The AI Revolution in Pharmacy Practice and Education

Dear Colleagues,

The 21st century has seen significant changes, opportunities and challenges in pharmacy education and in practice, globally. This has been reflective of many new technologies such as digital health, 3-D printers, and AIs, but also the continuing change to learning and teaching practices due to a generation of “digital natives” as students and early career practitioners, of government policies and global bodies such as WHO and FIP with expectations and guidelines and the trying and uncertain times accompanying the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a broad topic which will be an ongoing conversation to raise awareness of current or emerging issues in healthcare​. Artificial intelligences (AIs) are, like smart phones, arguably from 2000, new innovations in our lives and may replace technology or activities used in pharmacy education and pharmacy practice, just like smart phones often effectively replace landlines, answering machines, cameras and camcorders, alarm clocks, calculators, maps and GPS. Although concepts of artificial intelligence existed in the 1950s, it was arguably 1997 when the term, “artificial general intelligence” was used and then modified in 2000 for modern AIs as we think of them now, as part of computer science intending to mimic human intelligence and seeking to surpass it with extensive learning. We benefit from our current view of values relating to artificial intelligences, since there are more than one. Some of us may seek guidelines and governance for the use of AIs in professional practice, identifying potential issues around privacy, confidentiality and intellectual property. For those who may seek some background on machine learning, there is some information in the following link (this link takes you to the free access content):

https://www.mdpi.com/books/reprint/9716-application-of-machine-learning-and-data-mining?fbclid=IwY2xjawFEhvxleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHadeHLCCH6RLEiqqoGwxu5Nz0L_zwFNqbKsiZQWnADDsOTo
YC9Ru653Hfg_aem_PI8Byo1QU51UlSlA66_BlQ&utm_campaign=leadership_topscience_booksreprint_recent&
utm_medium=social_corp&utm_source=facebook

You are warmly invited to share your learning and teaching innovations, techniques, technology, protocols, assessment, risk management and challenges with colleagues in this Special Issue of Pharmacy. The focus may include the development of new styles of assessment and examination of pharmacy students, new formats of workplace learning (placement), development of core communication skills such as patient education and counselling, provision of new services, and the development of attributes such as ethics, empathy and social accountability. Others may seek to share uses of AIs in specific areas such as women’s health issues, chronic disease such as patient education materials to enhance understanding and adherence in rheumatoid arthritis or perhaps type 2 diabetes, or perhaps a discussion of effective governance and development of guidelines. Change is omnipresent in our profession and the rate of change is accelerating. I would propose that, as a profession, we benefit when we collaborate globally and publish our initiatives.

We hope this Special Issue will encourage all Pharmacy Educators and Pharmacy practitioners everywhere to curate and share their solutions to educational challenges, to adopt/adapt new practices, and to collaborate to address future opportunities.

Dr. Maree Donna Simpson
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pharmacy is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• artificial intelligence
• compatible data sharing
• chronic disease
• public health
• simulation including virtual reality and augmented reality
• ethical dilemmas
• adherence
• governance
• privacy
• security