Shop Alto Essentials to add pharmacy products to any delivery!

Your partner in navigating the ins and outs of prescriptions — at no extra cost.

Alto Pharmacy Technician

Alto Pharmacist

It’s official: Alto Pharmacy is a great place to work! We’re honored to join the community of Great Place to Work-Certified™ companies based on team member feedback and a rigorous assessment of our company’s culture and benefits.

Join us in delivering our industry-leading pharmacy care to millions of people across the country. As a member of the team, you’ll play an integral role in improving our customers’ quality of life and redefining what’s possible in pharmacy. 

Be Part of a Great Place to Work — Join Our Team

Hear first-hand from members of the Alto technology teams.

Read the latest Alto blog posts covering healthcare, family health, managing diseases, and other Alto highlights.

Blog | Alto Pharmacy

Pneumonia is a lung infection in which the air sacs in both or one of the lungs are inflamed, leading to difficulty breathing and other symptoms including a cough, fever, and chills. There is a wide spectrum of severity of pneumonia cases — symptoms can range from mild to much more critical. Infants, young children, adults over 65, and people with weakened immune systems are among the most vulnerable to complications.

Read on for a closer look at symptoms, causes, and treatment options.

What to Know About Pneumonia

Pneumonia is a lung infection in which the air sacs in both or one of the lungs are inflamed, leading to difficulty breathing and other symptoms including a cough, fever, and chills. There is a wide spectrum of severity of pneumonia cases — symptoms can range from mild to much more critical. Infants, young children, adults over 65, and people with weakened immune systems are among the most vulnerable to complications.

Read on for a closer look at symptoms, causes, and treatment options.

There are several types of pneumonia, categorized by cause. The three main types are bacterial pneumonia, viral pneumonia, and mycoplasma pneumonia.

Bacterial pneumonia is the most common — and often the most serious — type of pneumonia. It may be caused by various bacteria, most commonly Streptococcus pneumoniae. It typically develops when the body has been weakened by illness, age, or impaired immune system functioning, which allows the bacteria to enter your lungs.

The following factors can increase a person’s risk for bacterial pneumonia:

Having an existing respiratory disease or viral infection

Viral pneumonia accounts for about a third of all pneumonia cases. It may be caused by various viruses, including the flu.

This less common form of pneumonia — also referred to as atypical pneumonia or walking pneumonia — is caused by the Mycoplasma pneumoniae bacterium. Symptoms are typically mild.

Symptoms vary by pneumonia type. Bacterial pneumonia is typically the most severe and requires medical care more frequently than viral pneumonia. Common symptoms may include:

Rapidly increased breathing and heart rate

Bluish lips or nail beds due to low oxygen in the blood

These symptoms may develop gradually or suddenly.

Viral pneumonia symptoms typically develop over the course of several days. Initial symptoms often resemble those of the flu, including:

These symptoms often intensify within several days. Later symptoms may include:

If you suspect that you or your child may have pneumonia, it’s important to seek medical care right away rather than waiting for symptoms to become more noticeable. If you are in one of the more vulnerable groups — over 65 or immunocompromised, for example — seeking medical attention is even more critical due to the possibility of complications.

A doctor may be able to diagnose pneumonia based on your health history and a physical exam. The diagnosis process can also include one or more of the following tests:

A chest X-ray, which shows the severity of inflammation in the lungs

Blood tests, which can confirm the infection and identify the underlying cause

A sputum culture, or a mucus sample, which also helps identify the cause of the infection

A pulse oximetry, which measures how much oxygen is in your blood

A chest CT scan, which shows a better view of the lungs and can identify potential complications. This is most commonly used for individuals who may be more vulnerable to complications.

A bronchoscopy, a procedure that offers a view into the airways of the lungs. It is often reserved for more severe or treatment-resistant cases.

Pneumonia treatment can help end the infection and prevent related health complications. The specific course of treatment your doctor recommends will depend on which type of pneumonia you have, the severity of your symptoms, and your personal health history.

Bacterial pneumonia is treated with antibiotics. These medications cure bacteria-caused infections by either killing the bacteria or keeping the bacteria from growing.

The most effective antibiotic to treat bacterial pneumonia depends on your age and health history. These are some of the most commonly prescribed:

Amoxicillin and clavulanate (Augmentin®)

If you are prescribed an antibiotic, it’s important to take it for the full duration. Though you may feel better within a few days of treatment, stopping the medication prematurely can cause the infection to return.

If your pneumonia was caused by a virus, your doctor may prescribe an antiviral medication such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu®), zanamivir (Relenza®), or peramivir (Rapivab®). These medications help your body fight off the virus, reducing symptoms and shortening the duration of the infection.

Not all cases of viral pneumonia require antiviral treatment, however, and symptoms can often be managed by:

Taking acetaminophen (Tylenol®) or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (Motrin®, Advil®) to control a fever

Consuming an adequate amount of fluids to loosen phlegm

Drinking warm beverages and using a humidifier to help open the airways in your lungs

In addition, allow your body to get as much rest as possible and avoid any form of cigarette smoke, including secondhand smoke.

Always consult your doctor before taking cough medicines to treat pneumonia symptoms, as coughing helps your body clear the infection. If your cough is interfering with your sleep, your doctor can recommend appropriate ways to manage it.

