Jeffrey Gladd, CMO at Fullscript

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Intro:
Hey, Outcomes Rocket Nation, Saul Marquez here. I want to talk to you about Fullscript. Fullscript is a virtual dispensing platform that lets practitioners dispense professional-grade supplements and improve patient adherence from anywhere. It has the most comprehensive catalog of products and has adherence tools like refill reminders and auto reorder. It even sense medically reviewed wellness content to your patients. It’s simple to use. Loaded with features and integrates with you and your patient’s day to day lives. For example, when you write a prescription, it’s sent directly to patients via text or email. And when they order supplements, they’re shipped right to their door. The best part of it all, it’s free. So to try Fullscript today, if you’re considering adding supplements to your treatment plans, check out their comprehensive guides and best practices on how to do it. Visit fullscript.com/rocket. That’s fullscript.com/rocket.

Saul Marquez:
Welcome back to the Outcomes Rocket. Saul Marquez is here, and today I have the privilege of hosting Dr. Jeffrey Gladd. He is the Chief Medical Officer at Fullscript. As the CMO at Fullscript, he advises the company on product direction with the perspective of integrative and family medicine. He has been a member of the Fullscript medical advisory team since 2019. In 2010, Dr. GLADD Open GLADD M.D. Integrative Medicine, blending health-promoting care with high access technology. And in 2011, he created and launched the Web’s first nutrient depletion calculator called mytavin.com and is currently helping Halo Health promote and develop their social media interface for medical practices. With success of GLADD M.D., Dr. GLADD has become a sought-after speaker in his field, speaking at TED and also being featured in various industry publications. Dr. Gladd graduated from medical school in 2001, and after successfully opening a family practice, he shifted his focus to achieving health through nutrition. In 2009, he completed the University of Arizona’s Integrative Medicine Fellowship Program under the direction of Andrew Weil. So, such a pleasure to have you here, Jeff, to talk to us about the work you’re doing with the team at Fullscript.

Jeffrey Gladd:
I know it’s great to be here, Saul. Thanks. I need to trim that bio. That took too long. I was ready to talking about fun stuff.

Saul Marquez:
Well, hey, man, tip of the iceberg. You certainly have done a lot. And so, folks, if you get a chance after this interview, definitely check out the Fullscript Web site to learn more about Dr. Gladd, but also about the company. So, Jeff, before we dive into the work being done at Fullscript for integrative medicine and prescriptions via the Internet and the Web. Tell us a little bit about what inspires your work and health care.

Jeffrey Gladd:
Yeah. So, I mean, you know, it’s been it’s been a long road. It’s been a lot of fun and easier, you know, over the last, say, three to five years. But building a practice fully based on promoting health is really sort of what really got kicked off when I improved my health. You know, was very conventional minded in my practice and in my lifestyle and, you know, wildly when my second child was born, kind of flip the switch. You just dug into nutrition and felt all of that, of that. And then it was all about, you know, building a practice to just focus exclusively on that and get patients to come on board. And over time, it’s been incredible, you know. So we started our independent practice. My wife’s a nurse practitioner with us 10 years ago, always doing always offering virtual care. So we had telemedicine as part of the practice 10 years ago. Wow. But it was a small piece. Right. Because patients still wanted to be in the office. Most of our practice is community-based, but we see quite a bit of people from out of town. And then all of a sudden over the last four months, it’s like you can only see people online. Well, we had the structure, we had the technology, we were ready. And it’s been just the smoothest of transitions. So it’s been a a wild ride.

Saul Marquez:
Well, you could call it good fortune or good planning, but the fact is you were doing it and so you’re you were ready for it. As you think about, Jeff, the business, you know, Fullscript and how you’re merging your practice knowledge and expertise along with now this very innovative company, Fullscript, tell us how you’re adding value to the health care ecosystem.

