Article Repost: Inside pharmacy’s digital shift: 4 strategic moves health systems are making now

In a panel discussion at Becker’s Fall 2025 Chief Pharmacy Officer Summit, leaders from Intermountain Health (Salt Lake City), UC Davis Health (Sacramento, Calif.) and CoverMyMeds (Columbus, Ohio) shared how health systems are modernizing pharmacy operations with new tools, direct-to-consumer strategies and AI.

The session titled, “Pharmacy tech triumphs: What’s hot and happening right now,” featured Carrie Dunford, PharmD, chief pharmacy officer and vice president of clinical services at Intermountain Health; Dong Bi, PharmD, director of Epic medication systems at UC Davis Health; and Mike Cohn, vice president of network operations at CoverMyMeds.

Here are four key takeaways from the discussion:

1. Pharmacy teams are adopting automation and AI to reduce administrative work — guided by safety guardrails and clinician oversight.

AI and automation emerged as major focus areas for driving efficiency in pharmacy operations, with speakers urging health systems to prioritize new technology to help streamline administrative workflows.

Dr. Dunford described an initiative at Intermountain to centralize refill and prior authorization workflows, supported by a new AI contract developed in under 30 days. She acknowledged that while the project exposed many inefficiencies, it also created space for meaningful improvement.

“The deeper I have been into this project this year, the more I have noted that we do a heck of a lot of busy work,” she said. “Refill authorization doesn’t seem like it’s much different than it was when I was a 16-year-old pharmacy technician, and every morning my job was to come in and call the doctor’s office and leave those messages.”

Dr. Dunford also noted the system’s internal AI governance team has been a key partner to ensure safety guardrails are in place: “AI wants to just be so helpful, even at risk,” she said. “We do recognize that as we build this, there will have to be those safety checks as we go along.”

At UC Davis, Dr. Bi said the organization is adopting Epic-integrated AI tools such as ambient listening for clinic pharmacists and providers. “We’re in the planning stages of implementing the inpatient insight, which is like a hospital core summary that gets generated when you open the chart, so you don’t have to go digging through the chart,” he said.

Mike underscored the value of targeting administrative workloads when deploying AI tools responsibly. “AI and automation aren’t trying to take away the decision-making from the clinician,” he said. “The clinician-in-the-loop is still so important. But there are administrative workflows where this technology can help tremendously.”

2. Direct-to-consumer pharmacy and mail-order growth are becoming system-level priorities.

Each panelist highlighted strategies for meeting rising patient expectations around convenience and access. Dr. Dunford shared the evolution of Intermountain’s on-demand services platform, which began with pharmacist-prescribed birth control and now spans 26 conditions, including colorectal cancer screening.

“We’ve tried to look at how we can actually fulfill that need for our patients who want [DTC],” she said. “We have a lot of our conditions where patients will contact us and then if they risk out, we have a fast-track line to get them in with a primary care doctor. And so, that leverages the power of a virtual, really low-touch, easy-access system with a brick-and-mortar option for the patients who need it.”

UC Davis has expanded its centralized mail-order and specialty pharmacy capabilities through its consolidated service center, leveraging conveyor-integrated technology to support future growth.

Mike added that virtual pharmacy infrastructure exists within the broader McKesson enterprise to support national DTC programs — including white-label capabilities — that can extend pharmacy teams by taking on behind-the-scenes operational tasks, such as fulfillment, verification and dispensing. While these capabilities are not operated by CoverMyMeds, he noted they can complement its solutions by augmenting on-site staff and freeing them to focus on direct patient care.

“We help your on-site teams by supporting services behind the scenes: 50-state licensing inventory, all the technician and pharmacist verifications, everything,” he said. “Think about it as a ‘pharmacy-as-a-service’ model that adds infrastructure and capacity where needed.”

Although initially ahead of market demand, Mike said interest in these capabilities is now rising as biopharma expands its DTC offerings.

3. Ownership and governance are key to EHR-pharmacy tech success.

Dr. Bi emphasized the importance of governance in UC Davis’ pharmacy builder program, which gives pharmacy departments limited build capabilities in Epic. The team established clear scopes of ownership to avoid “hot potato” handoffs between IT and pharmacy. “It’s very important to make sure there are clear lines of delineation and ownership,” he said.

Dr. Dunford echoed this need, particularly following Intermountain’s large-scale Epic migration. “One of our struggles is having enough digital transformation resources to do all of the build that we need,” she said, noting that her team is now exploring its own pharmacy builder initiative.

4. Early failures are shaping future innovation.

The panelists openly reflected on past tech misfires. Dr. Bi recalled an early implementation of Epic’s dispense prep tool that failed due to weak pharmacy engagement. That experience prompted the creation of UC Davis’ pharmacy informatics program, now critical to successful projects.

In closing, all three panelists encouraged attendees to challenge outdated processes and embrace rapid but responsible innovation. “Let’s rethink it. Let’s dream it a different way,” Dr. Dunford said. “We’re pharmacy people, and we like patterns and we like consistency. But it’s often really helpful to have your front-line staff think of it in a different way. Encourage that thinking.”

Echoing that sentiment, Mike noted that the industry is still in the earliest stages of what’s possible with technology. “In this new AI age, we’re only 8–10% of the way to maximizing what AI can truly do,” he said, inviting pharmacy leaders to build boldly toward the future.