As health systems and hospitals implement AI-powered technologies into daily workflows — such as ambient listening and drafting patient portal messages — pharmacy departments are also exploring AI's capabilities.
At Becker's CPO Summit, pharmacy leaders from Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger, Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health, Louisville, Ky.-based Baptist Health and Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Health shared how they're considering AI's place in their departments.
Most agreed that pharmacy's use of AI is in its early stages but identified several opportunities, including support for prior authorization tasks and clinical decisions.
"First, when you hear about AI, you think to yourself that nothing like that could ever replace clinical decision-making. And I still wholeheartedly believe that," said Kelly Guza, PharmD, associate vice president and acute pharmacy services at Geisinger. "And then you hear about ChatGPT taking the NAPLEX and passing or taking a medical board exam and passing. So I think we probably will need to be forced to think differently."
Dr. Guza noted that AI can augment low-level clinical decision-making while professionals focus on higher-level tasks. Nilesh Desai, RPh, chief pharmacy officer at Baptist Health, echoed this view, adding that pharmacy leaders need to collaborate with IT teams to plan timelines, strategize education efforts and prioritize the end-user experience.
The technology could also alleviate burdensome prior authorization processes, according to Ping Du, PharmD, vice president of outpatient pharmacy at Baylor Scott & White Health. He also suggested that AI-powered robots could help with prescription pickups and medication adherence.
Andre Harvin, PharmD, chief pharmacy officer and vice president of pharmacy services at Cone Health, highlighted another potential benefit of AI: speeding up access to data on drug costs and outcomes.
"Drugs in the pipeline are only getting more and more expensive, and if we're not able to very clearly connect the dots on the costs and the outcomes, pharmacy will always be in the cross-hair," Dr. Harvin said. "We will always be asked to justify the cost of drugs or budget. That's where I think that AI is really going to help us get to more real world evidence quicker, and be able to look at our own internal measurements a lot quicker."
It's too early to determine the full extent of AI's potential in hospital pharmacy departments, Mr. Desai said. However, hospital and health system executives should be actively investigating AI opportunities in pharmacy because, as Dr. Du noted, "it's coming, like it or not."