Pharmacy 2050: A new clinical and patient experience

With the changing demographics of the U.S. population and evolving shift in urban design, the physical experience at the community level will change how health care is delivered. This will allow for more personalized and localized care complemented by digital technologies and smart devices over the next 25 years. At the same time, the evolution of clinical research with prevention, vaccinations, 3-dimensional printing, drone delivery, clustered interspaced short palindromic repeats, and implantables, will change the pharmaceutical landscape.

Pharmacists and pharmacies have an opportunity to evolve with these changes making their role an integral part of the care team, but it is important that regulations and reimbursement also change. By 2050, pharmacists may play very different roles from clinical specialists to digital coaches and use data, artificial intelligence, and technology to help drive outcomes whereas robots and technology automate many of their current repetitive tasks.