Top takeaways from TELUS Health’s new Pharmacy Trends market report

This week, TELUS Health released their inaugural Pharmacy Trends market analysis, a look at how Canada’s pharmacy sector is evolving to suit the country’s changing healthcare needs. The report had a number of insights, particularly about the state of the pharmacy business in Canada, how pharmacies are using technology to keep up with workload and new responsibilities and how pharmacists are facing ongoing labour shortages. “Our first Pharmacy Trends report reveals that pharmacies are rapidly evolving into comprehensive healthcare hubs, bridging critical gaps in primary care access,” Ratcho Batchvarov, vice-president of Provider Solutions at TELUS Health, said in a press release. “Pharmacists have been advancing their role as frontline care providers, leveraging cutting-edge technology to offer more accessible, efficient and personalized care. This transformation is creating a more resilient and responsive healthcare ecosystem for all Canadians.”Here are some of the trends that TELUS Health has identified, and how they will impact pharmacists in the next year. Technology is an important tool for supporting expanded scope of practiceProvinces are expanding the scope of practice for pharmacists, including opening up their ability to treat and diagnose a growing number of minor and common ailments. But this comes with challenges for pharmacies. Though many pharmacists are excited and happy to be working with an expanded scope of practice and the ability to use more of their skills, this can lead to difficulties keeping up with the extra workload, wrapping their head around Canada’s ever-evolving payment and benefits system and retaining knowledge on a large number of diseases. According to TELUS Health, more and more pharmacists are adopting technologies to help them. This includes tech tools like e-prescribing, scheduling and patient care platforms like MedMe or Kroll and even automated sorting, packaging and dispensing robots. Centralized prescription fulfillment is on the rise Given how busy pharmacists are, more of them are opting to use a central fill service. Often, these central fill pharmacies rely on automation, with the aim of cutting down on human error—and are great options for filling scripts from patients with chronic stable conditions and those who need regular refills, like birth control. According to TELUS Health, the central fill pharmacy segment of the industry will grow to be worth $1.9 billion by 2030.Specialty drugs are on the riseAccording to their research, TELUS Health believes that the use and market share of specialty drugs for chronic and complex medical conditions is on the rise. In 2008, just 10.4% of prescriptions were specialty drugs; that number had risen to 31.2% in 2023. Looking forward, TELUS Health is forecasting that the Canadian specialty pharmacy market will top $20 billion by 2030, with specialty drugs being pushed into retail pharmacies as demand grows. This will, in turn, mean more pharmacists have to learn about administering these medications.

Top takeaways from TELUS Health’s new Pharmacy Trends market report

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics

Business Topic