The future of technology innovation in pharmacy: trends for 2025

In recent years, pharmacies have become the “first stop in the primary care journey” for many Canadians. In British Columbia, for example, numerous changes from the provincial government have evolved the pharmacists’ role in health care. And across the rest of the country, pharmacists can prescribe for a growing list of minor ailments.

However, many pharmacies face ongoing labour shortages while fulfilling administrative tasks, and struggle to find ways to provide more holistic, tailored patient care. This leads pharmacies to rely more on tools and technologies that streamline their processes and free up their teams to do the important work of providing extended care to patients.

There are a few important pharmacy trends that explain how employing the right healthcare technology can give pharmacists — especially those in small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) — an edge within this challenging landscape.

The impact of an expanded scope of practice

Many Canadians, especially those outside urban centres, struggle to access primary care. Yet over 10,000 licensed pharmacies across the country make them an ideal locus for these initial visits. For example, pharmacists can deliver vaccines and prescribe for minor ailments if they have enough time, support and the right tools.

This expanded scope of practice presents new challenges for pharmacists, especially those in SMBs. They must remain up-to-date on new and specialty medications, and provide specialized domain knowledge across a variety of ailments — all while navigating Canada‘s complex payment and benefits system.

Standardizing the scope of practice with pharmacy automation tools allows pharmacists to provide reliable pharmaceutical services from any location. This also means pharmacists can feel comfortable delivering clinical pharmacy services, and patients can access consistent care, regardless of where they go.

Innovations let pharmacists focus on patients — not paperwork

Pharmacists struggle with numerous obstacles, such as prescription processing volume, multiple siloed systems, and no centralized platform to support all their operations. A lack of integration between pharmacy management systems and health authority systems also presents obstacles.

Another challenge — and opportunity —  is the increasingly segmented nature of the Canadian pharmacy industry. The specialty pharmacy market has recently tripled in size and is expected to reach a value of more than $20 billion by 2030. Pharmacists must know how these drugs work within the context of each patient‘s care plan and diagnoses. This has the potential to add more complexity to navigating benefits, inventory risk and added administrative tasks, which pharmacists must manage with integrated technologies.

All of these issues, particularly for pharmacists experiencing intensive workflows, make adopting new technologies difficult. One way to help pharmacists focus on patient care is centralized and automated script fulfillment. This solution reduces errors and detects issues more readily, expediting routine refills and requirements.

A coherent pharmacy management system (PMS) allows pharmacists to access everything from within one comprehensive view, connect into regional health systems and help patients stay connected remotely. This enables them to proactively tailor patient support as part of an interdisciplinary care team that prioritizes patient inclusion.

The right pharmacy software solutions transform care

The best integrated pharmacy systems empower pharmacists to offer more holistic care. They also help patients retain control over their health data, keeping them actively involved — and can be the first step in mitigating cybersecurity issues.

Patients can use apps to monitor their health and register their health data with their pharmacist. The pharmacist then monitors the results and spots trends, like new prescription use and PCP referral rates. Patients can also make virtual appointments and provide pharmacists with details to prepare for vaccination appointments in advance. This boost to patient engagement creates efficiency and helps pharmacies mitigate labour shortages.

Integrated systems reduce both administrative burdens and risk for errors, improving the experience for both pharmacists and patients. The result is a patient-centered pharmacy that offers one-on-one attention with modern technological support.

Navigating digital transformation with the right partner

Kroll offers Canadian pharmacists an easy-to-use, scalable and centralized prescription management system across a wide variety of use cases. The system helps with pharmacy workflow optimization by simplifying day-to-day responsibilities and streamlining administration.

TELUS Health offers digital tools in pharmacies that help physicians prescribe for minor ailments, manage refills and appointments, stay on top of the latest health and drug information, manage prescription and renewal requests, and leverage central fulfillment.

Learn more about current pharmacy trends and the future of pharmacy in Canada and how TELUS Health can help pharmacists safely and securely navigate the complexities of an ever-changing health care environment. Read the new discussion paper, “The Future of Technology Innovation in Pharmacy: Key Shifts for 2025,” here.