Most important pharmacy trends in the past year: FIP report

Pharmacy education moving online; a push towards point-of-care testing; the roles of technicians expanding; an increased importance on patient-related outcomes and interest in pharmacists planning for pandemics and natural disasters are among the trends identified in a wide-ranging report released from the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Board of Pharmaceutical Practice. “[This report] offers insight into the main trends that will impact the future of pharmacy in all its practice settings. In doing so, it provides a roadmap to the leaders of FIP member organisations and a valuable strategic tool to drive change at local level,” Dominique Jordan, FIP president, said in the introduction to the report. It looks at trends in pharmacy from 2021 to 2022, highlighting nearly 70 trends across eight broad areas of pharmacy, from academic pharmacy to military pharmacy. It also includes pros, cons and unknowns for each trend, as well as the reasons behind it and the effect the pandemic had on it. The digitalization of community pharmacies, for example, was accelerated by COVID-19, is driven in part by patient and pharmacist demand, and might result in other players infringing on traditional pharmacy roles, as well as a need for new regulations that reflect that shift. Other trends, such as an increase in medicine shortages, have their own effects, namely increased time spent on finding appropriate substitutions. Read: Canadian pharmacist elected to FIP leadership “Key trends, such as transformation in pharmaceutical education with the adaptation to online learning platforms and the increase in scope of practice for many pharmacists being permitted to administer an ever-increasing range of vaccines, will influence both practice and health policy going forward,” Paul Sinclair, chair of the FIP Board of Pharmaceutical Practice, says in the report. The trends fall into six major groups: transformation in pharmaceutical education; expanding scope of practice; pandemic and natural disaster preparation; cultural and environmental concerns; increased investment in data systems and automation; and economic and distribution concerns. Read: FIP announces new policy on the sustainability of pharmacy services

Most important pharmacy trends in the past year: FIP report

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