Pharmacy Informatics as a Distinct Specialty

Pharmacy informatics has a unique definition, offered by The Health Information and Management Systems
Society (HIMSS). The definition of Pharmacy informatics is: “the scientific field that focuses on medication-
related data and knowledge within the continuum of healthcare systems. The collection, analysis and sharing
of data helps pharmacists and other members of the care team make the appropriate decisions regarding the
use of pharmaceutical treatments to enhance patient care. Informatics allow for a systematic approach to
evaluating outcomes and making data-driven clinical decisions in real time. Although the profession has a
history of relying on computers for business-related functions and the literature specifically addresses the
practice and educational implications of new health care technology, considerable variation exists in the topics
found among informatics articles in the pharmacy literature. In their key role of overseeing medication-related
information available within health IT tools, pharmacy informaticists must generate and share this information
with various healthcare professionals to ensure patient safety while also measuring the usage and effectiveness
of this information throughout the clinical process. When dealing with knowledge to guide healthcare
delivery, the only constant is change. Treatments come and go, diagnostic tools evolve, clinical practice
changes; healthcare regulations, best practices and laws shift—all these things change and all impact your
clinical decision support initiatives.

Because successful clinical decision support requires attention to the five rights mentioned earlier, clinical
decision support interventions must be actively managed. To effectively manage the process of selecting,
applying and maintaining these clinical decision support assets, a governance structure and process must be
assembled. A team of clinical informaticists, including the pharmacy informaticist, can help accelerate the
change management process.

Before pursuing pharmacy and informatics as a profession, I was a programmer for a large insurance
company. As a programmer, you are taught that without documentation your product cannot be maintained
and is therefore not acceptable in a production environment.

All pharmacists will technically use informatics to some degree, in order to make clinical decisions that
ensure patient safety and improve the probability of positive outcomes. Pharmacy informaticists take their
knowledge of medication management and apply it to the design and development of discipline-specific
systems and software.