Jeffrey Gladd:
Yeah, well, you know, in so many ways, I mean, I we were already big, Fullscript users. And it’s and it’s why I joined the company last year. Because their commitment to, you know, bringing a user-friendly interface to enhancing the patient experience around supplements was just I mean, so obvious and so easy. So we were gradually moving more and more patients, you know, out of purchasing in the clinic onto purchase gone Fullscript. You know, so a year ago, you know, I would tell you that that Fullscript’s greatest asset to my practice and my business was the refills and renewals. Right? So many of those are lost. You know, they buy a bottle in the clinic. It lasts 30 days and maybe they get back to the clinic, but probably not. And it’s more convenient to try to buy a lesser quality product. Now they start on Fullscript. They make their order. And Fullscript is now keeping tabs on, hey, you know what? You’re going to run out in a little bit. You know, it’s time to renew, stay on the high-quality stuff. And let’s make this really easy for you. Now, add that great ad to our practice and our business and the health of our patients. And patients can’t come into the office or very few of them are coming in. And now it is truly the perfect tool for our practice because we’re practicing virtually. And the patients can now take care of their high-quality supplements virtually. So that’s been the biggest pain point. Fullscript continues to iterate on and improve upon.

Saul Marquez:
So what would you say is unique about a Fullscript in terms of how it’s driving progress in health care?

Jeffrey Gladd:
I would say the most unique aspect of it is we are a tech company first. We’re not a supplement distributor. We’re not a supplement company. We are a tech company. And so with that, that the leaders of the company, you know, can use all of the most important and valuable aspects of technology. And so we can create anything. And then now merge that with a medical advisory team that I know was already amazing. I’m just a part of that team. You know, naturopaths and researchers and people who are kind of keeping an eye on. OK. Now, how do we merge that technology and actually make something beautiful for improving health care? Right. So how do we influence decision making? How do we help these practitioners who may know a little bit or have read an article or heard at a conference, the service is good or this is how you might address the symptom? How can we give them the evidence right at their fingertips? So then where when they’re at the bedside in quote unquote, they can deliver to their patient a really solid evidence-based protocol with high-quality products behind it.

Saul Marquez:
Yeah, that’s that’s huge. And, you know, there’s an opportunity for wellness to happen. And even, you know, you’re starting to see more and more even, you know, traditional Western medicine, primary care physicians, you know, explore this. And so what would you say makes what you guys do different and better than what’s available today and helping them. But also the people that do you know, the people that do consider themselves naturopaths, integrate with the program.

Jeffrey Gladd:
Yeah. So, you know, for the people who are savvy, who’ve studied it, who are comfortable, you know that they know their brands. They know their ingredients. We’re just, again, an incredibly convenient tech platform that is going to help them prescribe health for their patients and their patients to go and accept that order that and manage that terms of refills and renewals. But we also, again, the evidence piece, the decision making support helps and backs that up. But we’re really, really passionate and focused on these more conventional practitioners who weren’t necessarily trained in this, which is kind of my background. You know, I learned it all kind of postgrad. You know, they’re starting to understand and, you know, the value of certain supplements, your fish oil, vitamin D, probiotics. But that’s that’s about it. And they’re still sending their patients to the health food store, being overwhelmed with mostly poor quality products. Fullscript has built the resources to help them learn, you know, what does it mean to be a quality product? We’re only working with high-quality brands. So you’re getting, you know, pharmaceutical grade products. The evidence is there to support these decisions.

We’re only using human trials. We’re sort of rating the evidence scale for them so they can feel confident that when they say vitamin D, this is the dose. This is the quality product. Here’s the support for that. And then in the bio you mentioned, might have in the nutrient depletion calculation that I created. That’s now a Fullscript tool that we’re building into the platform. Will be released soon where you know. And this is to me, the most underrepresented department underrepresented part of health care is. What are these patients common medications that they’re taking doing to the nutrients Right., whether it’s an acid suppressing medication, a birth control pill, diabetes medicine. There are there’s plenty of evidence on the nutrients that are actively being depleted. This tool needs to be in the hands of the conventional doctors who are writing these scripts so they can learn. OK. Hey, I’m going to start this drug. I also better recommend a high-quality V12, folic acid Koku 10 product for them to really optimize their health and minimize the downside of the medication that I want to prescribe. Very cool. Very cool.

