Current trends and future of retail pharmacies

Journalist | Chanyoung Kim | kkimchanyoung@gmail.com Designer | Youngseo Park | selly4577@yonsei.ac.kr

One of the most frequently asked questions that most pharmacy students encounter is, “Wouldn’t the roles of pharmacists be replaced by AI(Artificial Intelligence) in the future?”. Indeed, there have been countless estimates in the media referring that pharmacists are one of the jobs to be gone as a consequence of the 4th revolution.. The truth is, no one really knows what might exactly happen. However, considering the complexity and the specialty that pharmacists have, it wouldn’t be likely that they will easily lose their jobs and wander around the street. Through this article, I will mention both the trends and the possible future that retail pharmacies have, and explain what is really LIKELY, for pharmacy stores to turn out.

To begin with, there are currently five key trends in retail pharmacy.

1. Specialization: There are specialty pharmacies, in which specialty drugs that cure chronic diseases and various types of cancer are sold. Specialty drugs are renowned to be the fastest growing segment of the pharmacy industry and are expected to account for 40 percent of pharmacy revenue in upcoming years. Along with the development of specialty drugs, specialty pharmacies could increase access to these medications and provide safer medical services to patients.

2. Utilizing AI: This involves optimizing stock availability in pharmacy stores, accessing patients’ medical data via ‘Pharmacy POS’ mobile phone service, and personalized approach to customers.

3. Virtual retail: As e-commerce and digital marketing are important nowadays, it is inevitable for pharmacies to engage in virtual retail, in other words, providing medication online.

4. Preventive medicine: Preventive medicine is another key term that gains importance post COVID 19, and as more chronic diseases pervade.

5. Customer care service: As labor processes such as dispensation could be replaced by machines, pharmacies are now focusing more on human interactions (expert advice, explaining medicine instructions, health care services, etc)

Considering these five key trends, retail pharmacies in the future would be different from the way we experience them nowadays. Even now, there are robots and automated tools in hospitals that help streamline various processes and improve the speed and precision of medication. Medicine online delivery and vending machines are also either present or available in the vicinity and are seemingly a threat to pharmacy stores.

However, due to the increased use of technology, the human component would be more vital and crucial to an pharmacist-patient relationship. Thus, the role shifts from merely filling prescriptions to interacting more with patients and fulfilling the social duty of healthcare experts. Pharmacists will be there for patients to actively ask for medication advice and receive one-to-one safety instructions for prescribed medicine. Not only confined to pharmacy stores, patients would also be able to receive consultation from pharmacists via phones and laptops, easing the difficulties for the ones who have difficulty moving or in remote regions.

In the case of retail pharmacies, it is expected to be owned as ‘self-service’, a blend of innovative technology with traditional pharmacy practices. The patient would receive the prescription from their doctor with a QR code, and then take this to a self-service pharmacy. Digital pharmacies would have QR scanning machines so that patients scan the code, and automatically receive their medicine from the dispensing machine. This could save time for the patient and manual work for the pharmacist who could focus more on value-added activities related to the patient.

As the issue of retail pharmacies is intertwined with factors such as government legislation or unemployment, the future of it is, unfortunately, obscure. However, it is certain that, as promising AI technologies sounds, humanto-human interaction could never be replaced. Therefore, as future pharmacists, our most concern should be what method we could take to help patients in need, rather than how technology would ever replace us. B