The future of pharmaceuticals is coming to Earth. Earth is a small town approximately 60 miles northwest of Lubbock with a population of less than 2,000.
Wednesday afternoon the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center announced the opening of its second virtual pharmacy.
"Telepharmacy became legal in 2001. It's still very new to Texas," said Don McBeath, director of telemedicine and rural health. "We opened the first one in Texas in September of 2002."
The HSC launched its first telepharmacy in Turkey and the latest one in Earth.
"At Texas Tech we have been very interested in rural health care and rural education, and pharmacy is no exception to that," said Charles Seifert, professor of pharmacy practice and regional dean for Lubbock programs.
The program works through a video conferencing system. One end of the system is located in the Earth Medical Clinic and one is located in the HSC pharmacy.
With the use of Web cams and microphones, the patient can speak with and consult the pharmacist. After the pharmacist verifies the prescription has been correctly filled, the drugs are dispensed from a type of vending machine to the patient.
"It works just like filling a regular prescription," said Diane Kretschmer, a registered pharmacist, as she filled the first prescription from Lubbock for a patient in Earth using the telepharmacy system.
Christy Clark was the recipient of the first prescription.
"Oh, well I love the convenience of it. Before we had to travel to another town to get our prescriptions filled," Clark said from Earth. "We're very thankful."
McBeath said while Internet and mail-order prescriptions are options, they generally are not the best fit for small towns.
"With those forms, there's always a delay. Also in many of these smaller West Texas towns the population is elderly and many just don't have access to a computer," he said. "When you use mail-order or the Internet you don't have the opportunity to counsel with or ask questions of the pharmacist."
Dr. Sid Ontai, based out of Plainview, will be overseeing the clinic in Earth.
"People are really appreciative of this type of outreach with Texas Tech because they really don't have anything out here," he said. "We expect this will continue to improve the number of people we serve."
Ontai said before the opening of the telepharmacy in Earth, patients would have to travel up to one hour away to get prescriptions filled.
"Folks who live out here tend to be over 65 and on Medicare. A lot of them shouldn't be driving, but they have to," he said. "Living on a fixed income coupled with the price of gas makes it hard on them."
Seifert mentioned Tech is the only university that requires its fourth-year pharmacy students to take educational courses in telepharmacy. He also said there are more than 90 pharmacy schools in the country.
According to a news release, the HSC and the Merck Foundation fund the project in Earth. The prescription-dispensing machine was donated by Telepharmacy Solutions.
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