More severe cases of pneumonia, especially bacterial pneumonia, may require hospitalization. If you are hospitalized for pneumonia, you may receive oxygen therapy or intravenous medications, including antibiotics. Your treatment may also include breathing exercises that can loosen the fluids in your lungs.

Individuals with heart conditions or respiratory conditions.

Staying on track with immunizations is one of the most impactful steps you can take to prevent pneumonia. Since the flu is a common cause of viral pneumonia, getting your annual flu shot can also protect your lungs from infection.

The pneumococcal vaccine offers protection against a common type of bacterial pneumonia. This vaccine is especially important for children under the age of five, adults ages 65 and older, and people with certain health conditions that increase the risk of pneumonia complications such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). 

Check with your doctor about which vaccines you need.

Our pharmacists can answer any questions you may have about your medications, and we offer free same-day delivery and medication management tools like reminders and auto refills in our app.

To learn more, reach out any time through secure in-app messaging or by phone at 1-800-874-5881.

This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

When Jake Moffatt says he loves building things, he means it — sometimes literally. A construction project manager turned engineer, Jake has spent the past decade building software at mission-driven organizations. Today, as Engineering Manager of Alto Assistant, he leads the team that’s bringing wizard-like support to Alto’s customer-facing app.

Get to know Jake Moffatt, Engineering Manager on the Alto Assistant Team

When Jake Moffatt says he loves building things, he means it — sometimes literally. A construction project manager turned engineer, Jake has spent the past decade building software at mission-driven organizations. Today, as Engineering Manager of Alto Assistant, he leads the team that’s bringing wizard-like support to Alto’s customer-facing app.
Below, Jake chats with fellow engineering manager Mike Riess and recruiter Braden Hanlon about the work ahead for Alto Assistant.

I’d love to learn more about your background to get us started. How did you end up in software engineering?

When I was twelve, I started learning to code in QBASIC because I wanted to make video games. Once I wrote my first program, I was hooked! I loved computers and the creative power they gave to anyone willing to invest the time and energy to learn. Since then, I’ve built games, personal tools and projects, desktop software, and a number of apps and services — I love building things. My career has gone back and forth between construction and software engineering, but it’s been firmly in the software industry for the last ten years or so.

My favorite place to be in a company is working on something new that has a big impact or addresses an important problem. In a previous role, I built an app that helped people find roommates in a city where housing is prohibitively expensive. At that same company, I led the team responsible for creating a new vertical that eventually split off into its own company.

The goal of Alto Assistant is to help customers help themselves before reaching out to support. Our first project is introducing a wizard-like support “assistant” (hence the team name!) that guides the customer through a series of questions to narrow down the area of support. We’ve already identified a few tasks the assistant can help customers complete on their own, including making changes to upcoming deliveries or scheduling new orders.

In cases where we can’t help them just yet, our new tool generates data to help us to learn exactly what customers need help with. It’s a top priority to bake analytics into every new feature we build; even though we have years of experience supporting our customers — and we know intuitively which problems they frequently experience — we don’t have conclusive data to draw upon just yet.

We plan to start with a couple of frequent use cases and measure how often customers reach out to us for support. Then, we’ll chip away at the problem until we’ve seen a substantial improvement in the user experience. From there, we’ll move on to the next biggest problem and repeat the cycle. There’s a reason “Chip away it” is an Alto value: It’s the playbook that we’ve used to automate other critical parts of the pharmacy value stream like intake, billing, and fulfillment.

What opportunities are you most excited about?

Support drives much of the cost of every shipment today, so this is a high-impact area for our business. A year from now, it would be a stellar outcome if the Assistant team could reduce the number of issues that customers need support on by half.

We’re also thinking about the user experience beyond the app. We plan to improve the tooling that our care specialists use to provide support as well. We’ve already discussed some promising ideas like creating the concept of a conversation in support communications rather than an infinite stream of messages and building out enriched communications. We also intend to develop a custom tool that can expedite a customer’s prescription when they need their medication ASAP.

The possibilities are many, and it will take a team of determined, passionate, empathetic people to solve these challenging problems. I’m super excited to see what the Assistant team will do together.

Any lessons learned from previous experience that you’re applying to your role at Alto?

There’s always the temptation to tackle everything at once with new business initiatives. My experience leading new verticals at Apartment List and Snapdocs taught me the importance of being laser-focused on one or two key metrics instead of trying to build out a fully-realized product from the beginning. That’s exactly what we’re doing on the Alto Assistant Team with our clear focus on reducing communications per shipment — how often customers reach out for help because they could not find what they needed in our app.

It’s also important to recognize that we won’t have all the answers right out of the gate! I like to think of product development as a three-step sequence: learning, growth, and maintenance. Alto Assistant is so young that we’re very much still in the learning phase. We maintain a tight iteration loop with everything we ship: launch, measure the impact, and use the results to iterate and refine our hypotheses about what our users want. Our final product could be anything from a customer support wizard to an AI chatbot to a ticketing system — we have to rely on our key metric of communications per shipment, experimentation, and user feedback to shape the direction.

What got you excited to join Alto? What would you pass on to an engineer thinking about applying to the company?

