A scoping review on the impact of versatile Digital Health innovations on pharmacy education

TL;DR

This review explores how digital health technologies are shaping pharmacy education, highlighting benefits and gaps in preparing students for modern healthcare.

Contribution

A structured scoping review of digital health's impact on pharmacy education, identifying five key themes and regional disparities.

Findings

Digital Health improves student digital competence and tele pharmacy readiness but lacks standardized curriculum integration.

Regional disparities show advanced Digital Health adoption in Western programs compared to Asian and MENA regions.

Faculty development, AI ethics, and hybrid learning challenges remain critical gaps in pharmacy education.

Abstract

Digital Health innovative technologies, encompassing eHealth, mHealth, e-learning, tele-health, artificial intelligence (AI), tele-medicine, tele pharmacy, virtual reality, and augmented reality, are increasingly incorporated into learning and pharmacy education to prepare students for a Digital healthcare environment. However, evidence on the impact and implementation of these technologies still needs to be explored.

The current scoping review collates and appraises the impact of Digital Health on pharmacy education, evaluating effects on learning outcomes, skill development, competencies, and readiness for tele pharmacy and Digital Health application transformations. The primary objective was to explore the impact of Digital Health (eHealth, mHealth, e learning, telehealth, AI, telemedicine, tele pharmacy, VR, ML, and AR) in pharmacy education via structured scoping review reporting.

A systematic search following PRISMA guidelines conducted across databases, including Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science for recent papers published on Digital Health in pharmacy education from 2019 to 2024. Post-screening, 47 studies met the final criteria.

47 studies were included in the current scoping review. Five themes emerged (1) Curriculum integration and transformation in pharmacy education; (2) Digital literacy (competency development); (3) Tele pharmacy (remote health services and AI) in education; (4) Practical skill development (interactive learning through Digital tools) and (5) Student and faculty perceptions, attitudes, and challenges in adopting Digital Health. Digital Health integration improves students’ Digital competence, engagement, and tele pharmacy readiness, though gaps remain in curriculum standardization. Regional disparities show integration, which more advanced in Western programs, while foundational efforts seen in Asian, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions. The current review emphasized the importance of faculty developing, workload integration, regional disparities, and ethical concerns with AI and challenges in hybrid learning.

Digital Health has been an innovator in pharmacy students’ education, equipping them with the skills and competences required in today’s healthcare environment. However, faculty development, curriculum gaps, workload integration, insufficient telehealth training, regional disparities, and inadequate AI ethics instruction all point to the need for adequate and relevant curriculum modifications to qualify graduates to deal with Digital healthcare challenges.

Figures