How student pharmacists use AI in 2024
Saad Shafi is a final-year PharmD candidate at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy; Stephen Presti is a final-year PharmD candidate at The University of Iowa College of Pharmacy; Elaina Vitale is a final-year PharmD candidate at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy; Kendall Kerr is a final-year PharmD candidate at the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy; and Bryce Mortera is a final-year PharmD candidate at the University of Cincinnati James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is everywhere lately, from AI-generated coffee blends to using AI to find the next big breakthrough in drug discovery. It has created numerous opportunities for student pharmacists to learn how to meet the needs of both practitioners and patients. One of the national policy resolutions for APhA–ASP this year is titled “Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Education.” As members of the 2024–2025 APhA–ASP Policy Standing Committee (PSC), we want to share some of our experiences with AI, how it has played a role in our journeys as student pharmacists, and how it may shape us as health care providers in the future.
PSC member Saad Shafi recently interviewed 2024–2025 APhA–ASP Speaker of the House Stephen Presti and members of the committee for their thoughts on this new frontier.
Saad Shafi: Stephen, how do you use AI as a student pharmacist?
Stephen Presti: ChatGPT can be very useful for drafting and revising emails. It is still essential to revise it one last time manually, but the AI draft saves me a lot of time and often gives good suggestions. I also think it is extremely helpful for adjusting the tone to be more or less formal as needed.
Saad Shafi: What are some of the ways ChatGPT has helped you on your rotations?
Stephen Presti: ChatGPT can be helpful for interpreting complex language. On rotation, I had to analyze some pharmacy laws and make recommendations to my preceptors. For legal language that confused me a bit, I gave it to ChatGPT and asked for it to be rewritten in more simple language. This gave me a foundational understanding that I then used to understand the original language.
Saad Shafi: Next, we have Elaina Vitale, PSC Chair. Lain, what are some aspects of AI that you find most useful?
Lain Vitale: Like Stephen said, I love to use AI to revise my professional emails and to help with my diction and syntax. After explaining to the program the style and tone you wish to convey to the reader, as well as giving a rough draft of a sentence, you can ask it to give you 10 options of how to phrase your idea. This allows me to see different options of wording the same general content and choose my favorite option.
Saad Shafi: How have you used AI tools to help you study?
Lain Vitale: In school when I was studying for an exam, I would use ChatGPT to create practice quizzes. You can feed ChatGPT your notes from class or concepts from lectures and ask it to create you a test with as few or as many questions as you’d like based on this content. It is great at asking questions like the ones you would see on a test! However, every now and then I would find an answer to a question that the program gave me was not 100% correct. AI is not perfectly accurate, and nothing can replace human knowledge and expertise.
Saad Shafi: Kendall Kerr is responsible for running our National Voter Registration Drive and is working on education dealing with loan repayment for student pharmacists. Kendall, in what ways has AI improved your workflow as a student pharmacist?
Kendall Kerr: I intern at an outpatient hospital pharmacy where AI has been integrated into the software we use and rely on daily in the pharmacy. For example, our system uses information found on a patient’s profile to identify any drug interactions, patient contraindications, or relevant allergies. Upon discovery, the system will alert the pharmacist to review prior to the prescription entering our queue. Additionally, our system automatically reorders medications when inventory levels fall below a certain threshold, ensuring that stock is always available. Not only has this automatic feature freed up our inventory technician and pharmacist, but it has also significantly decreased in-person or over-the-phone patient conversations regarding an out-of-stock item that may not be arriving for a couple days.
The automatic ordering system also helps a patient’s medications stay synced and ensure we have what they need when they need it. These are just two examples of the myriads of ways AI has transformed our workflow. Ultimately, the utilization of AI for more basic tasks has allowed our pharmacists and interns to focus on more complex tasks with a specific emphasis on medication optimization and patient interactions including device demonstrations, administering vaccines, and counseling on medications.
Saad Shafi: Bryce Mortera is working on a policy resolution dealing with financial planning tools and skills that are useful to student pharmacists. Bryce, what are some of the technical applications of AI that you find most valuable?
Bryce Mortera: I use AI to assist with developing a framework and vocabulary for research. Examples include conducting market research on types of vendors, understanding the common lingo used within a sector, identifying key stakeholders who drive decisions, and recognizing financial or clinical considerations unique to a particular area or line of business. Another way I use AI is by using it to help create fake or test data quickly. In an increasingly technical world, especially in clinical settings, having a tool like ChatGPT allows me to validate different formulas or visuals by generating small-to-mid-sized data sets. I can then leverage these data sets to test if my technical applications function as intended, ahead of production or demonstration.
A limitless future
As student pharmacists, the applications of AI can seem limitless. It is important for us to take into consideration both the potential improvements that AI tools can have in our workflows, and to be mindful of the potential limitations. We shared some of the thoughts of our PSC to illustrate a handful of the ways we personally use this exciting and innovative tool. With the rapidly changing landscape, we anticipate seeing what place AI takes in pharmacy education as new tools are developed and changed.