I was impressed by the Altoids I met during the interview process. I knew I would be working with people from whom I could learn a lot, like Elnaz, who started as an individual contributor and went on to become Director of Engineering and, now, Alto’s first Head of Strategy & Operations. I was also impressed by the quality of the interview process itself — a good sign that the company was well-organized internally. Finally, the pitch for the role was extremely clear, with already-established key metrics that would directly contribute to the company’s bottom line and help Alto become more profitable.

For engineers, I think Alto is a great place for both technical challenges and career growth. We’re still small enough that every individual gets exposure to a broad portfolio of high-impact projects. It’s also a great environment for learning about how a business works — the Product & Technology organization does a great job of sharing information and presenting problems in a way that gets to the root business problem we’re trying to solve. There’s a clear line between any project a team is working on and a foundational business metric. Most importantly, we’re a company that makes a truly positive impact on our users’ lives.

Interested in learning more about engineering at Alto? Follow us on LinkedIn.

We’re excited to share that Alicia Boler Davis will be Alto’s next CEO. She will start on September 1, 2022. This is a big moment for Alto, so we wanted to share how we got here.

Introducing Alto’s New CEO - Alicia Boler Davis

We’re excited to share that Alicia Boler Davis will be Alto’s next CEO. She will start on September 1, 2022.

This is a big moment for Alto, so we wanted to share how we got here.

Alto has come a long way since we started out in 2015 by acquiring AG Pharmacy in San Francisco. Those first few months revealed just how much opportunity there was to build a better pharmacy experience for patients by rebuilding the entire end-to-end technology stack, combining it with a more efficient operational process, and backing it all with a talented and caring team. And with that insight we started forging ahead with bright eyes and relentless optimism toward our ultimate mission: fulfill medicine’s true purpose - to improve quality of life - for everyone who needs it.

Like any transformational startup, the journey has not been without its challenges. We’ve been consistently humbled by the complexity of the pharmacy industry and the challenges inherent in transforming how it works. Yet we’ve also been consistently amazed by how much opportunity there really is to make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients, and how receptive people are to a better solution. And through persistence and grit, combined with an increasingly talented and diverse team, we have overcome all the challenges that we have faced so far. We have served over 300,000 patients, with a 90 Net Promoter Score, are unit profitable, and are expected to pass $1 billion in annualized revenue in the next few months. We’re making faster progress than at any point in the company’s history. 

So if things are going so well, why are we hiring a new CEO? The opportunity ahead of us is huge, and along with that the challenges are getting more complex. Despite how far we’ve come, we are still only 0.2% of the total pharmacy industry market share. Capturing this massive opportunity will require leveling up our already world-class team with an even greater level of bold, rigorous, caring, experienced leadership.

As we got to know Alicia over the past few months, we realized that we had found the perfect partner to lead us through the next phase of Alto’s growth. Alicia was most recently the SVP of Global Customer Fulfillment at Amazon, and before that the EVP of Global Manufacturing at General Motors. Alicia grew up in Detroit, and got her first job as an engineering intern at GM. Over the next 25 years she worked her way up to running a plant, then running multiple plants, then running all of quality and customer experience, and finally running all of global manufacturing. She was the first Black woman to accomplish each of these things at GM. In 2019 she joined Amazon, and was quickly promoted to the prestigious S-team, which is the exclusive inner circle of the most senior leaders at Amazon. When she was barely a year into the job, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and over the next two years she oversaw Amazon nearly doubling its fulfillment network capacity to keep up with surging demand, while managing a team of over 800,000 people. Alicia built a reputation for successfully navigating the toughest challenges while driving unparalleled growth by bringing out the best in her teams.

From the day we started, we have always tried to build a team that is balanced between the rigor and operational excellence needed to execute in this complex industry, along with the heart and care that we saw was missing from the industry. These are not mutually exclusive attributes, but they are extremely rare to find in the same person. In Alicia, more than any other leader we’ve ever met at her level, we’ve found someone who can bring that balance that we seek. She is one of the world’s top executives in operations, and is a rigorous, disciplined operator. And at the same time, she leads with real heart and care for the people that she serves and that she works with.

With Alicia coming on board as CEO, Matt and I will continue to be involved full-time, both in supporting Alicia and with our own portfolios of projects to lead. We’re more committed than ever to Alto, and more excited than ever about the real opportunity we have in front of us. And we are so early in this journey that it is clear there is no shortage of work to do and problems to solve. Matt and I have never been attached to any particular role or title, and have each worn many different hats over the years. We are humble about what we are good at and what we are not, and just want to do what is best for our team in order to achieve our mission. In the short term we will focus on ramping Alicia up, and after that we will work more on what we do best: building our long term strategy, leveraging our entrepreneurial spirit to spin up new business lines, defining and evolving our culture, and sharing the Alto vision.

We are just getting started, and there is still so much opportunity to fix this broken industry, and truly help people live happier and healthier lives. We can’t wait to see what we will do together in this next phase of the Alto journey.

Receiving feedback from your manager or coworkers can be scary. Giving them feedback can be even scarier. It’s why many companies lack a culture of regular feedback and rely instead on a stress-inducing biannual performance review cycle.

