The Future of Pharmacy: The Next 20 Year’s Opportunities & Challenges

Technology is transforming every corner of the pharmacy.

 

Thus, there is one question that is roaming in every healthcare professional and a common person’s mind – what will be the future of the pharmacy?

The expectation is higher so is the fear.

Hence, we have decided to share information along with our thoughts on the future of pharmacy.

 

But why consider our blog?

We understand every aspect of the healthcare industry.

Means, the entire article is not just research-based. It also contains our comprehensive understanding of healthcare and its future.

Despite our extensive knowledge and experience, we spent almost 5 hours listening to the thought process of the top healthcare leaders and tech giants about the future of pharmacy in order to provide real-world information to you.

Before jumping into the topic, let’s take a quick overview of the current scenario of the pharmacy ecosystem.

 

The role of pharmacy and pharmacist in the healthcare ecosystem is evolving at a tremendous pace

The prior reason is robust technologies such as –

• Artificial intelligence and Machine learning
• RPA (Robotic Process Automation)
• Healthcare chatbot
• Telemedicine or telehealth
• IoT (Internet of Things)
• Robotics

Means, the current scenario is consumer-focused and data-driven.

However, these are the driving factors that are constructing strong roots in the pharmacy future.

What’s more, its implementation and advancement are rising at an enormous pace.

From the above analysis, we can safely conclude that the current ecosystem is accelerating the revolution in future pharmacy.

 

How future of pharmacy look like in the next 20 years?

After analyzing tons of factors, we have come to the conclusion that the below is the ultimate goal of the global pharmacy leaders in the future.

• Affordability and convenience
• More personalized consumer experience
• Improvement in the care coordination
• Better outcomes
• Health insights

The combination of technologies and pharmacies is a driving factor in achieving the above goals.

 

The pharmacy technology capabilities will evolve in the next 5 years!

Let’s understand with an example where a patient has type 2 diabetes.

#Current pharmacy ecosystem

1. Patient first needs to visit the healthcare professional for the prescription.
2. Then he or she travels to the pharmacy store.
3. As per the prescription, the pharmacist gives the medicines
4. Repeat the same process for the refill
5. No real-time monitoring of the patient’s health

#The future pharmacy

1. Prescribe

AI engine analyzes the condition of the patients with the help of large-scale data.

As per the report, the virtual healthcare professional creates and shares the prescriptions note with the pharmacist via any health tech solution.

 

2. Prescription fill

The advanced automatic dispensing system fills the medication in a faster manner while at the same time ensuring patient safety.

Then, the driverless car or drone delivers the prescription to the doorstep.

 

3. Refill

Patients don’t need to visit the pharmacy store for refills or any medication concerns.

They can easily connect with both healthcare professionals and pharmacists via virtual care or tele pharmacy.

 

4. Consult and monitoring

This one is the revolutionary aspect of the future of pharmacy in which AI and IoT play an important role.

The IoT continuously analyzes the vital body signs of patients and shares them directly with the pharmacy tech system.

The AI algorithm performs a quick analysis of the received data and if the data is higher or lower than the ideal state, it gives alerts to both pharmacists and healthcare professionals.

As per the regulation, the pharmacist increases or decreases the medication dose and shares the information with the healthcare professionals.

During the entire process, there is no need for the patient to step out of their homes.

The opportunities in the future of pharmacy are technology-driven

Whoever thought that in 2022 a patient can connect with both healthcare professionals and pharmacists using the same application.

The combination of telehealth and pharmacy app development made it possible.

What’s more, it is playing a substantial role in lowering the medical costs for patients and operating costs for healthcare entities.

However, it is still in the development process.

But, the advancement in such technologies opens an endless number of possibilities for elevating the future of pharmacy.

Remember, in the end, the ultimate goal of any future technologies is to improve patient care outcomes and experience without adding any costlier and time-consuming aspects to the care delivery process.

 

Here is what we strongly believe in the role of technologies in future pharmacies.

1. The future will be more focused on digital therapeutics, implants, programmable bacteria, and nutraceuticals for patients’ treatment rather than being stuck in chemical and biological approaches.
2. The retail pharmacies will transform into an all-in-one solution for care and product needs.
3. Drones, driverless cars, and bots will replace the human in prescription delivery
4. AI and ML will enhance patient safety, experience, and satisfaction along with helping the pharmacist in making growth-driven business decisions.
5. RPA is going to bring peace of mind by eliminating manual errors, reducing the work burden on the pharmacy staff, improving accuracy, ensuring operational efficiency, and lowering operating and resource costs.
6. IoT is going to help the pharmacies in analyzing the past and real-time health conditions of the patients which will help them in making more consumer-centric decisions without any hassle.
7. Big data will support the pharmacies in making organizational decisions which will help them in decoding the loopholes in the ecosystem and generating more revenue with ease.

 

The challenges in the future of technology-driven pharmacies

There are plenty of roadblocks that may restrict the pace of pharmacies from thriving at a rapid pace.

Here are some of the most crucial ones.

• Data privacy and security will be a big concern
• What will be the cost of the technology implementation and maintenance
• Will other health tech solutions survive?
• How quickly will pharmacies adopt such technologies?
• What if healthcare professionals will fail to operate the technologies due to their complexity?

 

Final words

Technology is a decider for the future of pharmacy.

The implementation of robust and outcome-driven technology can unlock a vast number of doors for pharmacies to achieve their business goals with ease.