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Cardinal Health today launched myPharmacyTrainer, a proprietary online training site

DUBLIN, Ohio, Sept. 24, 2008 — Cardinal Health today launched myPharmacyTrainer, a proprietary online training site that helps independent pharmacies coach their employees to deliver better patient care, improve customer loyalty and increase sales.

The myPharmacyTrainer application invites pharmacy staff to interact with eight different virtual patients – each with a unique health care need. By consulting with the patients and answering their questions in an interactive, video game-like environment, pharmacy staff learn practical customer service techniques. They also learn how to connect patients with pharmacy products and services for their specific needs, and how to improve store sales, productivity and profitability.

“Delivering quality, personalized patient care is the top priority for independent pharmacies, but our customers often tell us that investing the time and money needed to train staff can be a challenge,” said Steve Lawrence, senior vice president of marketing and sales support for Cardinal Health’s pharmaceutical supply chain business. “An interactive training resource like myPharmacyTrainer will help independent pharmacies improve patient care and drive sales – with minimal time investment.”

Each virtual training session takes less than 10 minutes to complete, and pharmacy staff can visit the site as many times as they need. Pharmacy owners and managers can let their staff complete sessions in random order; or they can encourage staff to complete the sessions by category.

Each virtual patient teaches participants a different pharmacy-related lesson, including how to help patients better manage chronic diseases like diabetes, the importance of third-party claim reconciliation, the value of Medicare Part B accreditation, and how promoting private label products can save patients money.

“The myPharmacyTrainer tool is a fun and easy way to train my staff to better serve our patients and improve the productivity and profitability of my business,” said Dave Burke, owner of Dave’s Pharmacy in Marysville, Ohio. “I also use myPharmacyTrainer to complete employee reviews, because it helps ensure that my staff have completed a required number of training hours.”

The myPharmacyTrainer application was initially piloted earlier this year at Cardinal Health’s 19th annual Retail Business Conference, and is now available to Leader^® members, nationwide. Cardinal Health’s Leader offering provides independent pharmacies access to resources and efficiencies of scale that are typically only available through a franchise, regional or national chain business model.  By providing access to tools that help independent pharmacies improve reimbursements, streamline operations, create alternate revenue streams and increase market share, Cardinal Health helps Leader member pharmacies improve patient care, maximize profitability and identify new opportunities to effectively compete in the constantly evolving retail pharmacy environment.

All Cardinal Health independent pharmacy customers have immediate access to the virtual pharmacy training site, by visiting http://www.cardinal.com/myPharmacyTrainer/ and entering their account number as their login.

About Cardinal Health
Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE: CAH) is a $91 billion, global company serving the health care industry with products and services that help hospitals, physician offices and pharmacies reduce costs, improve safety, productivity and profitability, and deliver better care to patients.  With a focus on making supply chains more efficient, reducing hospital-acquired infections and breaking the cycle of harmful medication errors, Cardinal Health develops market leading technologies, including Alaris^® IV pumps, Pyxis^® automated dispensing systems, MedMined™ infection surveillance services and the CareFusion™ patient identification system.  The company also manufactures medical and surgical products and is one of the largest distributors of pharmaceuticals and medical supplies worldwide.  Ranked No. 19 on the Fortune 500, Cardinal Health employs more than 40,000 people on five continents.  More information about the company may be found at www.cardinalhealth.com.

Members of the media wanting to demo myPharmacyTrainer can obtain a free login by contacting Tara Schumacher at tara.schumacher@cardinalhealth.com or 614.757.6250.