How We’re Making It Easier (and More Fun!) to Give Teammates Feedback

One of Alto’s company values is “communicate with candor.” To make sure we live by this value, we recently set out to make peer feedback more frequent, honest, and fun. Here’s how it went.

Earlier this year, Alto’s patient care team hosted its first Speedback session, inspired by a Thoughtworks idea of the same name.

Set aside a dedicated hour for team members to give feedback to one another.

Group participants into pairs and have multiple rounds. Each round lasts four minutes, giving both participants two minutes to speak.

Change pairs after each round, ensuring that each participant meets once with every other. 

Each round begins with highlighting what the feedback recipient is excelling at, then noting opportunities for improvement.

By creating a fun format for discussions and encouraging constructive criticism, we hoped to take the fear out of feedback and give every participant valuable and actionable insights.

Because Speedback rounds are, well, speedy, it was important that the team came prepared.

A week before the session, every team member identified specific areas they wanted to improve in, from communicating more effectively to keeping coworkers motivated. These were then posted in Lattice, an HR tool we use at Alto, for everyone else to see.

Over the next week, team members reviewed one another’s feedback requests and brainstormed suggestions to share on Speedback day. If a team member wanted tips for writing cleaner code, other Speedback participants could look through past code review sessions for examples.

Since Alto is a remote-first company, the team also had to plan for a virtual Speedback session. We used Zoom breakout rooms, which include helpful features such as countdown timers for the rounds.

After some initial finicking with Zoom, the team quickly got into a groove. Each participant received valuable feedback from every other, which they used to grow over the next few months.

Feedback was also cross-functional. Engineers received feedback from product managers, and product managers received feedback from engineers. Managers received feedback from their reports and vice versa.

“With the feedback I received, I realized that each person responds best to slightly different communication styles,” says Patient Care Engineering Manager Nick Helvig. “It’s helped me better understand and collaborate with the entire team.”

The team’s first Speedback session occurred two months before Alto’s annual performance review cycle. This gave participants valuable information to use for improvement, as well as documentation of their strengths, weaknesses, and growth.

As one team member put it, “What I appreciate most about Speedback is the opportunity to get super clear on where both you and your teammates are looking to improve. It’s also a great way to track your progress and see how far you’ve come in the past two months, the past year.”

Patient Care has since made Speedback a ritual every two months.

To make sure there is useful follow-up to prior feedback, the team has adjusted the timing of rounds from four minutes to six. The first two minutes are now dedicated to revisiting items from the last session, allowing participants to reflect on their progress as well as remaining opportunities for improvement.

Curious to give Speedback a try? Start by putting three blocks of time on your team’s calendar: the Speedback session, a reminder to request feedback for yourself, and a reminder to prepare feedback for others.

Ultimately, Speedback does a lot more than make feedback less scary — it integrates regular, honest discussions into a company’s culture. We hope you’ll find it as helpful as we have!

We are honored to announce that for the second year in a row, Alto Pharmacy has been recognized by Forbes as one of America’s Best Startup Employers. This award celebrates our commitment to employer reputation, employee satisfaction and growth.

Alto Pharmacy Announced as One of Forbes Best Startup Employers for the Second Consecutive Year!

When Alto’s founders set out to transform the pharmacy experience, they outlined a vision whereby our work could improve the quality of life for everyone who needs medicine. Through this foundation grounded in helping people, we have built a company culture centered in care, inclusion, and impact. 

We are honored to announce that for the second year in a row, Alto Pharmacy has been recognized by Forbes as one of America’s Best Startup Employers. This award celebrates our commitment to employer reputation, employee satisfaction and growth. 

This recognition follows Alto Pharmacy's recent admission as a Great Place to Work-Certified™ company – awarded based on employee feedback and a rigorous assessment of Alto’s culture and benefits. Given the impact we strive to make on the communities we serve, we are humbled to share this most recent recognition alongside other accolades over the past year, including: 

The Healthcare Technology Report: Top 100 Healthcare Technology Companies of 2021 

The Healthcare Technology Report: Top 25 Consumer HealthTech Executives of 2021

The Healthcare Technology Report: Top 25 Women Leaders in Consumer HealthTech of 2021

These recognitions and achievements are only made possible through the hard work and dedication of the entire Alto team. If you are passionate about shaping the future of pharmacy, join us as we deliver our industry-leading pharmacy care to millions of people across the country.

For the full employers list and an overview of the selection methodology, head to the Forbes site.

Alto’s mission is to improve the quality of life for all who need medicine, building a pharmacy experience that serves people of all backgrounds. As we work toward a more inclusive and accessible healthcare system, we recognize the importance of diversity among physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other public health figures. In honor of Black History Month, take a moment to learn about five influential Black healthcare leaders past and present — those who paved the way and those who continue to break barriers today

Five Black Healthcare Leaders to Celebrate

Alto’s mission is to improve the quality of life for all who need medicine, building a pharmacy experience that serves people of all backgrounds. As we work toward a more inclusive and accessible healthcare system, we recognize the importance of diversity among physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other public health figures. In honor of Black History Month, take a moment to learn about five influential Black healthcare leaders past and present — those who paved the way and those who continue to break barriers today. (For additional inspiration, revisit the first post in this series.)