Now, I think it’s it’s really interesting and truly understanding the side effects. And, you know, and the I guess the combinations of these different medications and also, you know, just vitamins and things that you guys are recommending. How do they interact? And it’s important to to understand that’s a challenge. And a lot of people face that when trying to build a practice around supplements. And so what would you say is some besides that one, a common challenge faced by practitioners that Fullscript can help with?

One of the hard parts is just monetizing or being comfortable with that in terms of recommending supplements and some practices and practitioners are very comfortable saying, OK, this is you know, we’re going to be generating some revenue on this. It’s going to help the clinic. I would encourage every practitioner to be upfront with that and their patients. But there’s a lot of practices, whether they’re employed or hospital-owned or they just don’t feel good. They don’t feel right generating any revenue from supplements. Fullscript solved that problem by offering a no margin account. So if a doctor or provide any provider can open a Fullscript script account, have it as a no margin, so they make no revenue on the supplements, but they are able to get their patients to access the high-quality products that are usually health care professional only and the patients get a discounted version of that. So it’s sort of the ultimate win win there. The patient or the sorry, the provider can also, you know, maybe they want to make a little bit of revenue, but also give their patients a substantial discount. They can move that percentage in five percent increments from five to thirty-five percent off of retail to again allow their patients to access the high-quality products that they feel strongly about, that’s probably going to give them the best clinical results. And again, decide to either make no margin and have none of that go to the clinic or make a little bit of margin and still provide their patient with a discount. I think that the big pain point that a lot of providers kind of wrestle with.

Yeah, I think yeah. I think it’s a good call out, Jeff. And so it’s a free tool. So. So how exactly does that work? I mean, it costs nothing to the provider. And is it just the relationships with the different supplement providers that creates the business model for you guys?

Yeah. So it’s just a little bit, you know, it’s it’s a little margin on our side. The bigger margin goes to the doctor, so. Or the provider, any provider. So, you know, as a provider, you can generate a little higher margin if you’re gonna do all this yourself. But don’t forget, you have to factor in, you know, handling merchant account fees with the credit card, having a staff that’s going to keep track of your inventory, throwing away expired products and staying on top of that. So, you know that that sort of difference in margin is is where Fullscript kind of lives in terms of our business model. But the tool is free. And again, if you think about the renewals and refills that using Fullscript increases, that little bit of lost margin from the provider side is easily made up pretty quickly over a couple of renewals and refills when your patients are using Fullscript. Paykel.

So basically it’s a fraction of a percentage how Fullscript makes the business work?

That’s correct, yes. And then, you know, with our merger two years ago with Natural Partners, which is more of a big wholesale distributor, you know, we’re bringing those two things together. And so a provider can still stock product in clinic. And, you know, potentially generate a little bit more margin. But again, yeah, Fullscript slash natural partner has a tiny little margin in that transaction to keep us going on our business.

That is so cool, you know. And so this is the type of business that succeeds in today’s market. You know, one that keeps the consumer in mind. And we’re going to going to touch on the consumer next. Folks, don’t worry about that. But, you know, a solution that takes care of each stakeholder involved. And as I talk to so many different companies in the health care space, I see the ones that are taking off are the ones that consider all the stakeholders involved, the payer, the consumer, the physician, the health system, you name it. Right. And so and so tell us a little bit about how you guys are helping with patients and, you know, typical patient challenges. How are you guys solving those with what you guys offer?

