RxR Briefings - Issue 5

The future of pharmacy: will regulations keep up with AI?

AI is revolutionizing pharmacy, unlocking new levels of efficiency. But there’s a catch—state regulations are having a hard time keeping up. While some states empower pharmacists with full practice authority, others are drowning in outdated red tape. Unlike the velocity of AI innovation, there’s mounting evidence that excessive regulation stifles innovation.

As AI reshapes pharmacy, will policymakers rise to the challenge? Or will red tape hold us back? I explore this topic and provide references based on research and conversations I’ve had with Tim Frost, who gave an insightful presentation to our Members on his work with the State of Idaho and its impact on the practice of pharmacy.

You can also read Toward Pharmacist Full Practice Authority, which Tim Frost, a Senior Fellow of the Cicero Institute, co-authored with Jonathan Wolfson, Esq. and Chief Policy and Legal Officer at the Cicero Institute.

There is a lot to learn and its often hard to keep up with where AI is taking us, but I’ll endeavor to help you stay on the leading edge.

Cheers,
Harry

Mon, Mar 31

The future of pharmacy: can regulations keep up with AI?

As artificial intelligence (AI) drives productivity gains in pharmacy, an important question emerges: How will pharmacists use this newfound time?

AMCP 2025—March 31 - April 3, 2025, I will be emceeing the Pre-Conference Program: The Role of AI in Revolutionizing Managed Care—don’t miss it! George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX
NACDS Annual—April 26-29, 2025, The Breakers, Palm Beach, FL
Asembia AXS25 Summit—April 27 to May 1, 2025, Las Vegas, NV
NCPDP’s Annual Technology & Business Conference—May 5-7, 2025, Scottsdale, AZ
NABP Annual Meeting—May 13-16, 2025, Fort Lauderdale, FL
ISPOR 2025—May 13-16, 2025, Montreal, QC, Canada

Members are adding the conferences they’ll be attending to their bio pages inside the RxRoundtable Member Directory, which will enable other Members to filter on a conference to quickly see who will also be attending. Members can then connect—another reason to have your bio page listed in the Member Directory.

Terry’s Hot AI App Review

My thoughts on ChatGPT/OpenAI

Hi there! Because I’m an avid ChatGPT user, I volunteered to do this RxR Briefing’s App Review for Harry. It’s my favorite AI tool and I use it weekly. The funny thing is I’m a pretty good writer, but this tool supercharges my writing. Mainly for these reasons:

It’s great for writer’s block. Sometimes I just can’t get the writer wheels rolling. I quickly turn to ChatGPT, give it a good prompt, and boom—I’m off and running.
It’s great for brainstorming. In any given moment, unless I’m at my giant white board, I need a bit of divergent help to get as many ideas from a topic as I can, and then, it helps me with convergent brainstorming. Osborn-Parnes would marvel at how ChatGPT could enhance their Creative Problem Solving Process.
It’s great for research. Thorough research is the backbone of any good writer, and with the incredible amount of content online alone, it’s hard to make sense of it all. This tool synthesizes content so I can more easily verify the research.
It’s great for hooks. I post a few times a week on LinkedIn, and ChatGPT is great at drafting intro sentences to “hook” the reader to read the full post.

Bottom line, it’s a HUGE time saver for me, which I pass on to my clients. It does not replace my writing, it bolsters it, expedites it, and presents angles I may not have considered.

As of March 2025, here’s a few stats about ChatGPT from ChatGPT:

User Growth: ChatGPT has achieved 400 million weekly active users worldwide, reflecting a significant increase from previous months.
Daily Engagement: The platform records approximately 122.58 million daily active users, underscoring its integral role in users' daily activities.
Market Share: ChatGPT holds a 62.5% market share among AI tools, highlighting its dominance in the AI landscape.

Although I primarily use it for writing, it does a lot more—it will even make incredible AI-generated images. I prompted ChatGPT to “Make me a picture of a unicorn playing pool with a gang of rough-looking Standard Poodles in a smoky room,” and this is what it made:

What?!?! Incredible! (I admit, I had a good laugh once it rendered this image.) One caveat when using AI-generated imagery: be careful of copyright infringement. Most AI tools like ChatGPT are trained on large datasets and may reference images that are not necessarily in the public domain.

Here’s the key with ChatGPT, Perplexity, and most other AI tools that require prompts: you need to get really really good at prompts. And yes, there are prompt AI tools too! My prompt skills have improved dramatically simply from using the app. It’s saved me endless hours and made my work better.

—Terry

RxRoundtable Member Updates

The Member Resource Library is live!

We’ve officially launched the Resource Library for all RxRoundtable Members. The RL will provide helpful resources, training, and discounted professional services including:

Harry’s “Best of” Picks
Branding and Communications Refresh with Terry Pappy
Past Event Recordings and Downloads
RxRoundtable Member Best Practices Guide
RxRoundtable Glossary of Industry Terms and Acronyms
Advisory Board Guidance with RxRoundtable Member Chris Dimos

Our goal is to continue to add a steady stream of fresh and helpful value for all RxRoundtable Members to enjoy, making the RxRoundtable a must-have resource for executives in our growing industry.

Upcoming RxRoundtable Member Events

Grab your seat for our upcoming RxRoundtable Member-only events. Members must register for each event to attend.

Tuesday RxRoundtable Session April 1, 2025 4-5PM EST—Todd Sega, former CEO of Pharmacy Quality Solutions which was acquired by Innovaccer in 2024, will discuss the software applications to help align healthcare payers and pharmacies to achieve their shared goals of better patient outcomes and healthcare quality performance.
RxRoundtable Hot Topic 🔥 April 9, 2025 4-5PM EST—Our very own Harry Travis is giving a presentation on the transformative impact of AI on healthcare and pharmacy at the upcoming Asembia Summit in late April and providing a special preview to Members.
Thursday RxRoundtable Session April 17, 2025 4-5PM EST—Jake Nichols, co-founder of Ignite Biomedical, will present his company's plans to use pharmacogenomics to revolutionize high-cost immunotherapy.

Past Member Event Recordings

Past event recordings you may have missed

We know you sometimes have competing priorities and miss attending a live RxRoundtable Member event. The good news is we record every event for all Members to view at any time. Here are the latest past event recordings:

To access past event recordings, log into the RxRoundtable Member area and click on any past event to find the recording in the event detail page, or, visit the new Past Recordings in the Resource Library.

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