WalMart Deploys Self Service Health Screening Stations
By Julie Appleby, KHN Staff Writer // February 22, 2013
Consumer Health
(VIDEO: SoloHealth)
EDITOR’S NOTE: This week Kaiser Health News reported that Walmart and Sam’s Club are scheduled to debut 2,500 self-service kiosks in stores across the country next month with the intent to boost consumer health. The kiosks developed by Duluth, Ga.-based SoloHealth will offer consumers access to various health tests that assess basic physical parameters such as blood pressure, vision and body weight, and have the capability to advise patients on diet, locating a doctor, pain management, and vitamins. Future updates to the kiosks will include smoking cessation tips, diabetes testing and programs for helping consumers enroll in health plans.
The SoloHealth kiosk is already available at the Sam’s Clubs in Melbourne and Cocoa, at the WalMart Supercenters in Titusville, on North Wickham and on Palm Bay Road, and at 14 stores in the Orlando area.
STERLING, Va. – Perched by a computer monitor wedged between shelves of cough drops and the pharmacy in a bustling Walmart, Mohamed Khader taps out answers to questions such as how often he eats vegetables, whether anyone in his family has diabetes and his age.
He tests his eyesight, weighs himself and checks his blood pressure as a middle-aged couple watches at the blue-and-white SoloHealth station advertising “free health screenings.”
“You may not go to the doctor every year, but you come to Walmart often,” says the fit-looking 43-year-old Khader who lives in nearby Ashburn, Va. “I get bored while my wife is shopping. This is a time killer. I’ll come back in two months or so, and track my results.”
A burgeoning consumer health industry is betting that millions of consumers will do just that.
CLICK HERE to read the complete story on KaiserHealthNews.org.