Yes. So we’re constantly trying to work at that level to you know, most of our commitment is working with our providers and through our providers. But we’re also taking the guidance and, you know, any thoughts and advice that providers have for us on how we can help with that? Right. So it starts with, you know, kind of just the renewals and making sure that they also get updates on that. F From there, you know, how can we even better enhance that relationship? How can we potentially know now that we have patients, you know, ordering from us and trusting us for their health care needs as far as supplements are there, you know, other ways that we can help out. Are there ways we can provide additional support for something that a practice may not have in-house but but could entrust us to do so? You know, we’re constantly working on that. We don’t necessarily have any specific items being built on the road that now for patients. Actually, this afternoon, I have a huge strategy meeting with the executives, trying to figure out what our focus is. But, you know, we’ve been very, very focused on the provider and the practitioner, but also want to help the patient through the practitioner and work on that aspect. Right. So our biggest piece probably focused on compliance and a lot of effort being done on what’s called treatment acceptance rate. So, again, more a little bit more toward the provider. But how can we help providers that soft skills Right? They do their conferences and their webinars and their fellowships and it’s all science content. But but we very rarely talk the soft skills of how to build a relationship with your patient, which again, is all advantage to the patient, because the better we can build relationships, they’re coming to us for their health needs. We can help their health. And so, you know, understanding that will also help us understand sort of the patients that we service as well and what their needs are and what can we do to kind of help carry them along that path of wellness.

Yeah, for sure. Well said, Jeff. And, you know, just thinking about the virtual capabilities, virtual dispensing, just mobile-friendly approach that you guys take. I just think by like you said, you know, the downstream effects of taking really good care of the provider is that you’re taking care of the patient.

Yeah, that’s exactly right. And I think another big move for us has been interfacing inside the electronic health records. So often it was, you know, you’ve got one window as a provider, as your EHR for documentation and prescriptions if you do traditional prescriptions and then you’ve got another window for Fullscript. Well, now we have building more and more integrations inside of the H.R.. So now a provider can make a recommendation for a supplement in the electronic health record that triggers Fullscript to then be, you know, sort of connected to the patient the patient can order. But as you know, from the patient gains there is now, there is perfect documentation of what they’re taking. So your health care provider can do the best for you and not recommending something, you know, not recommend something that may interact. And keeping tabs of your health record is a big gap in healthcare already. We’re trying to solve it from that aspect, too. I think that’s great.

So how does it typically work? Jeff, with supplements? I mean, our patients typically paying for it with insurance. Are they using, you know, health insurance cards or the savings accounts? How how are these things typically being funded?

I would say the vast majority are just out of pocket okaying for supplements. Patients realize, you know, the value of this, how it impacts their health and their voting to sort of, you know, make sure and support their health by just paying out of pocket. There are plenty of, you know, like the health savings accounts, you can purchase supplements there. But that’s a little bit tricky. You they have to be sort of medically necessary. Right. And so, so often, though, they are Right.. I’m a medical doctor. And so I’m I’m telling you, would you take bite in the D or your V12? Lowish, take V12. Guess what? I think it’s medically necessary. So we Right. the order for that Right. the letter. I sign it so they can submit that, you know, whether they give it to their accountant or their insurance company or their HSA because it is medically necessary and it’s a big savings in the long run for personal patient and their insurance company and their employer. So I feel good about helping patients try to find the best ways of paying for this, utilizing the resources they have.

I think that’s great. So what’s your view of the future, Jeff?

I mean, where where where’s health care going and how do you see changes happening and who’s benefiting from them? And how can the listener’s take action and some of that change?

Gosh. So I can tell you where I hope it goes, but I fear that it’s probably a lot more of the same, at least as far as the health care system goes. Right, that there’s been way too many investments in conventional medicine and surgeries and procedures and replacements.

You know, just having this conversation this morning, I mean, our local health care system is, you know, has been most have run the country building and building and building. Putting offices up. Well, now you can do virtual care for so many of these patients. What do you do with all these buildings? And so, again, I don’t see the traditional health care model changing. What it’s going to take is patient demand for better health promoting care. And that’s what I rely on. And that’s what I’m passionate about, is the more we can get the message out. So patients that there’s another way, there’s another way to prevent chronic disease. There’s another way to prevent it and complicated Kovik 19 infections by taking ownership of your health. Working with providers that promote that. And that demand continues to grow. A lot of those sort of delivering that care doesn’t need an office. Does it need high tech equipment in terms of testing and medical procedures? It needs relationships and we can continue to utilize technology to build these relationships in Fullscript. Wants to play a role in that in. Yes. First, you know, sort of coordinating the supplement prescription. But we also want to enhance, you know, how can we make the lab experience better in terms of getting patients to sort of test? How can we have an influence on sort of the personalisation of supplementation? So not everybody needs the same bottles and the same supplement. How can we make compliance better to make it easier for patients to stick with their health regimen? So I think it’s going to be patient driven and largely have to be patient driven. And it’s the you know, it’s the playground I play in, whether I’m in my practice or whether I’m with Fullscript. And so it’s it’s really an exciting time.

