FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Silver Bay, Minnesota Joins Rural Health Innovation Study
City becomes second Minnesota community to test in-home pharmacy and care model addressing rural healthcare access
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. / SILVER BAY, Minn. (September 9, 2026) — Ōmcare and the City of Silver Bay are proud to announce that Silver Bay, Minnesota will join the Rural Health Innovation study, a six-month initiative led by the University of Minnesota Center for Healthy Aging & Innovation designed to bring pharmacy and care services directly into the homes of older adults in rural communities.
Silver Bay, a city of roughly 1,800 residents on Minnesota’s North Shore, has faced a shrinking local healthcare footprint in recent years, including the closure of its local clinic. Nearly a third of the city’s residents are 65 or older, a population especially affected when local health and human services scale back. Rural communities across Minnesota and the country have experienced similar losses, leaving residents to travel much farther for basic care and medication access.
The project gives residents of Silver Bay a small device, about the size of a large bagel toaster, called the Ōmcare Home Health Hub®. The Hub helps residents (and their families) by offering automated medication scheduling and dispensing. The Ōmcare Hub dispenses a little packet holding the medication you need to take at 8, at 12, at 6 – whatever time of day you need it. It also includes a screen for video calls to family and friends, 24/7 phone access to pharmacy staff, and once-a-month pharmacy check-ins. The goal is to demonstrate that older adults in rural communities can access consistent, reliable pharmacy and care services regardless of their distance from a physical pharmacy.
As a small city working to support an aging population with limited local healthcare infrastructure, we see real value in this kind of innovation reaching our residents,” said Mayor Wade LeBlanc of Silver Bay. “We’re glad to help connect the study team with local residents, community organizations, and other local partners as the pilot gets underway. Our goal is to prove this model extends access to care, and to partner with Essentia Health to continue this new service model for our community long after the pilot ends.”
“Silver Bay reflects exactly the kind of community this study was built for: one that loves where it lives, but is losing the healthcare infrastructure to support aging in place,” said Lisa Lavin, CEO of Ōmcare. “Bringing this model to Silver Bay lets us test whether in-home pharmacy and care can help fill that gap and keep residents healthy, independent, and connected to their community.”
About the Rural Health Innovation Initiative
The Rural Health Innovation Initiative is a six-month pilot study evaluating a scalable model for remote pharmacy access and in-home care in rural communities. The University of Minnesota Center for Healthy Aging & Innovation is leading the pilot evaluation, assessing outcomes associated with the Ōmcare Home Health Hub® and the model’s potential for broader adoption in rural communities nationwide.
Interested in participating?
Contact the University of Minnesota study office:
Email: healthstudy@umn.edu
Phone: 612-626-4816
Sign up: https://redcap.link/ruralhealth
About the City of Silver Bay
The mission of the City of Silver Bay is to make Silver Bay a great place to live, work, and visit by providing cost-effective government and services to improve the lives of those it serves.
About Ōmcare
Ōmcare is a digital health company Changing the way the world cares® by integrating technology with pharmacy and care services to help older adults live where they want to live, longer. Ōmcare enables a more efficient, tech-enabled care delivery model that addresses workforce shortages and serves as the last mile of pharmacy into the home, ensuring the right medication is taken at the right time. To learn more, visit https://omcare.com/.
Media contact
J. Marie Fieger
612-940-1668