Research — Propose your Idea for what the Ideal Pharmacy Experience of the Future looks like.

5 min readFeb 26, 2023

pharmacy experience of the future — Onuzurike “TouchingLives” Chukwuagozie — pharmacy experience of the future

Propose your idea for what the ideal pharmacy experience of the future looks like. In your answer, explain how your idea will help address one or more of the following activities that a patient might be looking to complete:
• Select the right kind of pharmacy coverage
• Access medications (e.g., in person pick up, drive-up pick up, home delivery, etc.)
• Schedule refills for medications
• Obtain approval for a prescription (e.g., prior authorization)
• Select which therapies/medications to use (e.g., Understand correct use of medications, side effects, drug/drug interactions)
• Track and manage medications
• Pay for medications

RESPONSE:

My ideal Pharmacy of the future will be technology driven. It will be enhanced, connected and transformed.

The future of pharmacy practice is enhanced clinical care:

Pharmacists will spend more time managing changing patient health needs including disease prevention, detection, and monitoring.

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians will use their full scopes of practice and work together to provide clinical care to patients

In the future, patients who are more vulnerable, including those on high risk medications with many medical conditions, have low health literacy will be a focus of increased pharmacy attention.

Pharmacists will know the goals, risks and needs of a patient and this knowledge will form the basis of care. Patient monitoring and follow up will become routine.

Preventative care will be planned and organized for an individual patient or groups of patients and professional pharmacy services will be part of a more holistic care plan.

Advanced data analytics including artificial intelligence (AI) will alert pharmacists and patients about drug therapy problems and focus pharmacist efforts to where they can have the most impact.

Use of AI will also streamline pharmacy practice by removing uncomplicated work processes from the pharmacy.

In the future Pharmacy, dispensing medication on-site will no longer be the primary focus of many pharmacies as online payment can be made for meds, also patients can selects self-driving car/drone delivery for their meds, which are filled and packaged.

The physical space and workflows in a pharmacy will be improved for better use of e-Health technology, private patient consultations, community health programs and inter-professional teamwork.

Pharmacists will work with policy makers to lead the development of health and social care policies that will ensure quality medication management and will plan care around populations’ needs and care gaps.

The future of pharmacy practice is connected.

In the future, electronic pharmacy records will be complete so that they show a patients’ medication use and information about health over time. They will include dispensing and professional service delivery records, electronic records from other organizations such as primary care or hospitals, laboratory and diagnostic test results and data from mobile apps that people use in their everyday lives.

Pharmacists will easily share clinical records with other health care providers and with patients themselves.

Pharmacists will develop and implement care plans together with other members of the health care team across the spectrum of care. This includes helping patients manage chronic disease or hospital admissions and post-hospital discharge care. Pharmacists working in different organizations or sectors will work easily together.

My ideal Pharmacy of the future will embrace technology and Center it on the consumer as new care models continue to evolve with the role of the pharmacist and pharmacy.

For your selected type of care (e.g., acute, chronic) what are the most important moments in the pharmacy experience to improve for? Explain your reasoning

RESPONSE

The important moments in which Pharmacy of the future will need to improve to be able to treat chronic conditions are explained:

To treat chronic conditions, a patient’s experience with the pharmacy of the future will be a true omni-channel experience. They will engage with their pharmacy in many ways. In fact, their experience won’t start with walking in the door. It will probably start on their couch when they use a mobile device to contact their pharmacy.

When the patient does go to the pharmacy, that physical experience will be an extension of their virtual visit. The interaction will mirror the experience they have with other retailers. There won’t be any need for back and forth questions. The patient is being expected and will be attended to. An analogy would be checking in for your flight at home and then going to the airport.

Another process change will be how patients get their prescriptions. Patients will be able to fill their orders online and have their drugs delivered to their home. This process will also be similar to their experience with other retailers.

Patients will probably always need to go to their pharmacy for some human interaction. But that interaction will be much different in the future than it is today. Today, most patients come in to get a prescription filled. With that need eliminated by other processes, patients will come in for a variety of personalized clinical services like:

· Health education

· Point-of-care testing

· Adherence counseling

· Chronic disease management

In the years ahead, pharmacists will need to continue to evolve in providing their clinical expertise in treating patients and being an integral part of the healthcare team.

SKETCHES AND RENDERINGS:

Self-Driving Med Delivery Car (Pharmacy of the future)

Med Delivery Drone (Pharmacy of the future)

This was a private research done in August, 2021 by Onuzurike Chukwuagozie and also a part of Mindsumo Challenge. It has been laying idle since then on my PC, but I believe you might find it resourceful. I refuse to remain silent! No one should!!

Does this work make me a researcher? Hell Yeah…hahaha

So, if you have any research work, hit me up: onuzurikechukwuagozie@gmail.com