Pharmacy school deans and health-system pharmacy leaders from across the country convened Dec. 9 at the ASHP 2025 Midyear Clinical Meeting & Exhibition in Las Vegas to explore ways to strengthen pharmacy's future.
The annual gathering, organized by ASHP’s CEO and Board of Directors, brought more than 150 participants together to foster alignment between academic and practice settings. “This is such a wonderful opportunity to talk about the interactions between our colleges and our health systems and hospitals,” said ASHP President Melanie Dodd.
Through facilitated small-group discussions, attendees examined three key challenges facing pharmacy practice and education: strengthening the workforce pipeline, succession planning, and building competencies for the digital pharmacy era. Here are highlights from each domain.
Promoting pharmacy as a viable career path
An effective pharmacy workforce pipeline strategy needs to build interest among K-12 students, the health-system and academic leaders agreed. The field must create opportunities for early exposure, long before students apply to pharmacy school.
First, pharmacists must be present in the community, giving presentations at school assemblies and career days. Such outreach events could be an opportunity for health-system pharmacists and student pharmacists to partner together for further relationship-building.
Then, young students must have opportunities to gain firsthand glimpses of health-system pharmacy settings. “We started doing tours of hospitals so we can bring students in to actually see what pharmacy looks like,” one health-system leader shared.
Several leaders described hosting summer camps for middle and high schoolers interested in STEM, with scholarships available to ensure diverse representation from the community. One pharmacy school’s summer program ends with a graduation-style ceremony open to family members, reaching even more people about the appeal of a pharmacy career. Such efforts ensure a meaningful and memorable experience for students — one that will hopefully leave a lasting impression as they navigate the road to higher education.
Developing pharmacy leaders of the future
Participants next discussed ways to identify talent and prepare professionals for future leadership roles within pharmacy practice and academia, so they are ready to step into the shoes of those who move on or retire.
Succession planning must embrace pharmacists at all stages of their careers. Too often, attendees noted, people reach their first major promotion and then are left on their own to figure out what comes next.
Nor can professional development be one-size-fits-all. The health-system leaders in the room stressed the importance of asking pharmacists and pharmacy technicians about their career goals, then intentionally creating tailored opportunities to hone the skills they’ll need at the executive level, such as public speaking and budgeting.
One tactic is the stay interview, in which current employees are asked about their job satisfaction and aspirations — as opposed to the exit interview, when they’re already out the door. “Recruit your own staff,” one health-system leader added. “We aren’t always very good at recruiting people who are already within our midst. Every single individual needs to be encouraged and developed.”
Meanwhile, pharmacy schools can cultivate students’ leadership skills through projects and administrative rotations. Attending regional or statewide professional meetings can give student pharmacists more chances to meet — and become inspired by — practicing pharmacy leaders.
As one participant said, “If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.”
Embracing AI
Proficiency with artificial intelligence (AI) and other digital health tools is essential for positioning pharmacists as leaders in cutting-edge fields such as precision medicine, pharmacogenetics, and informatics. And with technology changing so rapidly, collaboration is the best way forward, rather than leaving each organization to fend for itself.
This collaboration can work in multiple directions, participants observed: between healthcare associations, between academic institutions and health systems, among the interdisciplinary care teams at a hospital, or across the health sciences programs at a college or university. The goals of any standardized AI education program would be to improve familiarity with the technology, establish guidelines for responsible and ethical use, and encourage experimentation in safe settings.
“We’re all learning together how we can use tools effectively and appropriately,” one pharmacy leader said. “Starting earlier and getting a shared understanding of where we are right now would be really cool.”
