This DETLA Rx Institue held the 13th Next Top Entrepreneur Competition this Fall. Contestants participate in three rounds, each while demonstrating entrepreneurial spirit in the healthcare field. The first round includes a brief elevator pitch for any healthcare related innovative idea. In the second round, students are given a prompt with a healthcare problem with the challenge to create an innovative solution in just one hour. The final round is where participants present a mini-business plan with their idea from Round 1, Round 2, or a whole new idea. Judges change with each round while representing the business, healthcare, and pharmacy sectors.
Round 1: Greg Johansen, Dalton Fabian, and Sarah Dean
Round 2: Tom Swegle, Jason Salton, and Anthony Pudlo
Round 3: Robert Loch, Felix Gallagher, and Debra Bishop
Read below students' experiences presenting their innovative ideas, and what the Next Top Entrepreneur Competition meant to them as they move forward in their professional careers:
Johnny Mills and Andrew Bjorlin: RecycleRx
"Recycling, or the lack thereof, throughout the United States has become a large problem, especially in the healthcare industry. RecycleRx is a company that pairs with community pharmacies to ensure that prescription and stock bottles are recycled in a safe, efficient, and convenient manner. We also offer drug disposal and HIPAA protection services. Once we have collected bottles from partner pharmacies, we resell them to plastic recycling companies. The DELTA Rx Next Top Entrepreneurship Competition was a great opportunity to look at a problem in the community and find a solution to give back. As students entering the healthcare field, this was a valuable glimpse into how the business side of healthcare operates."
Breanna Moore: AutoRx Prescription Pickup
"Auto Rx machines are unlike the current options for patients to choose how they get their prescriptions. This will allow patients to get their prescription outside of pharmacy hours and at their own convenience. It will also result in shorter wait times and will free up pharmacists and staff to provide other services such as patient counseling, point of care services, and medication therapy interventions.These machines will have the patient who is picking up enter their name and birthday using the touchscreen monitor, as well as sign and pay for the prescription. From there, the machine will find the correct patient and prescription using barcoded technology and will vend the patient’s prescription. This will be a great alternative to waiting in line or waiting at the door for delivery to get your prescription medications, and will prove to be beneficial to pharmacists and pharmacy staff so that they can use their extra time to use additional skills such as medication therapy management, bone density screenings, and providing even more vaccines."
Sedie Harms, Layne Davis, and Tessa Buehrer: Pharmers Traveling to the Farm
"Our group is really passionate about providing care to rural communities that have limited access to healthcare compared to more urban areas. For our healthcare idea, we proposed a unique service that would bring care to these communities to help them lead healthier lives, reducing the prevalence of preventable diseases and managing chronic disease states. This was a fantastic experience for us, and completely out of our comfort zones. When someone suggested we should participate, we were very hesitant at first, but we saw it as a way for us to grow in areas we are less confident in. We all highly recommend participating in this competition. You will learn even more about a topic or area you are passionate about, and better yet, you are able to get others excited as well. We feel that our passion and ideas on this will only expand and grow larger because of this competition. We appreciate the opportunity DELTA Rx provides student pharmacists to develop ourselves personally and professionally."
