Increased use of technology in the workplace has created a market for skilled practitioners who are able to implement and manage the new systems.
New opportunities abound for those pharmacists with an interest in the technology side of medication delivery
In today’s world of global connectivity and increased communication, pharmacy is yet another profession benefiting from technological advances, which are evident in almost every corner of pharmacy practice. Introduction of the electronic medical record (EMR), computerized physician order entry (CPOE), and robotics has eased the pharmacist’s work flow considerably, but human input is still required for development, maintenance, and evaluation of these systems.
The complexity of the new technology that is being utilized in hospitals demands that there be people on staff with a deep understanding of the clinical aspects of patient care and medication use as well as of the inherent complexities of the technology, said Kasey K. Thompson, Pharm.D., director of the Center on Patient Safety, ASHP.
“The nature of their training as drug therapy experts and their knowledge of the entire medication use process make pharmacists ideal for these roles,” Thompson said. Pharmacists skilled in hospital information system development, management, and effectiveness measurement will be in high demand, he added.
Pharmacy informatics refers to the relationship between pharmacy and medical computer applications that manage medication information and knowledge to enhance the services being provided, explained Diane L. Seger, R.Ph., who is pharmaco- informatics specialist, Clinical Quality and Analysis (CQA), Information Systems, at Partners HealthCare System in Wellesley, Mass. In her role, Seger writes functional specifications and works with developers to supply additional clinical decision supportincluding drug-disease, drug-pregnancy, and drug-laboratory interventionsto the outpatient prescribing system in her facility’s EMR. Design and implementation of clinical decision support systems represent an emerging opportunity for pharmacists today, she said.
Pharmacists today can play a vital role in the development and maintenance of information technology
Prevention of errors is a primary reason for use of technology in pharmacy practice. Regarding her work with colleague David W. Bates, M.D., director of the CQA group and renowned expert on improving medication safety, Seger said their initial findings showed that medication errors were likely due to system flawsthe reason she has been working to develop and enhance her facility’s CPOE system, EMR, and clinical decision support. Modifications in these systems are also expected to lead to substantial savings in medication costs.
In her article “Computerized POE: Changing Roles for the Clinical Pharmacist” (JAPhA, 1999), Seger said she believes that the role for pharmacists in informatics will continue to grow as physician order entry and “expert” computer systems (those using knowledge to help in the decision-making process) become more commonplace.
