Design And Pilot Evaluation Of Rxsmart: A Pharmacist-Informed Digital Health Intervention For Community Pharmacy Practice

Abstract

Background: The role of community pharmacists in delivering services to patients beyond the traditional dispensing functions is increasingly getting demand. Nevertheless, access to integrated digital tools is often limited to facilitate efficient medication management, clinical decision support and patient follow-up in community pharmacy practice. Objective: The purpose of this study was to discuss the experience of community pharmacists with the current digital health tools, unmet digital support needs, and develop a digital health intervention that would be informed by pharmacists (RxSmart). Pilot evaluation was done to measure perceived usability and acceptance of the developed application. Methods: A survey on 350 community pharmacists was carried out cross-sectionally to assess the use of digital tools, their practice challenges, and future expectations about the use of digital tools. The results of the survey were used to design and develop the RxSmart mobile application with the use of drug interaction screening, access to medication information, patient management, adherence reminders, and health monitoring dashboards. The application developed was then pilot tested on pharmacists to determine perceived usefulness and usability. To summarize survey, descriptive statistical analysis has been conducted. Results: The survey results showed that pharmacists often used disjointed digital resources to find information about the drugs and communicate with patients but were not using tools that were integrated to assist them in reviewing the prescriptions and following patients up. Most of the respondents had positive comments regarding the designed application with 69 % of them stating that the system would be able to help in the review of the prescriptions and 73 % stating that the system would help them gain better access to medication information. Moreover 66% felt that the application would be of use in improving the working process and 63% stated that it would be of use in the follow-up activities of the patients. Conclusion: The development of pharmacist-informed digital health interventions represents a promising approach to improving workflow efficiency and supporting patient-centered services in community pharmacy settings. The pilot evaluation of RxSmart demonstrates favorable acceptance among pharmacists and highlights the importance of user-driven digital health innovation.