When Toronto-based pharmacist Dr. Rui Su originally launched her CE “Digital Health in Pharmacy” in November 2022, its popularity inspired her to update and relaunch the online course—and prompted Pear Healthcare Solutions to continue to offer it free of charge to pharmacy professionals on its e-learning website.
A 2020 Wellspring Leadership Award grant from the Canadian Foundation for Pharmacy (CFP) provided Su and co-authors Drs. Michelle Yee and Taher Rehmanji with the funding to create the CE.
It clearly met a need in the pharmacy community. “This is the only course on this topic that is currently hosted on our proprietary portal, healthelearning.ca,” says Dawn Murphy, vice-president, client services, Pear Healthcare Solutions. “As such, we felt it was important to offer the course for another year to Pear’s pharmacist community.” In Year 1 of the course, almost 1,000 pharmacists registered, she notes. “We hope to see at least another 500 registrations in Year 2. Pear is pleased to continue offering this course complimentary to Canadian pharmacists, so the good work of Rui and the CFP can reach additional pharmacists.”
The five-module CE “is meant to be a primer (an introductory overview) on the broader variety of digital health modalities out there and how they intersect with pharmacy practice today and into the future,” Su explains. “In module 4 specifically, we also provide a case-based structure and “FIRE framework” on how to evaluate and implement virtual care in pharmacy practice. Based on the feedback we received on the initial launch, pharmacists and pharmacy team members found it to be an insightful overview of the different areas and terminologies of digital health.”
Digital health and virtual care have had—and will continue to have—a major impact on the profession as many pharmacies transition into community health hubs. “With the shortage of family physicians in Canada and the evolving role of the community pharmacist, we believe that virtual care and digital health solutions are an integral part of the healthcare landscape—filling gaps, offering convenience, improving communications, and streamlining care,” adds Murphy.
There is an increasing need for pharmacy professionals to keep pace as well with rapidly advancing technology in this area. “We wanted to continue making the course available for pharmacy teams who were interested in getting a primer on digital health, especially with the recent rapid advancements of AI and GPT technology being adopted across many sectors,” says Su. “Luckily, through our partnership with Pear, we were able to have the course hosted for free for another year.” The new version to launch in February at https://www.healthelearning.ca/#/search?term=digital%20health includes some minor changes and updates from the previous CE. The five modules which take about 1.5 hours to complete, provide a comprehensive overview of digital health in pharmacy,
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