‘Pharmacists Must Validate AI Output To Ensure Patient Safety’

Pharmacists have been urged to take responsibility for validating output from Artificial Intelligence tools to ensure patient safety, data reliability and quality care in pharmaceutical research and practice.

The call was made at the 7th Annual Scientific Conference of the West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacists, FCT Zone, in Abuja over the weekend, with the theme, “Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Innovative Pharmaceutical Research and Practice: The Emerging Role of Consultant Pharmacists.”

At the event, the keynote speaker, Valentine Adegoke, said AI has clear advantages in pharmaceutical research and pharmacy practice at all levels, but also has disadvantages and limitations that must be addressed.

“AI doesn’t discriminate. It brings out the data you fed into it to produce the result that is being displayed. To ensure that this result is genuine, reliable, that is when consultant pharmacists are to come in,” he said.

Adegoke noted that several niches can be exploited in the emerging AI space, including the use of AI to track adverse drug reactions.

On pharmacy practice, he said data collated from routine hospital practice can be analysed with AI-empowered tools to determine drug consumption patterns and quantify future drug needs across categories.

That data, he added, can help government identify gaps in local drug production, stimulate the establishment of pharmaceutical industries, create jobs, and ensure drug security so that Nigeria is not trapped when there are disruptions outside the country.

Speaking on the role of government, Adegoke said government needs to do more by ensuring consultant pharmacists are not only recognised but allowed to do their jobs.

He also urged government to equip hospitals with necessary equipment, noting that many facilities still do not have computer dispensing terminals, let alone integrated systems with endpoints for accessing information and preparing reports.

While giving her presentation on “Emerging Trends in Medication Safety and Patient Protection”, Former Head Pharmacy Department, National Hospital, Dr. Adetutu Ajemigbitse, said traditional manual review of patient records can no longer suffice because of the volume of data.

She said AI can assist consultant pharmacists in ensuring patient safety, especially with drug-drug interactions and pharmacovigilance, by flagging duplications, interactions and contraindications for patients with multi-morbidity who are on multiple medications.

She cautioned that AI is only a co-pilot and not a replacement for professionals, urged healthcare professionals to validate AI outputs and to position themselves for necessary training in the AI era.

“AI is just acting as a co-pilot, an assistant, not replacing the professional… AI can hallucinate, it can give biased information or information that is outrightly incorrect based on the data that was fed into it. So, poor data, poor output,” she said.

Also speaking, Zonal Coordinator of WAPCP FCT Zone, Pharm. Dr. Tijani Murtau, said the conference was organised to fulfill the college’s mandate of training, retraining and knowledge dissemination.

He said AI has come to stay globally and pharmacists must align with it, stressing that AI cannot replace pharmacists but can make them more knowledgeable and improve service delivery.

On his part, Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, Pharm. Ibrahim Babashehu Ahmed, said the council supports AI adoption to enhance service delivery, especially in consultant pharmacy.

He noted that while AI provides information, the responsibility for ethics and patient outcomes rests with the consultant pharmacist.

Also speaking, Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Chapter of WAPCP, Pharm. Ruth Ajayi, said pharmacists should embrace AI as it enhances their work, but stressed the need for human oversight and quality checks to avoid errors from mismatched data.

In his remarks, Controller of Corrections, the Nigeria Correctional Service Headquarters, Pharm. Abdulganiyu Ayandeji Ayandiran,who was the special Guest of Honour of the event, said AI is important in drug production and quality control as it improves precision, speed, and safety from raw materials to packaging.

Also speaking, immediate Past Zonal Coordinator, Dr. Abubakar Danraka, explained that 22 new fellows were inducted at the event.