Practical Uses Of AI: How It's Redefining Pharmacy

From paper charts to Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and the advent of CPOE, we have witnessed the steady acceleration of healthcare technology. Today, pharmacy is entering a transformative era with the convergence of digital health platforms, clinical decision support, and generative AI. This era goes beyond traditional clinical support and becomes true drivers of personalized, intelligent care.

At CereCore, we are focused on helping healthcare organizations modernize their EHR systems, optimize workflows, and improve care quality. This includes empowering our pharmacy and IT teams to actively engage with AI-driven technologies as not only user, but stewards, ensuring we move beyond reliance on legacy systems.  

By identifying appropriate guardrails, rigorously vetting AI tools, and establishing safeguards, we aim to protect patient safety and build trust in these emerging capabilities for the benefit of our organization and those we serve. 

Some early first steps for your healthcare organization could be to create joint task forces between pharmacy and IT to explore AI use cases, facilitate training and education on AI fundamentals and data ethics, and encourage AI champions among clinical teams. 

Let’s dive into more ways pharmacy and IT teams can adapt to and lead within the age of AI. 

The Evolution of Digital Health 

Digital Health is embedded in nearly every aspect of patient care, from EHRs to remote patient monitoring and mobile health apps.  The FDA frames digital health potential around five goals: 

• Reducing inefficiencies 
• Improving access 
• Lowering costs 
• Enhancing care quality 
• Enabling personalized medicine 

For pharmacy, these goals signal a shift from reactive medication management to proactive, data-driven interventions, and personalized care.  Proper application of digital health tools, like AI, should improve communication, close gaps in care, and equip pharmacy professionals with better information at the point of care and point of decision-making. 

Generative AI: A Game-Changer in Pharmacy Practice 

• Synthetic data generation to train algorithms when the real data is limited 
• Natural language processing (NLP) to extract insights from free-text EHR notes 
• Clinical decision support tailored to patient specific genetics, labs, and medication history 

For pharmacists and pharmacy informaticists, this means that we move faster and more precisely.  Examples include medication reconciliation and therapy optimization based on the data at our fingertips.   

Real-World Application in Pharmacy Informatics 

In my work across health systems and pharmacy teams, I have seen five areas where AI is making an impact: 

1. Personalized Medicine 

Integrating pharmacogenomics and AI models allows us to personalize drug therapy based on a patient's genetic profile and medication history, thus minimizing adverse events and improving therapeutic outcomes. 

2. Medication Reconciliation and Risk Stratification 

AI can rapidly detect medication discrepancies, cross reference drug formularies, and identify high risk combinations.  This improves both safety and efficiency, especially during transitions of care. 

3. Remote Patient Monitoring and Virtual Pharmacy 

Pairing AI with digital health platforms supports adherence monitoring, dosage adjustments, and virtual consultations.  Game-changing, especially in underserved or rural areas. 

4. Drug Discovery Acceleration 

AI Models can simulate how new drug moieties might interact in the body, shortening R&D timelines and offering clinicians earlier access to pipeline data. 

5. Decision Support through Imaging and NLP 

AI-enhanced imaging and documentation analysis can give pharmacists better context for drug decisions, particularly in oncology, cardiology, and infectious disease. 

Guardrails and Governance: Trust Is the Accelerator 

As promising as AI is, we, as clinicians and healthcare leaders, know implementation must be thoughtful and deliberate.  That is why VALID AI, the collaborative community of health systems, health plans, non-profit associations, coalitions and technology and research organizations, was launched.  VALID AI aims to: 

• Promote transparency in algorithm development 
• Standardize AI validation processes 
• Establish guardrails for safe and effective adoption 

It is not enough to deploy AI, we need to build trust, align with clinical workflows, and ensure that our teams feel supported through change. 

Looking Ahead: Pharmacy and Healthcare IT Trends for 2025 

Four key trends are shaping pharmacy IT strategy today: 

1. Operational efficiency through AI Integration 
2. Modernizing data infrastructure for interoperability 
3. Redesigning the physical care space 
4. Elevating security as digital partnerships expand 

Each of these intersects pharmacy informatics. Examples include optimizing IV workflow through predictive analytics, supporting decentralized pharmacy models, and managing compliance risks across third-party systems.   

Final Thoughts 

The role of the pharmacist is evolving fueled by innovation in AI, EHR platforms, and precision medicine.  My mantra is that we should treat every patient as an “N-of-1”.  As we move toward a more personalized, proactive, and data-driven healthcare model, we are on the path to “N-of-1” personalized care. 

As a leader within the CereCore team, I am energized by the opportunity to help our system partners and pharmacy teams navigate this transformation with confidence, clarity, and clinical excellence. 

• FDA: What is Digital Health? | FDA 
• Brookings: Generative AI in health care: Opportunities, challenges, and policy 
• HealthTech Magazine: 2025 Tech Trends: 4 Healthcare IT Focus Areas | HealthTech Magazine