McLernons

We’re very excited about the introduction of AI into the pharmacy environment and we’re currently working on ways it can be used in workflow management and stock optimisation. There are obvious benefits with patient medication reviews, patient counselling, and chronic disease management where AI can very effectively reduce workload. This in turn elevates the level of care pharmacies provide to their communities.

Additionally, AI can assist in optimising medication dosages, ensuring patients receive the most effective and safe dosages, i.e. optimum duration. It’s been proved a disproportionate number of patients continue to take medication beyond its effective treatment period, which can lead to other health issues.

Continuous monitoring of patient data can also help in early detection of health deteriorations, enabling timely interventions. AI will also play a crucial role in maintaining data integrity, ensuring patient information is accurate and up-to-date. We also like the idea that AI driven tools will provide personalised education on medications and conditions, improving patient understanding and engagement — how to use an inhaler correctly, for example. This technology will also allow for real-time patient feedback, enabling pharmacies to adapt their services to meet patient needs better.

We are also very conscious as we introduce AI, and ethical use of patient data and integration with existing systems are paramount. Ensuring privacy, accuracy, and seamless operation will be crucial for the successful adoption of AI technologies. It will require careful planning and consideration, but promises to significantly benefit both pharmacies and their patients.

I believe the future is very bright with the introduction of AI into our pharmacy systems.

Touchstore

TouchStore are in the process of redeveloping the TouchStore Dispensary Application. Our intention is to launch this product in quarter four of this year.

This new product will contain significant AI modelling throughout the application. This redevelopment of the product was fortunately timed to enable us to do this and incorporate it in the planning stages of the product. The AI modelling will concentrate on dispensary efficiencies and safety.

One particular area, for instance, which lends itself particularly to AI modelling, is the prediction of drug sales. Where AI modelling enhances this functionality is in the area of seasonality. This functionality is not in use in any dispensary system currently. It will be groundbreaking, particularly in respect of its accuracy, and will have a hugely significant effect in ensuring that pharmacies will automatically have efficient stock levels — ensuring against both stock shortages and overages which are a constant problem in all pharmacies. TouchStore have been somewhat lucky, in that the new dispensing application development can easily incorporate AI modelling as part of the new design and does not have to involve the difficult task of inserting AI functionality into an older application.

DispenSense

For the Navi Group, there are a number of interesting AI related features in the pipeline for the DispenSense PMR solution. The use cases we are focusing on are how to automate certain tasks and save time for the pharmacist. DispenSense is already integrated with Healthmail, but Navi are planning to use AI to more accurately parse and extract information from Healthmail prescriptions arriving into the system. We are also looking to implement AI to assist DispenSense customers in proactive prevention of claims issues over the next year. Navi is already testing out the use of AI to enhance how we support our systems and provide instant answers and how-to videos back to our customers on frequently asked questions.