Identiv-Powered CVS Spoken Rx Wins NFC Forum 2022 Innovation Award

Identiv, Inc. announced Identiv-powered CVS Spoken Rx™ won a 2022 NFC Innovation Award in the Most Innovative Use of NFC Technology category. The NFC Forum Innovation Awards support and recognize the development and deployment of innovative and exemplary near field communication (NFC) products, services, and applications.

According to the CDC, around 12 million people 40 and over in the U.S. are visually impaired, including one million who are blind. Spoken Rx is the first of its kind in-app experience and smart tag prescription label developed for a national retail pharmacy, CVS.

Designed for those with visual impairments and those who cannot read standard print labels, the technology allows patients to have their prescription information read aloud and makes the CVS Pharmacy app accessible to the visually impaired community.

“The small fonts on prescription bottles and side-effect pamphlets can cause big problems for indi-viduals with serious vision complications, as well as for far-sighted customers who have difficulty reading such small print. Yet there is no federal rule requiring pharmacies to give patients more ac-cessible options,” said Amir Khoshniyati, VP and GM Transponders, Identiv. “Spoken Rx is more than a convenience. It can provide life-saving information to prevent medication confusion for a person who cannot read a label.”

Enabled by NFC technology, the Spoken Rx feature provides critical prescription medication in-formation to visually impaired individuals in English and Spanish, adding to the existing braille, audio, and large-print accessible prescription label options already available through the CVS web-site.

Developed in collaboration with the American Council of the Blind, Spoken Rx is available at all CVS pharmacy locations nationwide, including more than 1,700 pharmacy locations within Target.

The Spoken Rx solution makes it easy for all patients to stay connected to health resources, refill prescriptions, and make appointments for vital health services like vaccinations and testing. More and more people are using Spoken Rx for the convenience of everyday prescription reading on-the-go.

“It also offers a greater level of independence and inclusivity for blind and visually impaired pa-tients as they can use the same app offered to all CVS customers,” adds Khoshniyati.

The Spoken Rx feature is available in the CVS Pharmacy app and is accessible using Voiceover for iOS, or self-voicing with Siri or Google Assistant on a smartphone. It is available at no extra cost to patients.

The NFC award entries were reviewed and selected by a jury of global leaders and industry ex-perts. Entries were judged on their innovation, commercial potential, and usability as well as on the quality of design and implementation. Spoken Rx will be featured as part of the NFC Forum Prod-uct Showcase.

Additionally, Spoken Rx was recently named a finalist in the IoT Evolution Expo 2022 Awards and the winner of the AIM 2022 Case Study Competition.