and show him how artificial intelligence is now part of it, working with technology and the robots are coming. But I want to welcome to the show, the author of this really cool article, really opened my mind up, Mr. Chris Ray, how are you?
32:26 Speaker 03 Hey Todd, I'm doing well. I'm excited to be here.
32:31 Speaker 00 I'm excited to have you. Shout out to Chris because he was given notice of of this request of interview less than an hour ago and he's like, hell yeah, let's get on and twerks.
32:45 Speaker 03 Yeah, anything, yeah, anything for you, Todd. And I always like to hear myself talk and unfortunately for the audience, so.
32:53 Speaker 00 All right, so everybody keeps using the word AI, artificial intelligence, the artificial intelligence, this, artificial intelligence, that. I don't think artificial intelligence is intelligent at all. I think it's just a tool. However, there are things that are being refined right now in marketing, in analytics. We just talked about before you came on about how one of the biggest privately or one of the biggest publicly traded podcast networks called Podcast One is now partnered with listener.com. We use that analytics platform to dial into our listeners and how our listeners are engaging with us through podcasting, but all through social media.
33:36 Speaker 00 And Listener is using artificial intelligence to gather all of that data to truly give.
33:43 Speaker 00 People that are interested in listener metrics like I would be, I'm a nerd on that stuff. And so talk to us about how you're kind of setting the stage for this article in dispense times and give us a summary of what you're dialing into and what you're learning out there.
34:00 Speaker 03 Yeah, I think that for a lot of people, change is tough, you know, especially when you're dealing with stress and reactivity in a workflow at a pharmacy. So if you're saying, hey, we're going to incorporate all this computer intelligence into your job, one, you're intimidated by it. Two, you're like, hey, is this going to replace some of the functionality of what I'm doing? And I think the key component of this article is to say like, look, you're not necessarily being replaced. This can be a tool if used correctly and responsibly, this can really support you in your position. And ultimately, that's, that's what we want folks to see. If adopted right, then their lives are going
34:42 Speaker 03 to be easier. But you have to really not rely completely on AI. You got to understand what it does for you. And then the human piece element of this, you have to do the refinement of the AI and the data that it's fitting out to be able to execute on whatever the deliverable is going to be. So for pharmacy, you know, you're dealing with just so many different data points, ultimately trying to give good customer care. And you would hope, just like that first computer, that, you know, these things that are showing up in pharmacy workflow will take some of the busy work out of your day to day operations so you can get back to focusing on patient care.
35:29 Speaker 00 Yeah, I agree. I'm not worried about artificial intelligence anytime soon replacing a pharmacist or a technician. And the people out there, the operators, the pharmacists, our entrepreneurs. That are leveraging AI to do exactly what you were mentioning. We, one of our clients is Soft Riders Framework LTC. They are now leveraging workflow specifically for different types of long-term care pharmacies, such as skilled nursing. They're, they're operating different, different prompts, different things that they're asking the AI to do in
36:10 Speaker 00 that space versus another sector. And this will increase. We hear Sheila Arquette, the executive director of the NASP, National Association of Specialty Pharmacy, starting to dial into disease state management, specific use of AI for data collection. And even in our space, we're partnered with nested knowledge, who's going to give us access to, to relevant journal-backed information of things that we're talking about on the Pharmacy Podcast Network in the form of education for clinicians, for physicians, for pharmacists in specific
36:51 Speaker 00 disease states. So let's talk, and then also, of course, how Outcomes is using it, how Alive and Health is using it. You mentioned them, mentioned those organizations in your writing through their medication therapy management programs. But talk to our listeners right now, if there's a pharmacy owner right now, what are some of the first steps and or ways that you've noticed AI being leveraged in a successful manner in, in workflow for our community pharmacies?