I agree, Jeff. And, you know, what are your thoughts on it? Employers, you know that the employers are and you mentioned them earlier in our interview here. They’re footing a big, big percentage of the bill. I think the last I checked, those like 40 percent of health care here in the U.S. at least, you know, what about an employer play? You know, if if if it’s about wellness, how are we doing as health care providers and payers of the health care we provide to deliver wellness opportunities to patients and people through supplements? Is there any opportunity there?

I think there is. Again, I see like this sort of patient demand that’s going to drive this. I would consider employers sort of in that group of patients. Right. But most of the times I’ve seen this really work is when the leadership of the company becomes a patient of integrative or functional health. They then have this amazing experience and they care so much about their employees that they want them to have somewhat of that experience, too. So, you know, I’ve worked with companies in my local area because I saw the CEO’s wife came and saw me. She had a remarkable experience. We turned her health around. Now her husband comes in, you know, and they say, OK, well, how can you help our company? And now the H.R. director calls me and says, you know, how can you help? And so it starts by just maybe giving talks, maybe coordinating with the health care plan and influencing their health plans, decisions to, you know, maybe help out and support certain supplements. Maybe it just starts with, you know, kind of the might have an aspect of things where, you know, hey, let’s run the medication list and see what nutrients are being depleted. And let’s get them started there and just protect their health. In the simplest way as possible. So. So I do think employers are definitely an avenue to particularly for providers that are listening, you know. Go go find some companies or go talk to some of the leadership of companies in your area that you’ve already seen and try to figure out ways to work with them and get this going. You know, most of the time, though, they’re talking to conventional insurance companies which are supporting conventional medicine, but that that model can break the more we start building relationships and inroads with the leaderships of these companies.

Yeah. No, thank you, Jeff. It’s certainly an insightful perspective around, you know, how do we how do we create this type of change to help us be healthier, to increase our health span, not just our lifespan? We want to be. We want to be healthy for a long time. And so some of the work that you’re doing, Dr. GLADD, is inspiring. And, you know, with the team over at Fullscript, creating some cool change. So we’re here at the end. Jeff, if you can just leave us with the closing thought and the best place where the listeners could get in touch with you and learn more.

Yeah. So we’re we’re at Fullscript, Acom. And so that’s where Know Provider could start an account. We’ve also got, you know, plenty of blog and webinar content, both for providers and patients. We have a practice thing, virtual page that we built, you know, as soon as sort of a tell ahead of telehealth movement really started becoming a big issue and sort of took our big key opinion leaders. And, you know, we’ve got all kinds of lightning talks and other great content there to help providers navigate. How do I get started? How do I tweak what I’m doing? You know, my practice is struggling. What can I do to sort of, you know, energize it? That would be some of the tools we’ve got at that Fullscript to help. Again, there’s some plenty of content there for the patient just to kind of start educating themselves and taking health. It really has to be the patient that owns their health, cannot ever be the provider. We want to be there to help them. But they’ve got to sort of have that understanding. And so we want to start kind of pitching you as a as a customer and a patient, you know. How do you start taking care of yourself? And let’s start that journey now together.

What a what a great way to conclude, Jeff. And so, listeners, there you have it. You know, check out the resources and extensive guides and supplements and drug nutrient depletion and interactions. It’s Fullscript, dot com slash rocket. I want to thank you again for spending time with us. This is this was a ton of fun.

So I really appreciate it. Fullscript, dot com slash rocket. Thank you so much.

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