Telepharmacy Service: Contributions and Controversies

Nowadays, the shortage of health personnel, and in particular pharmacists, is a challenging issue that the health systems have to face. The use of a new technology such as telepharmacy can represent a possible option to solve these problems. While most people think of telehealth in relation to surgeries performed between countries using remote robotic control, telehealth can be delivered in the same room in which a practitioner is standing. Consider that a diabetes educator can delegate the initial education of the newly diagnosed patient with diabetes to a technology that is a multimedia program. This program can deliver age-specific, gender-specific, race-specific, and diagnosis-specific education in an interactive format that allows the patient to comprehend and retain the educational material as effectively as a one-tone interaction with a human educator. As long as the content provided by the technology is maintained to be accurate, complete, reliable, and relevant one can allow technology to totally replace the repetitive work of educating a newly diagnosed patient with diabetes. What is left for the practitioner is the more complex customization and troubleshooting that is needed by these patients. By delegating to the technology, the practitioner is able to be in two places at the same time in a literal sense.