37:24 Speaker 03 Yeah, definitely. That, you know, you had mentioned Outcomes just a second ago. You and I both were visiting with them in Las Vegas last summer. And I think they mentioned to you, like they mentioned to me, hey, they're starting to be able to tag customer profiles in the software for clinical trial opportunities. So it would help the, obviously manufacturers, it would help the pharmacy, because there would be some revenue driven. And then it would help the patient due to the ability to be a part of some type of trial that would ultimately impact them. Right? So that's, you know, parting with your current software solutions and seeing if they are incorporating this in an effective manner, that'd be one. Uh, then you're seeing pharmacies utilize it from a marketing perspective as well.
38:09 Speaker 03 Uh, doing a lot of their copy content and uh, you have to do it well because uh, now you're starting to get an eye for when people are utilizing AI in a bad manner. And there's just trends that you see like, yeah, that's obviously an AI photo or that's an AI written. Uh, social media post and there was not really much personalization into it. So you have to be aware of that, but it will cut down on your, the time that you're spending with your, your marketing optimization. It will cut down on the time you're spending um, doing a lot of manual arduous. Like task and in finding things within your, your software and workflow. Uh, a good thing would be incorporating uh, nutrition depletion front end solutions.
38:54 Speaker 03 For customer profiles and um, AI could definitely trigger like some recommendations on how to. Make the suggestions to patients and how to tag patients in, in your workflow to, to do that with. So it's just ultimately going to be a good economic driver for the pharmacy and a good uh. Standard of patient care for your customers.
39:20 Speaker 00 So kind of turn this inward for, for me for a second. What, what way is artificial intelligence impacting the realm of inventory management? And uh, you've been, it's a, it's amazing to watch your career, uh, Chris, uh, coming through. A wholesale giant and spending a lot of time with pharmacy owners between. How McKesson was being leveraged in, in their inventory needs and you, it's almost like the boot camp of, of inventory. Understanding and pharmacy business understanding and now all of a sudden you're part of, uh.
39:59 Speaker 00 Another organization that's becoming more and more pinpointed to the pains that pharmacy owners are experiencing in the realm of accessing medications, drug shortages, deviating quick buys and being able to stay in compliance. And so talk to us, how is artificial intelligence playing a role in your your new role? It's not really that new anymore, but you've been with pharmacy marketplace for how long now? Is it over a year? Right?
40:32 Speaker 03 Yeah, it's a year, but we've been working on this concept for about seven years. Todd, so you know, really what happened was going to these pharmacies and understanding the frustration of, man, my life would be so much easier if I just could buy and sell drugs in a simple manner that were like other businesses where it was just A plus B equals C. And then that would allow me just to be a regular small business owner and take good care of my customers. And just years of conversations around, man, this is frustrating. This is frustrating. And the fact is, Todd, that because there's so much money in drug supply chain and pharma,
41:14 Speaker 03 each of the stakeholders have added layer upon layer of complexity on how the sausage is made from an economic standpoint, that it has overly complicated this process. And what's happened is with all these backend rebates on the manufacturer and wholesale side and the PBMs, how they design their spreads and you know, everybody understands that that's convoluted. Who has ultimately been negatively impacted by all this has been community pharmacists and the patients that they serve. Community pharmacists are having to focus on a lot of, you know, manually intensive tasks that don't do anything for patients.
41:57 Speaker 03 It's not that they are getting to spend more time talking to Ms. Jones about her sugar pill or her heart medicine or, you know, Identifying problems, they are looking at back end things and having to manage drug sourcing and having to manage reimbursement situations that are just really honestly not manageable. So what we've done is we've used AI at Pharmacy Marketplace to do over 200,000 calculations at any given time in comparisons of these drugs and show the pharmacy the best pathway forward to further gross profit. And then ultimately also on the back end in terms
42:36 Speaker 03 of the reimbursement, using AI to identify the correct appealable commercial claims based on their state laws, PBM law, reform law. And that is just the core of their business, buying and selling drugs. And I've gotten so passionate about every aspect of clinical pharmacy and what pharmacies can do with their scope of practice now. But what I see after talking to them for years and years, hey, Chris, I am so stressed right now. I'm so burnt out on this core of my business, buying and selling drugs. I don't have the time and bandwidth to do the cool things that I'm capable of doing. So we said, let's
43:17 Speaker 03 address those core issues. So now they can free up their time and energy and staff to do the things that make community health a better operation.
