The Role of the Pharmacy Informatics Position in Practice Model Development

Abstract

The Director's Forum series is designed to guide pharmacy leaders in establishing patient-centered services in hospitals and health systems. Health care information systems are becoming more integrated and interoperable and are able to connect with a variety of software and systems. A key position that helps to connect the pharmacy to the organization's information system needs is the Informatics Pharmacist (IP). This position's distinct expertise in systems capabilities and pharmacy operations can support innovations in practice and strong communication throughout the organization. The director of pharmacy can leverage the talents of the IP to enhance the patient-centered services of the pharmacy. Given that most pharmacy departments are small and may not have resources to hire a full-time IP, this article provides the pharmacy director with information about the IP position, which can be used to justify additional resources to focus on pharmacy informatics.