Extended Reality in Patient Care and Pharmacy Practice: A Viewpoint

Abstract

The evolution of technology has given practitioners and educators more tools to better treat, manage, and educate both patients and future pharmacists. The objective of this viewpoint publication is to describe the current use of extended reality (XR) in pharmacy and propose ways in which pharmacy practice and education may benefit from incorporation of this technology. While these tools have been used for decades by many other professions, pharmacy is starting to adopt XR in professional and educational practice. XR (virtual reality, mixed reality, and augmented reality) is being used in various aspects of pharmacy care and education, such as pain management, diabetes self-care, cross-checking of prescriptions, treatments for addiction, and (in limited ways) patient and pharmacy education. There is great potential for further integration of XR into pharmacy practice and pharmacy education to ultimately improve patient care and education as well as pharmacy education.