43:28 Speaker 00 Hey, Chris, do you have five more minutes for us?
43:30 Speaker 03 Yeah, yeah.
43:31 Speaker 00 All right. Hey, we're going to take a quick break. It's tax season. You know what that means. That means get your crap together and get ready. You got to mark, what is it? March 15th, right? Hey, we'll be right back.
43:46 Speaker 01 Feeling lost with the complexities of pharmacy accounting?
43:49 Speaker 03 In pharmacy today, there's so many different variables and issues that impact the pharmacy books, records, accounting, the profitability of the store, so forth. There's different components of pharmacy that have its own nuances from an accounting standpoint. And so it's tricky. There's no doubt about it.
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45:11 Speaker 00 Welcome back to Torks here with my friend, Chris Ray, excited about his advisement to our independent community pharmacy owners about how to leverage artificial intelligence and how to do it in different sectors of your business, operations, workflow for scheduling, buying better, bigger, better opportunities to save money on your inventory. Chris, we want to align with pharmacy marketplace and you and get some sandbox discussions going. Shout out to our listeners right now. Where are you going to be in the, in the realm of the conference season coming up this year?
45:56 Speaker 03 Yeah, we're about there. You know, it starts around March, Todd, and you got, you know, some of the buying group shows. So we'll definitely be at several of the larger group shows. So ACI, hopefully AAP will be at NCPA and then the wholesale shows this summer. You know, my wife, always kids, we don't get to take vacation. We don't get to take a vacation because we're always, you know, traveling to these shows, but it's kind of like a vacation because we get to hang out with all our friends. So all the wholesale shows, you know, the Catalyst Conference will be there as well. And I really, you know, there's just so much change going on in the industry.
46:33 Speaker 03 I've always said that going to these conferences allows the pharmacist and the owner to work on the business instead of in the business. And I really encourage folks to do that. You know, one of my favorite owners, when I worked at McKesson, I finally convinced him to come to our trade show after years. He had never been and he'd been a owner for 25, 30 years. And he, he went and had a great time, him and his wife in San Diego. Now that was an easy pull, right? San Diego. But at the end of it, he told me, hey, Chris, you know, for years I've just been in my little vacuum in my, at my little counter, working on the fires in front of me.
47:15 Speaker 03 This has allowed me to take a step back and, and look at what other people are doing and look at what, where pharmacy is going. So I appreciate, you know, the ability to come out and, and do that.
47:28 Speaker 00 Hey, are you headed to Pharmacy Profit Summit 2026?
47:32 Speaker 03 No, I'm not. You know, I love what Lisa's doing and I think the, you know, I participated some with By Light, it's a great show. I definitely encourage folks to support both Lisa and Dick Led if they can at their shows. But they do a little bit different with, with Pharmacy Profit Summit and Atrium is, you know, it's not just your vanilla CE, have some booze, you know, have some lunch. They do a lot more about, you know, integrating the solution that's best suited for that pharmacist and that owner. So really it is impactful and, and, and, you know, Todd, you and I discussed this, some of these micro show opportunities might be the wave of the future.
48:17 Speaker 00 Absolutely. I like the, I like the, I like the smaller, more intimate shows because the people that attend them are able to mash up a little bit more because the big, huge shows like the Hims, for example, which was overwhelming, it's the largest IT, healthcare IT show in the entire world. There's 45,000 people that come.
48:41 Speaker 00 You, it was, it's just overwhelming. So Atrium, Atrium X Pharmacy Profit Summit, even, even some of the wholesaler shows, they are big, but that sometimes they have that smaller feel to them. And if, if I, if all I did was went to trade shows, if it were my wish, I would just go to trade shows because I love them. But you can only go to so many in a year. You have to like, be like, where are we going this year? And where, and how does that, like you said, with vacation time with family, if you can double up on that, that's, that's a, it's a smart move.
