Former Pharmacist Now Selling a Software I Wish I Had

As a pharmacist with over 25 years of experience, most softwares and technologies in the market have similar capabilities, but Joy Liu and Joy Patel have built something entirely different

The year was 1997

As a fresh graduate from pharmacy school, it was time to embark on the career I spent 6 years pursuing. There were no cell phones, no laptop computers and the internet was just becoming mainstream. Yes, I’m dating myself.

I was excited to jump in full speed. I was unsure of which practice setting I wanted to specialize in, and to be honest I didn’t care.  I was just looking forward to having some spare change, getting my own apartment and upgrading my 1987 Dodge Daytona!

In those days, healthcare was 100% paper based.  We used typewriters and paper patient charts.  Successful practitioners needed a knack for reading physician handwriting, writing concise chart notes and understanding the complexities of drug pharmacotherapy.  

Practitioners also struggled with the gap between clinic and pharmacy communication.

I can't count how many times a patient was admitted to the hospital or showed up at the pharmacy without enough information and struggled to navigate the system.

It was often chaotic trying to obtain a glimpse of medical history from the patient.  And as all providers know, the patient is not always a reliable resource when it comes to their own medical history.

The solution was old school hustle. We would pick up the phone to call countless physician offices and other pharmacies and ask them to verbally dictate some sort of diagnosis, patient history, medication therapy treatment, etc.  Oh, and yes, we would then ask them to snail mail the same information… or even better… fax it, which delayed patient care and increased costs.

Fast forward ten years

It was 2007 and the United States embarked on the adoption of “Electronic Health Records”. The goal aimed to enhance patient care by eliminating administrative paper charts and digitizing medical history information. The complex journey of a patient’s medical history would now become accessible to any healthcare provider.

It was difficult to comprehend how this transition would come together and how the entire health system would convert to operating in this new digital environment. Nurses, physicians and even my team of innovative pharmacists were all apprehensive

It was generally a success, but it fell short of solving many of the inefficiencies, which still exist today

Practitioners and administrative staff still need a “knack for reading handwriting” and communication between departments can still be slow and inefficient. Since the EHR transition of 2007, in my opinion, healthcare has not experienced a major technological transformation that addresses these persisting problems.

Enter Plenful.

In 2021, I was introduced to Joy Liu, a former health system specialty pharmacy operator and entrepreneur who understood the intricacies of complex healthcare operations. Joy experienced the problems first hand and had solutions.

Along with her co-founder Joy Patel, the team built a no-code software platform using artificial intelligence and machine learning to tackle the  inefficiencies and automate administrative workflows in pharmacy settings.

Plenful is not a point solution. Rather it’s a toolkit of technologies that provide end-to-end solutions. Plenful allows care teams to spend more time with patients and less time on administrative tasks. The platform  automates manual data entry, handwritten and text document processing, communication engagements, patient assistance programs, prescription claims auditing, and so much more.

When I met Joy, Plenful was already crushing it with a strong customer base ranging from health systems, independent pharmacies, and health plans.

The numbers speak for themselves.

On average, Plenful customers achieve 4x-8x ROI

And we deliver automation output within 4 weeks of implementation with relevant data sources.

I joined the team in 2022 and we’ve grown considerably since then. I highly encourage any organization bogged down by administrative tasks or experiencing inefficient workflows to reach out.

-Cory Huot