Deloitte Consulting just put out a fantastic new report on the future of pharmacy and how disruption can create opportunities as well as challenges.

One of my favorite parts of this report says, “as the pharmacy industry increases its use of enabling technologies, pharmacists may find themselves at a professional crossroads; either grow their role’s scope and value or face potential disintermediation”.

The report provided several figures showing the future or pharmacist and their evolving role, and what I noticed about these roles, which they call digital, medical and behavioral roles, is they align perfectly with the three Pharmapreneurial Paths. 

Three Future Roles for Non-Traditional Pharmacists:

1. Digital Role

The first role they describe is a digital role helping patients and providers to select and manage digital therapeutics and non-drug solutions that can meet their needs. 

• • I would call this role a remote services pharmacist, and it would be along the same lines of the Pharmacy-Based Path in the Beginner’s Business Blueprint of the Pharmapreneur Academy coursework.

2. Medical Role

The second role that Deloitte hashes out in this new paper is called the medical role.

1. • This pharmacist is a consultant, mostly in an ambulatory care clinic setting that would specialize in the treatment and management of complex and chronic diseases. 
   • This person would also have a deep understanding of genetics pharmacogenomic (PGx) testing and personalized medicine. 
   • This would be the Physician Based Path, which is the second of our three Pharmapreneurial Paths in the Beginner’s Business Blueprint e-Course at PharampreneurAcademy.com  

3. Behavioral Role

And finally, the third role that they described in this paper is the role pharmacists can play in helping to influence healthy patient behaviors.

1. • This pharmacist would focus on mental health and behavioral or lifestyle changes needed to promote compliance and address certain social determinants of health. 
   • This would align very closely with the Patient Pay Path in the Pharmapreneur Academy, where we talk mostly about health and wellness coaching, and also cash-based services that patients are willing and excited to pay for such as functional medicine, genetic testing, nutritional supplementation and much more.

Now, what’s interesting to me is they also look at what patients are going to need in the future. So it’s not just the future of pharmacy. But they look at the future of patient care and this report states, “We see a convergence of health and wellness, along with an expanded role of telehealth and virtual care” for patients.

While the traditional retail pharmacy experience and practice model may no longer exist in the near future, there still is likely to be a role for coordinated and high-touch care delivered locally.

I highly recommend checking out this new report by Deloitte and deciding for yourself…

Which of these three evolving roles or Pharmapreneurial Paths, as we call them, is something that you’re interested in?

Comment below or connect with us at PharmapreneurAcademy.com 

I’d love to hear what role, you’re mapping out for the advancement of the pharmacy profession, and your own Dream Career!