Telepharmacy, bridge technology or the future of pharmacy?

Telemedicine is often defined as “the use of telecommunication technologies to deliver medical information and services to locations at a distance from the care giver or educator.” While there does not appear to be an official definition of telepharmacy, one can assume that replacing “medical information and services” with “pharmacy information and services” would create an acceptable definition for the practice.

Recent interest in telepharmacy might lead one to believe that the concept behind the technology is new. Nothing could be further from the truth as telemedicine has been around since at least the 1960’s, when NASA built this technology into spacecraft and astronauts’ suits to monitor physiological parameters; the concept has been around much longer than that. The specific application of telemedicine to pharmacy has been on pharmacist’s radar since the 1990’s as indicated by the excellent article by David M. Angaran in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy in 1999.¹ The article does a good job of describing the basics of telepharmacy, including the technology and its potential use.

Adoption of telepharmacy has been slow, but the convergence of available technology and renewed interest in a new pharmacy practice model has created a unique set of circumstances that may present the perfect opportunity for telepharmacy. Advancement in computer technology, videoconferencing, voice over IP (VoIP) technology, ubiquitous internet access, and mobile computing will make the use of telepharmacy simpler than ever before. Combined with improvements in pharmacy automation and pharmacy technician practice, the use of telepharmacy as a tool to help build a new practice model has become a reality.

Telepharmacy can be utilized to remotely replace many functions commonly performed by pharmacists in a typical physical pharmacy environment. This holds true for all practice environments including acute care, long term care or outpatient pharmacy services. Telepharmacy can be used to perform remote order entry, final product verification, drug information, patient consultation, remote dispensing, clinical activities and so on.
The advantages are obvious in situations where a pharmacist may not be available such as in rural communities or remote healthcare clinics in need of pharmacy services. In addition, the use of telepharmacy to dispense medications to patients when a physical pharmacy is not immediately available or verify medication compounding in a cleanroom environment becomes not only a reality, but a practicality.

It seems that telepharmacy, while slow to gain traction, is certainly a viable option for pharmacists looking to distance themselves from the physical pharmacy. Whether or not telepharmacy will be a lasting technology remains to be seen. With that said, it is certainly something worth further consideration as the potential applications appears infinite.

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1. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 1999; 56: 1405-26

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