Dr. M. Jocelyn Elders: the first Black U.S. surgeon general

As a Black woman born to farmers in a rural, poverty-stricken area of Arkansas, M. Jocelyn Elders encountered numerous obstacles on her path to becoming the first Black U.S. Surgeon General in 1993. At 16, she met a doctor for the first time, but she didn't consider a profession in healthcare until she connected with Edith Irby Jones, the first Black person to attend the University of Arkansas Medical School, during college.

Throughout her career, Dr. Elders balanced clinical practice and research, increasing the public’s awareness of adolescent health issues. In 1987, Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, appointed Dr. Elders as head of the state’s Department of Health. The Arkansas state legislature mandated sexual education and substance misuse prevention programs in the K-12 curriculum in 1989 in large part because of Dr. Elders’ advocacy. During her tenure as Surgeon General, Dr. Elders continued to champion progressive policies, advocating for better sexual education programs, distribution of condoms in schools, and abortion rights. She remains active in the field of public health as a professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine.

Bernard J. Tyson: former CEO of Kaiser Permanente

As chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, Bernard Tyson transformed the company’s services to account for social determinants of health like food access and affordable housing as well as the importance of mental health and wellness. He was also instrumental in the development of the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine, which trains physicians to be not only clinicians, but patient advocates and innovators, too. By shining a spotlight on how social determinants of health contribute to disparities in health outcomes, Tyson leaves behind a legacy that reaches far beyond Kaiser’s services.

Nadine Burke Harris: first surgeon general of California

A physician, researcher, advocate, and California’s first surgeon general, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris has transformed how our society responds to childhood trauma. While running a health clinic in an underserved San Francisco neighborhood, she observed that preventative health practices and quality treatment didn’t resolve her patients’ risk for poor health outcomes. Drawing upon research from the CDC and Kaiser Permanente on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), which linked early adversity to higher rates of chronic illness later in life, Dr. Burke Harris studied her own patients and found that more than 67% had experienced at least one ACE. She has helped increase public awareness of ACEs and toxic stress, advocating for universal screening of children and adolescents for signs of trauma. Her 2014 TED Talk, “How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across the Lifetime,” has been viewed more than 7.5 million times, and she published The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity in 2018.

Dr. Patrice Harris: first Black female president of the American Medical Association

Despite not knowing any doctors while growing up in West Virginia, Dr. Patrice Harris’ passion for medicine started early. The board-certified psychiatrist initially planned to pursue pediatrics but shifted her focus after discovering an interest in psychiatry during medical school. Her focus on child psychiatry allows her to merge her passion for children with her expertise in mental health. Throughout her career, Dr. Harris has focused on the role of implicit bias within the medical profession and how unconscious biases among healthcare workers influence health disparities.

Dr. Harris’ involvement in the professional healthcare community spans many leadership positions at state and national organizations. She became the first Black woman elected as president of the American Medical Association in 2020. During her tenure, she focused on a variety of health issues, from opioid addiction to COVID-19. She previously chaired the AMA’s Opioid Task Force, providing evidence-based recommendations to clinicians with the goal of ending the opioid epidemic.

Betty Smith Williams: first Black graduate of the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing

Betty Smith Williams was the first Black student to earn a nursing degree from Cleveland’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, in 1954, and the first Black individual to teach at a higher education institution in the state of California, but her individual accomplishments are only a part of her legacy. Williams has helped ensure that today’s aspiring Black healthcare professionals have the opportunities and support to break down barriers of their own. She was instrumental in developing the National Black Nurses Association and the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations, Inc. — initiatives that have elevated the voices of Black nurses within the profession. In uniting Black nurses, Williams hoped to create better health outcomes among the Black community. In her own words: "We had no voice, but we understood our culture and our unique needs better than anyone else.”

Join us in delivering our industry-leading pharmacy care to millions of people across the country. As a member of the team, you’ll play an integral role in improving our customers’ quality of life and redefining what’s possible in pharmacy. View our current openings.

In honor of National ERG Day, which falls on November 17 every year, we’re highlighting the important work of Alto’s six ERGs. 

Celebrating National ERG Day at Alto

The history of employee resource groups (ERGs) in the U.S. dates back to the 1960s, when a group of Black employees at Xerox self-organized to discuss their experiences of workplace discrimination and advocate for more inclusive policies. At the time, these networks of employees united by a shared identity or experience were known as affinity groups.

Today, ERGs can be found at companies of all sizes and industries where they play an important role in shaping an inclusive culture and fostering a sense of belonging in the workplace. In honor of National ERG Day, which falls on November 17 every year, we’re highlighting the important work of Alto’s six ERGs. 

At Alto, we believe that every perspective matters, and that diversity fosters creativity and leads to innovation. Our six ERGs are part of our broader commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), both in creating our company culture and delivering an exceptional pharmacy experience.

"At Alto, we’re committed to building and sustaining an inclusive workplace that both supports our employees and helps us deliver on our mission to improve the quality of life for everyone who needs medicine,” shared Ty Bledsoe, Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. “Our ERGs help foster authentic relationships, offer safe spaces for education and conversation, and celebrate the incredible diversity of our Altoids and our communities."

