In the ever-evolving landscape of pharmacy care, staying ahead of the curve is crucial, especially when addressing critical public health challenges like the opioid crisis. The importance of opioid stewardship programs has emerged as a key practice for pharmacies nationwide, striving to ensure the responsible prescribing and dispensing of opioids while mitigating the associated risks of misuse, addiction, and overdose.
Looking toward the future of pharmacy operations, it is essential to consider what lies ahead for the role of pharmacies in opioid stewardship and how pharmacists and their dedicated teams can best prepare for the challenges and opportunities that await. This blog will discuss the future of opioid stewardship and the different methods they can adopt into their opioid stewardship programs.
Data-Driven Insights and AI in Pharmacy Care
Data-driven insights are poised to play a transformative role in pharmacy care by supporting their efforts to develop and implement successful opioid stewardship programs. Thanks to Artificial Intelligence (AI), pharmacies can quickly and effectively leverage data-driven insights, enhance monitoring capabilities, and optimize medication management practices to mitigate the risks associated with opioid use. The following section goes into more depth on how AI can contribute to the future of opioid stewardship:
- Real-Time Insights: AI-powered tools can analyze vast amounts of patient data, including electronic health records, prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), and other relevant sources, to identify trends, patterns, and potential red flags related to opioid prescribing and dispensing. AI also plays a big role in modern pharmacy surveillance tools, allowing pharmacists to gain immediate insights from these massive amounts of data and react to situations before it is too late.
- Predictive Analytics: AI algorithms can go beyond simply identifying existing issues; they can also predict future risks by analyzing historical data and identifying patients who may be at a higher risk of developing opioid use disorder or experiencing adverse events. Pharmacies can use these insights to prevent negative outcomes before they ever happen.
- Personalized Interventions: AI can facilitate the development of personalized interventions for patients at risk of opioid misuse. It can also help pharmacists tailor education and counseling, connect patients with appropriate resources, and facilitate collaboration with other healthcare providers.
- Automated Workflows: AI can automate various aspects of pharmacy care, such as identifying patients who require follow-up, generating alerts for potential drug interactions, and streamlining documentation processes. This frees up pharmacists’ time, allowing them to focus on more complex clinical tasks and patient interactions.
By embracing the data analytics capabilities of AI, pharmacies can enhance their opioid stewardship efforts, promoting safer and more effective pharmacy care for their patients.
Seamless Integration and Proper Data Management
With big data comes big responsibility. Maintaining effective measures for cleaning and sharing data will be essential to the future of opioid stewardship as tools related to AI and machine learning look to leverage it. Pharmacies that do not effectively share data across all areas of the pharmacy risk operating under a silo effect, where poor communication and transparency within a business result in dysfunctional operations, inventory discrepancies, and reporting errors.
One of the most effective ways to enhance data transparency within a pharmacy is to integrate as much as possible. Integrating pharmacy management systems and wholesalers with state PDMPs and other databases will be critical to streamlining workflows and enhancing monitoring capabilities. Additionally, integration is another way for pharmacies to automate repetitive tasks and compliance reporting, further improving accuracy and supporting safe medication management. Adopting tools with strong integration capabilities will free up a pharmacists’ time, enabling them to focus on patient counseling and other clinical interventions that improve pharmacy care.
Expanding the Pharmacist’s Role
As data analytics and AI continue to redesign pharmacy care, pharmacists will experience a change in their role as well. With more time saved from manual data-entry tasks, pharmacists are poised to play a more expansive role in patient care, including initiating therapies and having greater flexibility in dispensing decisions. This shift is already evident in recent regulatory changes, such as the FDA’s revised Emergency Use Authorization for Paxlovid, which grants state-licensed pharmacists the authority to prescribe Paxlovid to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 cases for eligible patients who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19.
This expanded role may also encompass collaborative practice agreements with physicians, enabling pharmacists to adjust opioid prescriptions based on patient response and clinical indicators. By taking a more proactive approach, pharmacists can help ensure appropriate opioid use and minimize the risks associated with long-term opioid therapy. This expanded role may also help address the looming shortage of physicians.
Enhanced Patient Engagement
As alluded to in the previous section, patient engagement will become a larger part of the future of opioid stewardship thanks to additional time and resources. More specifically, pharmacists will have more time to focus on patients by actively listening to concerns, involving them in health decisions, providing comprehensive medication counseling, educating about their medications, encouraging questions, and collaborating with other healthcare providers to ensure a holistic approach to patient health.
Another trending method for patient engagement is through digital content creation. Mobile applications, telehealth platforms, and personalized QR codes linked to educational videos can offer convenient access to information and resources, empowering patients to actively participate in their care. By making an effort to practice these engagement techniques and tools today, pharmacies can be better prepared for the future of opioid stewardship by strengthening patient communication, promoting the understanding of opioid risks and benefits, and supporting informed decision-making.
Rural and Independent Pharmacy Empowerment
Rural communities serve as the backbone of the United States, and it is essential that they do their part to combat the opioid crisis. Recognizing the unique challenges faced by rural and independent pharmacies, there continues to be a steady increase in the allocation of resources and guidance for implementing and expanding opioid stewardship programs in underserved communities. These resources share best practices, data-driven insights, and real-world examples, equipping these pharmacists with the knowledge and tools needed to make a significant impact in the future of opioid stewardship.
One example is the opioid stewardship toolkit developed by the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy, which provides support for rural pharmacists in establishing and expanding their opioid stewardship programs. For rural and independent pharmacies, it is essential that they not only embrace opioid stewardship program resources but also act on their recommendations as well.
Preparing for the Future of Opioid Stewardship
Given the sheer amount of data pharmacies collect and the potential AI has for leveraging it, the traditional method of manual record keeping will not cut it. The future of opioid stewardship demands a comprehensive and collaborative approach, and pharmacies are at the forefront of this battle. By embracing technological advancements, data-driven insights, and innovative strategies, opioid stewardship programs can evolve to meet the ever-changing landscape of pharmacy care and ensure safer and more effective pain management for patients. As pharmacists continue to champion responsible opioid stewardship, they can play a critical role in reducing opioid-related harms and building healthier communities.
