The Irish Institute of Pharmacy (IIOP) was delighted to host a parallel session entitled ‘Next Generation Pharmacy’ as part of the 2025 Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) Charter Week Meeting. The theme of this year’s Meeting was ‘Next Generation Surgery’.
The IIOP welcomed key stakeholders from the pharmacy profession and a pharmacy student who presented on different aspects relating to the future of pharmacy and who took part in an engaging and interactive panel discussion. There were over 100 registrants from all areas of the healthcare setting for the session, which took place in RCSI on 6 February.
Vision
The session explored the vision for the next generation of pharmacy from a range of perspectives, including those of pharmacists across primary and secondary care settings, researchers, and policy-makers at local and national level, all with a patient centred approach.
In addition, a fourth-year MPharm student presented the student viewpoint in terms of what lies ahead for the upcoming generation of pharmacists. As well as hearing presentations on a range of perspectives and topics, the panel discussion enabled attendees to direct questions to the speakers, bringing together the many strands from the session.
The line-up of speakers included:
- Ms Clare Fitzell, Head of Strategic Policy, IPU.
- Ms Muriel Pate, Chief II Pharmacist, HSE Access and Integration.
- Ms Bríd Ryan, Clinical Lead ePharmacy, HSE.
- Ms Ewurabena Ofosu-Aikins, 4th Year MPharm Student, RCSI.
- Prof Dr Frank Moriarty, Associate Professor, School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, RCSI.
- Dr Aisling O’Leary, Senior Lecturer, School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, RCSI.
- The session was chaired by Dr Catriona Bradley, Executive Director, IIOP.
The event provided an opportunity to reflect on current pharmacy practice and the progress achieved in Ireland to date, while also offering a platform to envision the future of professional development for the next generation of pharmacist practitioners.
Challenges alongside enablers for building a sustainable pharmacy workforce in both primary and secondary care were presented, in parallel to understanding the impact of increased healthcare capacity and the need to strengthen healthcare systems.
Expansion
How the expansion of the role of the pharmacist and development of advanced specialist pharmacist roles will further support the delivery of optimised care for patients and collaborations with our health system partners was outlined.
The ongoing development of the national IT infrastructure, including an overview of the ePrescribing project and the positive implications for patients and prescribers, reinforced that a systems approach is critical to ensure the highest standards of quality and patient safety in the changing world of healthcare today.
Discussion on personalised medicine outlined applications such as actionable drug-gene interactions, supporting patient counselling, and the development of tools for risk stratification in deprescribing and medicines optimisation. The importance of ensuring best available evidence is considered together with patients’ values and clinicians’ judgement in co-designing approaches to such applications in practice was emphasised.
Many aspects of sustainability in practice were presented, anchored on the four principles of sustainability in healthcare. Resources for enablement of building sustainability in to pharmacy practice were outlined, including the Medicine Carbon Footprint Formulary. The necessity of integrating sustainability into practice was demonstrated, including an outline of the health co-benefits of climate action.
The session included an overview by a fourth-year pharmacy student of their perspective of how the role of the pharmacist may change in the next 25 years. This vision included improving patient-centered outcomes through the provision of more preventative-focused holistic and integrated care, use of personalised medicines, and increased use of technology – embracing the unfamiliar, as opposed to fearing it.
IIOP competition winners
IIOP also ran an exciting competition as part of the event, inviting pharmacists and pharmacy students from all years to make a submission themed around their vision of what a pharmacists’ role will be in 25 years’ time, the year 2050.
Congratulations to Leon O’Hagan (Pharmacist category) and Laura Mc Cormick (Pharmacy student category) for their winning entries. Each winner received a €200 voucher.
