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The general practice pharmacists of 2030 will be their practice’s clinical lead for pharmacogenomics, according to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) in Scotland’s draft vision for the sector over the next decade.
‘Pharmacy 2030: a professional vision for general practice pharmacy‘, published on 8 July 2021, sets out how the Society believes the profession should develop during the next few years. The document states that pharmacogenomics will be an “increasingly important focus” of the pharmacists’ role.
General practice pharmacists “will lead the development of pharmacogenomics services to ensure appropriate testing is carried out and that the results are interpreted and acted upon, as each new pharmacogenomic test is developed”.
In addition, pharmacists will “make prescribing decisions based on pharmacogenomics, including changing medicines and adjusting doses”.
Pharmacists will also have a leading role in helping other healthcare professionals understand pharmacogenomics, the Society believes.
An NHS Scotland review of the evidence for clinical genome analysis, updated in 2020, said it was “likely that in the future more pharmacogenomic tests will be approved and recommended for routine use in the NHS”.
It noted that “over 100 drugs have pharmacogenomic information or actionable labels”, and that “genetic variation can determine both the likely effectiveness of a drug and also the risks of unwanted toxicity”.
Pharmacogenomics can also help in the prescribing of targeted therapies, more accurate dosing strategies and reduction of adverse drug reactions, it added.
By 2030, the Society said it would also like to see “a universal patient record held in a data cloud into which every professional both reads and writes information”; the widespread use of remote patient monitoring; and the recognition of “generalism” as a specialty in pharmacy, with pharmacists working in general practice known as “advanced generalist pharmacists”.
‘Pharmacy 2030: a professional vision for general practice pharmacy’ is the second in a series of four visions for the sector that will be consulted on during 2021. A consultation on the vision for community pharmacy closed on 1 July 2021. Visions for hospital pharmacy and specialist services will follow in due course.
Ultimately, the four visions will be combined into one single vision entitled ‘Pharmacy 2030’, to be published in autumn 2021. Clare Morrison, RPS director for Scotland, said that the Society wants Pharmacy 2030 to be “a vision that has been developed with pharmacists and pharmacy teams right across Scotland.
“That will make it a vision that really represents the whole profession’s views, so it is something everyone can get behind. RPS will then use Pharmacy 2030 to represent pharmacy and to lobby for change where it is needed.”
‘Pharmacy 2030: a professional vision for general practice pharmacy’ is open for consultation until 1 September 2021, and the Society said it welcomes views from pharmacists, other health and care professionals and the general public in Scotland.
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