Today's Perspective
Kristin Wiisanen PharmD, FAPhA, FCCP, Pharmacy Today editor in chief
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capacity of machines to perform tasks that would ordinarily require human intelligence, including sensing, thinking, learning, and decision-making. According to a recent study, although many pharmacists are willing to adopt AI, some are resistant to its use or cite barriers to implementation that would make mainstream use of AI in pharmacies highly unlikely. Skeptics are often concerned about the impact of AI on their job and their profession. However, a pharmacy landscape with increasing amounts of digitized data and processes that rely on AI is just around the corner.
This month’s cover story in Pharmacy Today will help prepare you for what AI might look like in your pharmacy and highlight examples of how AI’s ability to detect patterns or clusters in large datasets is being applied. For example, Andrea Sikora, PharmD, MSCR, at the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy is heading up the OPTIM study. In it, researchers compare traditional human methods to unsupervised machine learning to analyze the relationship between patient mortality in the ICU according to different factors, including the pharmacist’s role. In this case, AI provides a way to identify barriers to care, including a pharmacist’s workload while a patient is in the ICU. Among its many other applications described in this story, AI could ultimately be a tool that quantifies the value of a pharmacist’s intervention.
This issue of Today also brings updated info on DHEA’s effectiveness; provides data on the newest antidepressant, Exxua; and summarizes new guidelines on diagnosing, testing, and managing diabetes. You’ll also learn how inaccurate a BP measurement can be when an inappropriate cuff size is used and you can stay up to date on your CPE with this month’s article reviewing pharmacy law changes in 2023.
In our cover story, Adrian Wong, PharmD, MPH, FCCP, at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA, makes a significant statement that we can keep in mind if fears of AI rear their ugly heads. According to Wong, “AI won’t necessarily take away our jobs. It will just improve patient care.” I am excited to learn more about AI’s potential and watch it put into practice in order to do just that—improve patient care!
Have a great Today!