By building community, providing support, and contributing to an individual’s personal and professional well-being, these groups help ensure that every Altoid feels a sense of belonging each day at work and that we appreciate the diversity of the customers we serve.

Here are just a few ways that each Alto ERG contributes to a more inclusive culture and pharmacy experience.

Umoja’s mission is to inform, educate, and empower Black Altoids and allies. The group has deepened Altoids’ understanding of the Black experience by sharing educational resources in support of Black History Month, Juneteenth, and Pride.

They also help our team explore the intersection of identity and healthcare as it relates to our services. After Dr. Reverend Stacey Edwards, founder of Fertility for Colored Girls, spoke at Alto about the fertility journeys of Black families this spring, Umoja continued the conversation by inviting Dr. Temeka Zore, OB GYN and reproductive endocrinologist at Spring Fertility, and Esther Ebeuhi, a licensed doula and birth equity analyst, to speak on Black motherhood.

Alto Auténtico aims to build community among Latinx Altoids and ensure that they have a voice at Alto. In addition to facilitating company-wide learning about the Latinx experience and the diversity within Latinx culture, Alto Auténtico’s mentorship program connects junior and senior Latinx team members for coaching sessions and professional development. The group is also working with Alto’s operations, product, and marketing teams to establish a bilingual team to better support Spanish-speaking individuals using our pharmacy services across our communities.

Proud unites LGBTQ+ Altoids and allies in creating an environment where all Altoids can be their most authentic selves. The group has led Alto in celebrating important LGBTQ+ awareness days with events such as drag queen bingo nights for Pride and LGBTQ+ history month. Two Proud members who identify as bisexual gave a talk for Bi Visibility Day on September 23 and also shared their experiences of coming out in in observance of National Coming Out Day on October 11.

Proud also invites experts to speak at Alto about a range of LGBTQ+ issues. They recently hosted a session with Chris Tompkins, author of Raising LGBTQ Allies: A Parent’s Guide to Changing the Message from the Playground, and a fireside chat with Dr. Lisa Capaldini, who has focused on HIV since the beginning of the epidemic.

Women of Alto + Allies (WOAA) helps create an inclusive community for women at Alto with mentorship and networking opportunities that advance their leadership potential. Their newly launched initiative, WOAA Project Spotlight, celebrates female-identifying team members who have helped us deliver on our mission while living our values, and a quarterly webinar series shares how various self-identifying Altoid women launched their careers.

Working Parents + Allies facilitates discussion and collaboration in celebration of our working parents. The ERG has led Alto in supporting working parents with a variety of initiatives, including a community event with the Kids & Art Foundation’s Purvi Shah in honor of Bereaved Parents Month this July; an “Ask a Parent Anything” Slack advice hotline for parents, caretakers, and allies; and free access to Outschool’s live online classes for kids ages 3-18.

And with their second annual Holiday Giveback Program, which donates gifts to kids and families in need through Marine Toys for Tots and the Boys & Girls Club of America, Working Parents + Allies is an example of how our ERGs look for opportunities to give back and show support beyond the immediate Alto community.

During Asian American Pacific Islander month, the Asians ERG shared resources for individuals like Modern Health's Healing Asian Communities Circles and highlighted community groups for volunteerism and donations.

To learn more about any of our employee resource groups, contact the emails below.

Women of Alto + Allies: womensERG@alto.com

Working Parents & Allies: parents@alto.com

Visit alto.com/careers to learn more about our open roles and join us in delivering industry-leading pharmacy care.

We’re excited to welcome Ramiah Martin to Alto as Vice President, Operations & Supply Chain. Here’s more on what drew him to Alto and the opportunities he’s most excited about, in his own words. 

Meet Ramiah Martin, VP, Operations & Supply Chain

We’re excited to welcome Ramiah Martin to Alto as Vice President, Operations & Supply Chain. Prior to joining Alto, Ramiah was Senior Director of Operations at Amazon, where he developed the strategic vision for the company’s operations and led a cross-functional team in implementing new processes and technologies to streamline use of resources.

His dedication to continually improving the customer experience is matched by a passion for healthcare change, and we could not be more thrilled to have Ramiah on the team. Here’s more on what drew him to Alto and the opportunities he’s most excited about, in his own words. 

Welcome to Alto! What inspired you to join the team?

When I first learned about Alto, its mission and values stood out to me first and foremost. I immediately felt a strong connection with the company’s mission of improving the quality of people’s lives through medicine and its commitment to putting customers first.

I was compelled by the opportunity to truly make a positive impact and help transform an industry that is both in need of improvement and slow to evolve. Through my previous experiences in operations management at Amazon and UPS, I know that streamlined processes can have a massive impact on a company’s results. At Alto, all of those efforts to innovate and maximize efficiency are in the service of driving broader change within pharmacy and healthcare.

I also appreciated that Alto is intentional about investing in talent representative of the communities we serve. As we continue to grow, and our customer base diversifies, it’s critical to have that diversity represented in the people building our new model for pharmacy care.

What is the focus of your role and what opportunities are you excited about?

As Vice President of Operations & Supply Chain, I’m focused on creating a scalable and sustainable organization, ensuring that as we grow, we continue to deliver an exceptional experience for our customers.

