Avricore’s HealthTab Selected for Feasibility Study for Testing in Community Pharmacies in United Kingdom

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 03, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avricore Health Inc. (TSXV: AVCR, OTC: AVCRF) (“Avricore Health” or the “Company”) is pleased that HealthTab, the Company’s leading pharmacy-based platform for testing and health data management, has been selected by a collaborative involving the internationally renowned Barts Heart Centre and HEART UK to assess the feasibility of community pharmacists in the UK’s ability to complement opportunistic blood pressure checks with cholesterol testing to assess overall cardiovascular risk and build on the clinical services offered.

“In the wake of the pandemic, it’s clear that the community pharmacy needs to play a bigger role in delivering more access to healthcare services, especially chronic disease screening and management,” said Hector Bremner, CEO of Avricore Health. “We are honoured to have been selected for this important project and look forward to working with pharmacist as they support patients with this vital service.”

The feasibility study seeks deeper insights and ways to build off the successful delivery of over 930,000 blood pressure checks in just over a year through approximately 6000 pharmacies as part of NHS initiative to support risk identification and prevention of cardiovascular disease.

That initiative allowed those with high blood pressure to be identified and referred onward for management. This is critical at this time for such services, as it is estimated that there are over 5 million people with undiagnosed hypertension in the UK today. 

Given that significant need, NHS England recently announced £645 million to support increasing access to primary care, including expanding clinical pharmacy as an essential part of recovering the system’s ability to deliver timely service. Pharmacy proved during the COVID-19 pandemic it can offer people easy access to health services in the heart of their communities, and with a high-quality screening and health data management tool like HealthTab, they will be able to deliver the same vital support for chronic diseases.  

The collaborative, with support of the pharmaceutical industry, will begin the study with five locations throughout London and as the program establishes itself will begin to expand the program to more locations.

The collaborative leading the feasibility study include:

Barts Heart Centre – Is at the forefront of new treatments for heart disease and is proud that its patients have some of the best clinical outcomes in the country. Barts Heart Centre is based at St Bartholomew's Hospital in the City of London, However, cardiac services are also provided at Newham, The Royal London and Whipps Cross hospitals. It treats patients from across the UK for a wide range of complex conditions including coronary heart disease, arrhythmias, heart failure and many other cardiac problems.