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Stay ahead of developments in IT

Pharmacies should keep aware of developments in IT and social media relating to health, Avicenna overseas conference delegates were told this week.

‘We have the most IT-savvy consumers of any other market anywhere in the world,’ said Stephen Lofthouse, head of independents at Alliance Healthcare. The challenge for pharmacies is to ‘stay ahead of the game and know more than you consumers do,’ he said. The online prescriptions market is worth £40 million and ‘is growing fast’, he said.

Sixty per cent of people questioned by the website patient.co.uk said that they would be keen to monitor their chronic condition using a mobile app. The healthcare information website NHS Choices is currently being redeveloped with more focus on apps, pointed out Mr Lofthouse. Pharmacy risks being ‘out of the loop’ on such developments, he said.

Patients will have the option to post TripAdvisor type comments on healthcare providers, including pharmacy. Pharmacy teams need to be ready for this type of feedback from consumers, he suggested.

Moving ahead on IT is complex for pharmacy and there is a real need for collaboration with groups such as Avicenna and Alphega Pharmacy, he suggested. Pharmacies will want to choose an IT supplier that can support them in the transition to digital patient health records, for example, and that they are ‘linked in and delivering a great patient experience,’ he commented.

Salim Jetha, Avicenna chief executive, commented: ‘At the moment we are very disjointed. There are so many IT systems and they don't talk to one another. There is some improvement required there.’

Stephen Lofthouse was speaking to delegates at the recent Avicenna conference in Cyprus

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