Pharmacy technology has undergone significant improvement in the past decades, revolutionizing the dispensing, tracking, and control of drugs. Besides enhancing efficiency in the conduct of pharmacy functions, more significantly, patient safety is enhanced.
With advancements in technology, it is a core tool that ensures patients receive timely, accurate, and appropriate medicines. Here in this blog, we are talking about some of the latest pharmacy technology advancements and how they are contributing towards safer drug practice.
Automated Dispensing Systems
The most advanced technology in pharmacies is the use of automated dispensing systems everywhere. Automated dispensing systems exist to eliminate human error by dispensing medication automatically. Automated dispensing machines can pull out the right medicine in a span of seconds, package, and label it.
Because these systems are not based on the use of manual drug preparation, they lower the incidence of errors like dosing errors, drug interactions, or drug mix-ups. They improve speed and efficiency in drug dispensing and therefore free the pharmacist to cater to more patient care and counseling. These systems provide a clean record of drug dispensing, ensuring compliance with regulatory affairs and therefore the process of drugs becomes transparent and traceable.
RFID Technology and Barcode
Another area of immense impact, yet one that has furthered drug safety even more, has been that of the application of barcode technology scanning and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. Both play extremely significant roles when it comes to preventing drug error as these methods guarantee the right drug is administered to the right patient at the proper time.
The use of barcode technology is efficient in the manner that it has a special barcode on each drug and one for the patient’s personal prescription. Scanning the barcode when dispensing can guarantee that the correct drug and dosage have been selected by pharmacists. Similarly, RFID technology can also track drugs along the supply chain with real-time updates regarding the drug’s status and location. Not only does it eradicate the possibilities of dispensing error but also prevents the utilization of counterfeit medication by making every drug authentic and traceable.
Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS)
Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) is another new technology that helps enhance drug therapy safety. CDSS contains a connection to electronic health records and helps doctors make educated medication management decisions.
CDSS uses patient-level data, like laboratory results, medication, and medical history, to give recommendations or advice regarding potential risk of drugs administered. For instance, the system notifies a clinician whether a certain drug that he/she has previously administered has the potential to react with other specified drug in the body of a patient. The alert reduces drug-induced adverse effects as well as ensures drugs are correctly allocated to diseases for patients’ benefits.
Artificial Intelligence in Drug Development and Safety
Artificial intelligence is transforming various industries, and the pharmaceutical sector is no exception. AI is used in drug development to predict how new drugs will behave in the body and what side effects or adverse reactions may be possible before testing them in clinical trials. This has the potential to accelerate the process of putting a new drug on the market and more importantly, provide the guarantee that the drug will be safe to consume. Additionally, AI plays a crucial role in SFDA pharmacovigilance, aiding in the monitoring and reporting of drug safety, ensuring that any adverse effects are promptly identified and addressed.
Artificial intelligence is also being integrated into the practice of pharmacy to enhance the safety of drugs. Machine learning algorithms, for example, have the capacity to utilize high volume patient information in order to ascertain which patients stand a better chance of falling prey to drug error or drug toxicity. Pharmacists and health workers can therefore pre-empt this through intervention and prevent it, as well as impact future outcomes of such cases.
Conclusion
These pharmacy technology advancements to increase the safety level of medicines are revolutionizing the healthcare system. From dispensing machines to artificial intelligence and personalized medications, these advancements are reducing blunders, enhancing care for patients, and contributing to the level of care in total.
Since technology is continuing to progress day by day, pharmacists will be assisted in providing better and safer treatment of medicine to gain the utmost benefit while safety risk is at bay. Keeping this technology innovation in mind, the future of pharmacy is safer and improved for patients all over the world.