The RPS today (January 14) revealed its support for the “responsible and effective use of artificial intelligence (AI)” in pharmacy.
In its new policy on AI, the pharmacy body recommended the use of the technology “to improve the safe and effective use of medicines, in any setting, and achieve better patient outcomes”.
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It added that “regulation for healthcare, including pharmacy professionals and premises, related to AI must not stifle innovation”.
And it said that pharmacists “must familiarise themselves with AI to ensure they have a level of awareness that allows them to contribute to the digital advancement of pharmacy practice”, while undergraduate and foundation training must cover the “benefits and risks of AI” in pharmacy.
“Enhance not replace” job roles
“The RPS holds the view that AI technologies will enhance the value that pharmacy professional roles provide to people and is not a technology to replace roles,” the paper said.
But it added that “a report by The Health Foundation showed that over half of the public (53%) thought AI will distance them from healthcare staff, while nearly two-thirds of NHS staff surveyed (65%) thought AI would make them feel more distant from patients”.
And the RPS admitted that “AI will radically alter how work gets done and who does it”.
Read more: AI outperforms pharmacists in clinical quiz, researchers find
But it stressed that the “larger impact will be in complementing and augmenting human capabilities, not replacing them”.
The RPS said that researchers at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) NHS Foundation Trust had identified “several potential pharmacy use cases” for AI.
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Their list included AI use in “decision support tools in electronic prescribing systems and patient pathways [such as] Pharmacy First”.
The report also flagged AI opportunities in “virtual consultations for minor ailments”, “supporting medication adherence” and “providing patients with tailored ongoing support” in community pharmacy.
Outperforming pharmacists?
In September, pharmacy researchers from Dutch medical centres found that AI software ChatGPT outperformed pharmacists when tested about clinical pharmacy.
ChatGPT achieved “accurate responses” for 79% of the 264 clinical pharmacy questions with which it was presented - by contrast, the “overall score” for accuracy of pharmacists using the app in 2022 was 66%, it found.
Read more: Community pharmacists are the ethical face within the AI tsunami
Meanwhile in May 2023, the pharmacy regulator announced that pharmacists undertaking revalidation with the help of AI could face sanctions under a fitness-to-practise (FtP) procedure.
It followed concerns that some pharmacists had been using ChatGPT or other AI writing software to generate continuing professional development (CPD) responses as part of their revalidation process.
