Emphasising the Need for Automation Skills among Pharmacy Graduates
Written by Dinesh Sangarran Ramachandram, School of Pharmacy
Current Workforce in Malaysian Healthcare Setting
The goal of a hospital pharmacy is majorly to improve pharmaceutical care. In the past, it was necessary to assess a patient's contentment. Similarly, it is vital for a hospital pharmacy that plays the role of a service provider, to assess consumer and staff satisfaction in the healthcare setting. In that aspect, automation has the ability to relieve pharmacists and nurses of the time-consuming task of preparing and dispensing medications, as well as increase the safety of the patients. Hospitals are also implementing a variety of strategies towards automation. As a result, technological advancement in hospital pharmacy can be applied to the entire drug-use process, improving safety, quality, efficiency and financial commitments. The government of Malaysia is also highly emphasising the use of technology to improve healthcare delivery; however, little is known about the benefits and challenges of such adoption in each institution.
Preparation, checking, documentation and medication dispensing/administration to patients are mainly the crucial phase in the process of medication management. The medication errors (MEs) reported occur primarily in the following mentioned phases, having a huge undesirable effect on patient safety. Therefore, drug administration errors can be significantly reduced with the adoption of unit dose delivery systems and automated systems.
The workload of healthcare personnel has become a vital concern for hospitals in Malaysia, especially in recent days amidst COVID-19. It has also been mentioned that, if flaws or deficiencies in public healthcare services are not remedied, a crisis may occur. Thus, to increase efficiency and solve current and future difficulties such as manpower shortages, a comprehensive and long-term plan for public healthcare must be devised. The crux of the problem is a lack of focus and preparation for the country's healthcare sustainability.
As a result, the pressure to reduce the time and workload of healthcare personnel especially pharmacists and nurses associated with manual distribution, while reallocating them to more clinical tasks is a major driver of drug distribution automation. That has brought the need for upcoming pharmacy graduates to imbibe automation skills as part of their learning curriculum or even as an extra-curricular skill workshop.
Pharmacy Automation
Although pharmacy automation has existed since the 1960s, most pharmacies are still far from being fully automated. Most developed countries have adopted automation in pharmacy settings, especially in the USA, Europe and Middle-East. According to the Pharmacy Automation System Market Overview (2020-230), the global pharmacy automation system market size was valued at $5001 million in 2020 and is estimated to reach $11211 million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 8.3% from 2021 to 2030. North America has the greatest market share in the pharmacy automation market, followed by the European countries. The growing number of drug prescriptions at pharmacies as from the ageing population is related to the rise of the pharmacy automation system market in North America.
A pharmacy automation structure is used to automatically direct and fit drugs and it can take many various forms. It includes an automated medication dispensing system, automated storage & retrieval system, automated packaging & labelling system, tabletop tablet counters and automated compounding devices. Currently, there is ongoing research and developments on Dispensing Robots, Digital Displays, PMR Systems and more.
The necessity to reduce pharmaceutical errors, manual drug dispensing, and the advancement of enhanced parts innovation is driving the pharmacy automation system market. Besides, the rise in work costs and an increase in the geriatric population have fuelled the expansion of the pharmacy automation industry. It is critical to reduce medication errors in order to further increase healthcare benefits and patient confirmation security. As a result of the increased usage of pharmacy automation systems, errors relating to medicine, storage, recovery, dispensing, and use are reduced.
The pharmacy automation system market has seen a good effect during the COVID - 19 flare-ups. This is due to an increase in robotics demand in pharmacies. Furthermore, due to manpower shortages, the demand for automation systems grew throughout the pandemic. The pandemic resulted in an increase in the number of incoming prescriptions in pharmacies around the world, which increased demand for automated dispensing systems, resulting in market growth.
Future Directions
In Malaysia, the pharmacy automation systems market has been developing at a faster rate with significant growth rates in recent years, and it is expected to increase significantly in the anticipated period, i.e. 2020 to 2027. One of the first hospitals to adopt such a system was Island Hospital, Penang. This hospital introduced the Automated Tablet Dispensing and Packaging System in the in-patient pharmacy to replace manual drug preparation and dispensing among the pharmacy workforce. A recent research finding on the system showed the system has proven to be effective in preparing the medication and minimising the workload of pharmacy staff, hence the study highlighted the significance of pharmacy automation to the healthcare providers and future pharmacist graduates in increasing pharmacy efficiency and meeting patients’ needs
However, some challenges or barriers can be foreseen. The resistance in adopting pharmacy automation is due to the high cost of the machines and low literacy on artificial intelligence and machine learning. Prime minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. has mentioned that in keeping with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the technological field remains significant and continues to expand in the country (IR 4.0). Thus, institutes providing pharmacy education have a strong influence in equipping future graduates with all the relevant skills in automation, which could be accomplished with comprehensive workshops and hands-on training built-in with their curriculum.
To add on, there is an existing huge gap in research involving pharmacy automation in Malaysia and a lack of information, despite the artificial intelligence image recognition which has drawn a lot of interest and attention from researchers worldwide. Currently, there is ongoing research focusing on the impact of automated machines in a hospital pharmacy setting to bridge the gap in knowledge and data surrounding pharmacy automation systems. Future research should also focus on the effectiveness of the involvement of technological advancement in hospital settings.
Implementing safe, organised and efficient medication dispensing systems is essential in hospital pharmacies. The utilization of an automated pharmacy distribution system will evolve and enhance the current and future pharmacist’s role in providing improved patient-centred care.