The Future of Pharmacy is Digital

Patients need digital pharmacists to monitor the growing armamentarium of digital therapeutics and the flood of patient-specific data

New career paths are appearing in pharmacy, and these career paths are digital ones. The FDA is approving growing numbers of digital products to monitor and treat patients, building on a growing acceptance of wearable products to monitor health, health apps to guide daily activities, smart pill dispensers to monitor and improve adherence, and much more.

“Technology is changing the patient journey,” said Timothy Aungst, PharmD, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. “Digital health is mainstream, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and telehealth. We need to catch up with digital resources, not stay tied to legacy approaches. Digital health needs digital pharmacists.”

Aungst explored ways pharmacists can move practice into the digital world during his presentation at the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) 2022 Annual Meeting & Exposition, held in San Antonio, Texas.

Digital health is hardly a new concept, he explained. Digital monitoring and mechanical health alerts have long been standard for cars and trucks in the United States. In humans, though, digital health includes a growing variety of sensors, mobile apps, telehealth applications, artificial intelligence, voice assistances, robotics, and automation. Most patients—80%, Aungst noted—already use the Internet to search for health information, and 42% of adults use digital health tracking devices. The first smart toilets, to monitor urine and feces for glucose, blood, and other biomarkers, are poised to enter the market soon.

“Patients have become consumers of health and the home is becoming the center of care,” Aungst said. “We need to move away from a product-based model towards a focus on services empowered by digital technology, meeting patients where they are, and adopting a consumer-first mentality. This is the future of how we will deliver care for patients.”

The broad umbrella of digital health includes multiple overlapping technologies, approaches, audiences, and uses:

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