The Digital Health Institute - An opportunity for pharmacy schools to adapt to a changing healthscape
It goes without saying that I have been a proponent of the role of digital health in pharmacy education. Between speaking nationally, internationally and publishing multiple articles on the topic, it has been a goal of mine to see my profession embrace digital health as a means of adapting to the future of healthcare. Naively, I had hoped this change would happen in the 2010s, and it took the ongoing pandemic to see a pivot for many health businesses to utilize ongoing technological products to provide virtual care to their patients. We know that payers, providers, and the entire healthscape are now thrown, willingly or not, into this digital era, and pharmacy is no different.
I would be remiss not to acknowledge the trepidation I think the pharmacy profession faces when talking about technology adoption. Unfortunately, we have largely ignored ways in which technology could help us improve patient care and allow the profession to be engaged in the coming decades.
So, needless to say, I feel that pharmacy education will need a change. Outside factors and organizations may impress how they believe that pharmacists should proceed in the coming decades, especially if we lack the tools or knowledge to drive our own ends. With that in mind, these past two years have seen rampant exploration amongst pharmacy leaders on digital health and its role in our profession. I am happy to have been a part of these discussions, and one that I am truly excited about is the creation of a virtual institute to address these issues.
The Virtual Digital Health Institute
Throughout the 2021 Virtual Digital Health Institute: Preparing Future Pharmacists for the Digital Era, October 6-8, attendees will learn from expert speakers and their peers to create an action plan for introducing or strengthening the presence of digital health concepts in their pharmacy programs. The program will be split between presentations, panels, and breakout groups.
Teams of 2-8 individuals from a College or School of Pharmacy will:
Describe the digital health landscape and evaluate the presence of digital health in the curriculum and co-curriculum at the attendee's home institution;
Share examples of how schools and colleges of pharmacy have incorporated digital health within their curricula;
Recognize opportunities for threading digital health tools into existing curriculum and co-curriculum at the attendee's home institution; and
Identify strategies to develop one or more faculty in digital health at the attendee's home institution.
The presentations will include many leaders in the pharmacy space and voices from academics already exploring integration. For a full list of presentations and the agenda, see here. The event will cost $129 per person.
Why attend?
I think this may be a question for many, especially for pharmacy educators. Many of us likely have seen new studies, products, and services that technology is making impacts upon. Healthcare is no different, and with the rise of digital therapeutics, remote patient monitoring, digital biomarkers, etc., it will be helpful to hear other pharmacists discuss and provide information. Currently, these discussions are mostly relegated to those outside the profession, industry leaders, and other health professionals. Having the ability to stake our own claim will be key.
Other issues likely to arise will be a standard approach and language around this novel topic. What is it? What does it mean to the profession? How do we teach it? This institute will empower faculty and administrators to look strategically at the future of healthcare and develop an action plan at their own institution in order to better prepare graduates for a changing landscape.