We have a great opportunity to ensure that individuals who have been historically underserved by medicine receive the standard of care that they deserve. I believe in the product — we make it as simple as possible to manage your health and learn more about medication and pricing, and our customers’ medication adherence rates are far above industry standards. I know there’s a lot more we can accomplish, and it’s a privilege to lead a team that’s united by a bold vision for healthcare.

I love movies, except for horror (Michael Jackson's “Thriller” video and Children of the Corn scarred me). I will go to the movies by myself as long as I have my Cherry Coke. It’s my way of shutting off my brain for an hour or two and relaxing.

You can find more information about Ramiah or connect with him directly on LinkedIn. If you have any questions about Alto, or are interested in joining our team, please visit alto.com/careers.

October is American Pharmacist Month, a time to celebrate the critical role that pharmacists and pharmacy technicians play within healthcare.

Celebrating American Pharmacist Month At Alto

October just might be our favorite month of the year, and for a good reason: it’s American Pharmacist Month, a time to celebrate the critical role that pharmacists and pharmacy technicians play within healthcare.

Pharmacists are one of the most accessible healthcare professionals, seeing people 5 to 8 times more frequently per year than primary care providers. And as such, they are integral to your overall health and well-being. 

You may not realize all the responsibilities that a pharmacist’s role encompasses. In addition to filling your prescriptions, they also educate on medication usage, advocate for changes that improve care, and problem solve clinical, ethical, managerial, economic, and legal compliance issues, becoming a trusted resource to the individuals they care for. Extensive training and education are required to enter the profession: a pharmacist must earn a doctorate in Pharmacy and complete state-specific licensing requirements before becoming licensed to practice pharmacy.

At many traditional retail pharmacies, each pharmacist is expected to tackle a broad assortment of tasks that often leave them feeling overwhelmed and stressed, like managing transactions for customers, answering questions about where non-pharmacy items are stocked, and contacting insurance companies on top of ensuring prescriptions are dispensed properly and safely. At Alto, however, pharmacists align with one of several practice areas — fulfillment, customer care, and onboarding — so that they are able to focus on specific aspects of pharmacist practice and deliver exceptional care to Alto’s customers.

Fulfillment pharmacists are responsible for inventory management, medication preparation, physical quality checks, and dispensing, all to make sure the right medication arrives at your door, on schedule. Our customer care pharmacists review prescriptions for accuracy and for potential complications with other medications on file; provide individualized consultations on dosing, side effects and other concerns; and partner with healthcare providers on clinical recommendations. And our onboarding pharmacists — a relatively new role at Alto — are a bridge to an individual's broader team, supporting healthcare providers and ensuring continuity of care between prescriber and pharmacy.

“At Alto, we are proud of our customer-focused services and forward-thinking means of providing those services,” shares Ashley Lee, Onboarding Pharmacist. “Being a pharmacist at Alto gives me the unique opportunity to not only practice patient care, but also to design it to be meaningful to as many individuals in need as possible. The innovation never stops here at Alto.”

How Alto pharmacists serve our communities

There’s no shortage of opportunities for a pharmacist to support an individual with their medication needs or to be a partner in their health journey alongside their doctor’s office, family and other support networks. Here are just a few of the many roles that Alto pharmacists fulfill.

Literally. Our pharmacists are educators who mentor other pharmacists-in-training. Sandra Aziz, Pharmacy Compliance Program and Training Manager, is responsible for training new Pharmacy Managers and Supervisors at our dispensing sites, ensuring they have the resources needed to be effective managers and to oversee their pharmacy location’s compliance program and daily operations.

Sandra also manages our internship programs for pharmacy students. Alto offers an immersive 10-week Pharmacy Operations Management summer internship program for eligible students at Howard University’s School of Pharmacy (HUCOP). The program provides an opportunity to gain a breadth of experience across clinical pharmacy care, operations, and business development. Students also have the opportunity to actively influence Alto’s software development and implement ideas that further preventative healthcare and pharmacist involvement in community health.

Sandra also launched our Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPE) and Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPE) programs, which allow students from pharmacy schools across the country to select Alto as a practice site. While at Alto, they are exposed to highly skilled and entrepreneurial pharmacists, engineers, and operations experts with whom they can partner to challenge, reinvent, and improve pharmacy. 

“It’s been really rewarding to see more pharmacy students expressing interest in our programs,” Sandra said. “We have a rare opportunity to give students an experiential learning experience that you won’t find at any other pharmacy. At Alto, our pharmacists work cross-functionally across operations, engineering, and design to build a better, more intuitive community pharmacy from the ground up. We focus on challenges faced by patients, providers, and payers, and find solutions that optimize experience, transparency, and health outcomes.”

Read our previous post, 'From Pharmacist to Professor: Sandra Aziz Spotlight'.

They’re also here to teach you! Our pharmacists are happy to chat on the phone for however long you need to offer individualized support. Many customers use these one-on-one consultations to learn how to give themselves injections as part of fertility treatment or diabetes management or to confirm special storage or dosing instructions, but our pharmacists are happy to share their expertise on any question related to your prescriptions or health needs.

For example, did you know that our pharmacists are experts on managing side effects? As a bridge between you and your doctor, our pharmacists review all of your current medications to identify any potential symptoms or medication interactions, and they’re available to talk through any questions or concerns.

