The Rise of AI

Awareness of artificial intelligence (AI) is increasing throughout health care. Relative to pharmacy, the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists Foundation's "Pharmacy Forecast 2020: Strategic Planning Advice for Pharmacy Departments in Hospitals and Health Systems" specifically lists the emergence of AI in its report, inspiring industry discussion and guiding the strategic planning processes of health system pharmacy leadership across the country.1 For pharmacy, AI provides information on drug interactions, drug therapy monitoring, formulary selection, costs, usage trends, and more. "AI is already transforming health care but will become increasingly valuable as investments in systems that can capture and manage data are made and clinical informatics entities work more collaboratively to address current data shortfalls," said Doug Zurawski, PharmD, senior vice president of clinical strategy at Kit Check, Inc, maker of radio frequency identification (RFID)/AI technology for hospital pharmacies to help with medication management. "It is incumbent upon us, in this industry and in this field, to take the lead and learn more, invest in systems that support AI and machine learning, and prepare for the future with access to artificial intelligence."