Linked to EAHP Statements
Section 4 – Clinical Pharmacy Services: Statement 4.8
Section 5 - Patient Safety and Quality Assurance: Statement 5.5

ACPE UAN: 0475-0000-21-026-L04-P. A knowledge-based activity. 

Abstract
Information technology is on the rise and is changing the way patients; physicians and hospitals pharmacists interact together. Digital health interventions have the potential to support patients all day long and connect them to medical staff thanks to smartphone apps or wearable devices. A chatbot is a software that interacts with users by using an algorithm, with or without human back-end intervention. Chatbots could be a solution to follow up with patients during their patient pathway and save time for health care providers and hospitals pharmacists. They create a dynamic interaction, are easy to use, and simulate a human conversation through text or voice via smartphones or computers. Clinical pharmacy services should continuously evolve to optimize patients' outcomes. Hospital pharmacists should be aware of the very promising potential application and should be considered them to enhance the efficacy of their interventions.

In this session, we will discuss the available literature that demonstrates the power of chatbots and discuss the few examples of their applications. We will also describe the ongoing trials evaluating chatbots and discuss the challenges that remain to be addressed for a successful implementation. Finally, we will demonstrate that it is possible to obtain support for hospital pharmacists through a chatbot and to improve patients' outcomes.

Learning objectives
After the session, participants should be able to:
• describe the concept of chatbots and cite a few examples in pharmacy practice;
• discuss the limits of the artificial intelligence and more particularly the chatbots;
• identify the challenges that remain to be addressed for a successful implementation.

Educational need addressed
Information technology is on the rise and is changing the way patients; physicians and hospitals pharmacists interact together. Clinical pharmacy services should continuously evolve to optimize patients' outcomes. It is possible for hospitals pharmacists to obtain a support from chatbots to improve patient's outcomes.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, chatbots, patient's outcomes, mobile phone, support for hospitals pharmacists, automation, informatics, technology.