Innovator profile: Coaching patients to good health

Many in the world of pharmacy have been envisioning a day when community pharmacists will focus solely on clinical care, disease prevention and wellness rather than the dispensing of medications. For Tim Smith and Josée-Anne le Dorze, that day is here with the launch of their pharmacy—and passion project—Simplicity Wellness. The pharmacy, located in central Winnipeg, MB, provides appointment-based, mostly virtual, consulting services for people at risk of, or already living with, chronic disease. The practice focuses on four key pillars of health: movement, sleep, healthy food and stress management. There’s no front-shop or dispensary in sight. The pharmacy co-founders say they are filling a gap in disease management by helping patients become more proactive about their health. “We really wanted to create a practice that works further upstream to help address some of the risk factors for chronic health conditions before they start exploding into significant concerns,” says Le Dorze, who has worked in community practice for the last 10 years. “People are also living longer and we want to help them have the best quality of life possible.” Having worked in Northwest Ontario serving many remote First Nation communities, Smith says he was struck early on in his career by the sheer number of people with obesity-related chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension and coronary heart disease. “That really impressed upon me the impact of lifestyle, as well as the social determinants of health, such as education, income, access to healthy foods and cultural support,” he says. “Only 18% of Canadians meet physical activity guidelines, for example, and so it really felt like there was a role for us to play in getting out in front of these issues.” Read: Patients in control spark new roles for pharmacists Simplicity Wellness currently offers four coaching programs focused on sleep management, smoking cessation, pharmacogenomic testing and metabolic wellness. The latter (which will run clients $399/ month for at least three months) has been particularly popular and involves an initial assessment with a monthly follow-up to review progress, and weekly check-ins via secure messaging. The program provides weight-loss coaching and helps clients improve their metabolic health by learning to incorporate daily movement and reset their relationship with food. “We offer a free 30-minute initial consultation so that people can feel comfortable that the plan is for them,” says Smith, noting that many of them have said they are grateful to be listened to and to finally have someone “in their corner.” Patients pay directly for most services not covered through their benefits plans, although public funding became available for smoking cessation services in Manitoba as of April 1, 2022. “We recognize that what we offer may not be for everyone, but for people who really want that one-on-one support and clarity on what actions they should be taking—and that accountability to stay on track—it really hasn’t been a hard sell,” says Smith. “When we set our pricing, it was really about the price that would allow us to provide the service we wanted to give.” As partners in business and life, Smith and Le Dorze say they are very much aligned in terms of where they wanted to take their pharmacy practice. “We both were motivated to create practices that fit into the sort of lifestyle that we wanted, but also gave us the meaning and sense of fulfillment from our daily lives that we’re looking for,” says Smith. Until the business is self-sustainable, the two are still maintaining their day jobs. Le Dorze works as a staff pharmacist at an independent pharmacy while engaged in several volunteer roles, and Smith does locum relief work while also working part-time as Pharmacy Practice Advisor at Pharmacists Manitoba. As a result, they are rarely in the same place at the same time during work hours. Read: How pharmacists can help patients manage celiac disease CHALLENGES IN BEING TRENDSETTERS Smith says one of the biggest challenges in launching Simplicity Wellness was dealing with the provincial regulatory requirements needed to make it happen. “Because we are the first ‘clinical practice pharmacy’ in the province, which doesn’t dispense medications, we had to navigate a regulatory path that no one in the province has gone down before,” he says. Adjusting services to meet patient needs has been another challenge these pharmacy partners continue to address. “Even from conceptualization to soft launch to our current state, we’ve undergone substantial evolution and we will continue to evolve,” says Smith. “With our focus being on chronic disease and metabolic risk factors—and our price point—we thought our clients would be in their 50s and 60s, but we have mostly seen people in their 30s and 40s.” And it’s not only an elite clientele, he adds; the pair has found many middle-class clients are committed to investing in their health. With the pharmacy launching in August 2021 on the heels of the pandemic, Smith says it’s only over the past few months that the client base has really started to take off. “Given our high-touch, hightime practice, we work with about a dozen clients at a time, although eventually we can bring that up to 30-50,” he says. Social media is the primary way they are promoting their business, although Tim says exposure in several publications has also helped. “In my role at Pharmacists Manitoba, I’m frequently in the media speaking about COVID or flu shots so that has helped build my public profile too.” Le Dorze says her current employer has been extremely supportive of her new venture, allowing her to offer pharmacy patrons sleep management services through Simplicity Wellness. “When I see patients struggling with insomnia, it is a natural next step to offer these services,” she says. “My boss has been very willing to consider partnerships and ways we can work together.” Going forward, the co-founders say the goal is to develop referral partnerships and work collaboratively with other traditional pharmacies. “We hope to generate referrals from our colleagues in Manitoba and across the country who think their patients might benefit from the services we have to offer,” says Smith. “We’d also love to get to the point where we can add other health professionals, whether that be other pharmacists, dietitians, exercise therapists—the sky’s the limit.” In the meantime, both Smith and Le Dorze are also making sure to practise what they preach by staying active and finding balance by regularly disconnecting from work. “We bike and live a relatively car-light lifestyle, and being physically active is a cornerstone of most of my hobbies,” says Smith. “We’re also big paddlers and like going paddling in the back country,” adds Le Dorze. Read: Five tips for working with people you don’t like

Innovator profile: Coaching patients to good health

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