CVS Health opens tech hub in Boston

CVS Health is aiming to develop cutting-edge digital services and personalized capabilities that will revolutionize health care, and it's all starting with its new lab in Boston.

The CVS Health Digital Innovation Lab, which is now open, will serve as a vital hub for the rapidly growing digital team at CVS Health, which will remain headquartered in Woonsocket, R.I.

"At CVS Health, everything we do is to help people on their path to better health, and digital technologies are an amazingly effective way to achieve this," said Brian Tilzer, SVP and CDO for CVS Health. "Digital technologies are ubiquitous and highly configurable – a powerful combination, because it allows us to empower our customers anytime and anywhere. That's why we are doubling our digital investment, anticipating our customers' increasing preference to manage their health digitally. The opening of this Innovation Lab is a significant step forward on this path."

The launch of the new Digital Innovation Lab is the latest manifestation of CVS Health's commitment to prioritizing digital health.

The company has been increasingly focused on giving customers a connected health experience when, where and how people want by integrating its pharmacy and front-store experience, as well as through health tools and services offerings.

The Digital Innovation Lab will embody the CVS Health digital team's mission to run like a startup, accelerating speed-to-market and impact of digital innovation across the enterprise, by using the resources of the Lab to rapidly test, improve and implement new programs.

"Boston's position as a hub for healthcare innovation, coupled with our belief in the transformational capabilities of digital technologies, makes it an ideal environment for CVS Health's new Digital Innovation Lab," said Mayor Martin J. Walsh. "We're proud to work alongside CVS Health to foster new advancements in the digital health space."

Primary focuses of the Lab will include the exploration of breakthroughs for digital health through innovation in mobile, personalization, multi-channel e-commerce, connected health and digital therapeutics. CVS Health will further its pace and breadth of innovation through partnerships with promising startups and mature companies alike in the digital and health care space. The Lab is also committed to developing future-looking health care solutions.

The Digital Innovation Lab, located at 116 Huntington Avenue in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, will ultimately employ up to 100 team members, complementing the work of the more than 100 digital professionals currently at the company's Digital Experience Center in Woonsocket.

CVS Health operates 7,800 retail drugstores and nearly 1,000 walk-in medical clinics.