Re-envisioning the Pharmacist's Role in the Era of Digital Health—CPhA's Inaugural Digital Health Conference

Abstract

Digital health is rapidly evolving and promises to transform how health care is delivered and consumed. To explore advances at the intersection of health and technology and how pharmacy can embrace emerging modalities moving forward, the California Pharmacists Association (CPhA) hosted a Digital Health Conference on October 12 and 13, 2019, in Garden Grove, California. This conference provided an opportunity for pharmacists to gain a deeper understanding of the digital health ecosystem, explore opportunities, and share perspectives for leveraging digital health products to improve patient care. This commentary provides an overview of new and emerging digital health technologies, and a summary of the conference. It is not a comprehensive or systematic review of the field of digital health, rather its scope is limited to the key concepts and perspectives shared at the conference by presenters and participants. Table 1 provides information summarizing what is already known about this subject and what is added by this commentary. During the conference, pharmacists were introduced to definitions and concepts in digital health, discussed opportunities and challenges related to integration of digital health into existing health care infrastructures (including legal and regulatory frameworks, pharmacy practice models and payment), and explored educational needs to prepare pharmacists for their evolving roles. As digital health technologies are being integrated within the healthcare system, this conference aimed to focus on opportunities specific to pharmacy.