Lawmakers in several states have recognized the accessibility of pharmacists and their potential to play an even larger role in healthcare, specifically in the HIV prevention space. California became the first state to allow pharmacists to prescribe HIV prevention medication like pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in 2019, and Colorado became the second in November 2020. 

“As healthcare providers in the community, there is a big opportunity for us as pharmacists to play a critical role in HIV prevention and help increase accessibility to medications like PrEP and PEP,” explains Susan Sun, Specialty Pharmacist. “It’s been wonderful to see growing recognition of a pharmacist’s impact even outside of the healthcare community, and the recent legislation that allows pharmacists to prescribe in some states is just a start. It’s a privilege for pharmacists to be a part of these exciting changes and make HIV prevention easier for others.”

In honor of American Pharmacist Month, we’d like to say a big and heartfelt thank you to our incredible team of 175+ pharmacists. Each of you plays a critical role in the wellbeing of our customers, the strength of our provider relationships and the quality of our service — we’re grateful for your hard work all year long. 

Here are just a few of the faces responsible for providing exceptional pharmacist care at Alto!

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in October 2021 and has been updated for accuracy and completeness.

October 11 marks National Coming Out Day, an opportunity to celebrate all those who have come out as LGBTQ+ and recognize the courage they’ve demonstrated by choosing to be their authentic selves.

Celebrating National Coming Out Day at Alto

October 11 marks National Coming Out Day, an opportunity to celebrate all those who have come out as LGBTQ+ and recognize the courage they’ve demonstrated by choosing to be their authentic selves. In honor of this annual celebration, we sat down with two Alto team members — Ben Romero (he/they), Business Operations Manager for Health Plans and Travis White (he/him), Senior Software Engineer — who generously shared their experiences of coming out as bisexual/queer. Here are their stories, in their own words.

Ben: Like a lot of folks, I avoided coming out for most of my life. I grew up knowing that I wasn’t exactly straight and later recognized that I’m bisexual. I remember my entire experience around my sexuality being wrapped in shame. I would reluctantly conform to heteronormativity just to avoid the fear of being outed or questioned. It wasn't until college that I first felt like I could open myself up to the experience and validation that I deserved. By the time I graduated from college, I had a refreshed sense of my place in the world, but I was still hiding my sexuality from my family.

Five years after college, I was finally ready to be open with my family about being bisexual, and it was the first time I felt as if I had to “come out.” At the time I was engaged to my non-binary/queer partner. My family knew my partner as a woman, but my partner was also beginning to validate their nonbinary gender experience. All I could think about was how much of a disservice it would be to our identities as a queer couple if we started our marriage having to assume more invalidating heteronormative assumptions. I first told my closest family members — my younger brother and parents — who supported me unconditionally and showed me so much love. Not every family member was as accepting of my sexuality, which was really disappointing, but I had more than enough support from my chosen family to finally overcome the fear that I had held on to for so long. 

Travis: I realized I wasn’t completely straight at some point in high school. Growing up Catholic, I was always taught that men are attracted to women and that being gay was a sin. So when I found myself attracted to both girls and guys during high school, I wondered what was wrong with me. I brushed it off and ignored that aspect of my sexuality for a long time, which I would later come to regret since it definitely fed into ongoing anxiety and depression in college.

I first came out to my closest friends during my junior year of college. By that point, I had fully accepted that I wasn’t straight, but I had never acted on my bisexuality. I had only dated girls, so my friends saw me as completely straight. I couldn’t quite figure out how to tell them, and it ended up happening organically while hanging out on a Friday night. We were playing a game around the table that required everyone to share something no one else knew about them. Something came over me and I decided to throw caution to the wind with a, “by the way… I’m bi.”  

I came out to my parents several years later when I was working my first engineering job out of college, living in Silicon Valley and loving life. I knew that if they chose not to accept me, it was going to be their loss. After a night out (and an amazing prime rib dinner) when they were in town, I told them that there was something I wanted to tell them about myself - that I am bisexual. My dad’s first response was, “What does that mean?” I informed them that it means I am attracted to both men and women, though more recently, I’ve come to think of myself as being attracted to interesting people regardless of the gender they identify as. My parents were very supportive, but truthfully I had reached a point where I could be accepting of the worst-case scenario. 

Ben: I was most grateful for the sense of relief I experienced. Despite facing criticism and homophobia from some of my siblings after coming out, I couldn’t shake the sense of pride I felt from allowing myself to be unapologetically queer and visible. I’m finally allowing this part of me to flourish and grow. It’s liberating to be radically honest with yourself and others, regardless of what anyone else may think. I’ve now come to identify with the term queer in addition to bisexual. Part of the growth I’ve experienced involves unlearning so much of what I’ve been socialized to believe about the gender binary, and I’m just now starting to understand where I exist outside of it.  

Travis: When I came out to my friends during college, we stayed up talking until very late into the night. I left feeling a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders — and so full of love and support from some of the people I was closest to.

And later when I came out to my parents, they accepted me with open loving arms, for which I’m grateful, but I was also prepared to move forward with my life even if they did not accept me as my true authentic self.

What resources, support groups, or communities did you rely on when coming out? 

Blog