49:17 Speaker 03 Yeah. No, it's a definitely, I think I did 12 one year and I just, it was, if you retired, but yeah, you get to see the country. If you follow pharmacy and follow pharmacy conferences, you get to see a lot of cool people and make a lot of good friends. And it's been a pleasure to do so.
49:40 Speaker 00 Well, I'm excited about meeting up with you. I always enjoy our conversations. I like the insights that you bring to our listeners. Congratulations on some of the recent recognition that you've received from, from the accolades, from the profession over the years. And you're looked as a, as a, as a leader. I was, I was commenting on, on your post on LinkedIn about being now one of the veterans. And I don't, do I really want that? Like it's, oh my gosh. We've been in pharmacy now over 20 years. Like that's nuts.
50:16 Speaker 03 Well, and I'll tell you, Todd, I'll plug you. When I started out, no, your, your network was not nearly what it is now. But I was in the car a lot and I was like, I gotta learn something to be able to talk to these pharmacies. I can't just show up and stare at them and ask them how their kids or grandkids are because you're just wasting their time. They want some knowledge. So I would, what I would do is I would turn on Todd's podcast and try to get some nugget from it to be able to add some value. So I appreciate the opportunity to grow with you. And I think that 2026, the sky's the limit. So much change. We gotta be there and we gotta help, you know, community pharmacy stay afloat.
51:01 Speaker 00 Take a look, if you go to listener.com/ pharmacy podcast, that's listener.com/ pharmacy podcast. Take a look at the metrics of what we're doing to drive the voice of our pharmacists, the voice of our leaders, people like Buddy Carter and Dr. Daniel Plummer and Antonio Chacha and people in biosimilars and Alec Ginsberg. It's just, it's awesome to see us using a network of people that are internal, are insiders to the pharmacy profession. And just to announce, Chris, I don't think you knew this, but we are recruiting new hosts. We are looking for
51:45 Speaker 00 regional pharmacy owners to start tying in news from their regions so that we're, we're sharing what's, what's happening at the ground level in the, in the trenches. So if you have ever wanted to start a podcast in your community pharmacy and the impact on your community or involving your local politics or whatever you want to do, reach out to me and, and get involved because this network like Chris was saying is, has come a long, long way. And, and now it's, it's moving needles because we're getting the right people talking to each other, Chris.
52:22 Speaker 03 Yeah, it's so great to hear, you know, Todd, one of the things that we're focused on right now at pharmacy marketplace is dealing with each individual state and helping the pharmacies understand what they have specific to their state in terms of PBM reform and how to take advantage of those laws. So it is very much like state to state or region to region. In some instances, I promise you all 19,000 community pharmacy owners are dealing with very similar problems and patterns, but some of the micro level problems and solutions will be regional. So we need folks in, in, in Texas to, to jump on and tell us how Texas is going and, and up
53:06 Speaker 03 in the tri-states and west coast. Yeah. You know, it's, it's good to hear from everybody across the
53:13 Speaker 00 Absolutely. All right, Chris. Appreciate you jumping on twerks this week. This won't be the last twerks that you hear from Chris. He'll be back.
53:23 Speaker 03 Yeah, thank you, guys. Thanks, Todd.
53:25 Speaker 00 See, have a good weekend. Hey, shout out to all of our listeners. Hope you have a wonderful weekend. If you're in the snow, Maggedon, if you're in the way of this snowstorm, hunker down, get yourself some hot cocoa and a blanket and make sure you're stocked up on your toilet paper and your milk. Get out there, but we appreciate you and we can't wait to be with you again in your podcast platforms. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Apple has a new feature for networks. Podcasts are changing communications, so get involved. Think about reaching out to us, work with us, but thank you so much for listening to twerks.
Previous Patients, Payments & the Path to Profitability | Pharmacist-Prescribed Next Pharmacy 50 Awards Ceremony Part One | Winners 50 through 37 Page updated November 14, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
