Artificial Intelligence in Pharmacy Has Potential to Change Landscape | APhA 2025
Ravi Patel, PharmD, MBA, MS, lead innovation advisor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh, explains how artificial intelligence can be used in pharmacy.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) represents the culmination of over 50 years of computer science evolution, with foundational components like machine learning, natural language processing, and deep learning playing critical roles. In pharmacy, these technologies offer transformative potential across multiple domains, Ravi Patel, PharmD, MBA, MS, lead innovation advisor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh, explained. Machine learning techniques like logistic regression enable predictive modeling, allowing pharmacists to anticipate medication outcomes and disease states by analyzing categorical variables.
Natural language processing and deep learning are particularly promising, demonstrating capabilities in sentiment analysis, clinical documentation, and personalized patient interactions. For instance, voice assistants can now process complex counseling questions, and AI systems can generate draft clinical documentation. Electronic health records are increasingly incorporating AI to streamline information retrieval and patient data management, with auto-complete features similar to search engines becoming more sophisticated. The most exciting applications emerge in personalized medicine, where AI can rapidly reconcile dynamic patient charts with expansive genomic knowledge. By mapping the human genome and leveraging advanced computing methods, pharmacists can access insights that would be challenging or impossible for an individual to process manually. In compounding, computer vision technologies are being explored to map pharmacist movements and provide double-checking mechanisms, ensuring precision and reducing human error.
These technological advancements represent more than mere automation; they are collaborative tools designed to augment human expertise. The goal is not to replace pharmacists but to provide intelligent support, helping health care professionals make more informed decisions more efficiently. As AI continues to evolve, its integration into pharmacy practice promises to enhance patient care, improve medication management, and unlock new frontiers in personalized healthcare delivery.
"It's interesting now, because when we think of artificial intelligence, we think a lot about generative artificial intelligence, and generative artificial intelligence is actually made up of a lot of work, over 50 or more years of computer science and evolution," Patel said. "When as pharmacists, we think about concepts like logistic regression, we're doing forms of machine learning, but when we start layering on some interesting advanced computing, we have the chance to use concepts like natural language processing to take text or spoken word and break down sentiment and tension of in definitions."
