The Role of Clinical Pharmacists in the Multidisciplinary Care of Geriatric Patients: Now and the Future

Abstract

There has been an unprecedented growth in population ageing across the world in recent years. In 2017, the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong predicted that the number of older adults aged 65 and over will increase from 18% of the whole population in 2020 to 32% in 2050. Medication management in older patients will, therefore, become even more challenging in the years ahead. Nowadays, pharmacists are being integrated into multidisciplinary teams to provide extensive clinical services, including evidence-based medication optimisation, drug therapy-related problem identification, as well as medication adherence and monitoring, in order to provide more holistic and humanistic care to older adults. This chapter first describes the role of a geriatric clinical pharmacist in a multidisciplinary team. Then, the relevance of pharmacists’ role in the practice of polypharmacy including de-prescribing is illustrated. Furthermore, the utilisation of innovative technology, or “telepharmacy”, to communicate and provide counselling is demonstrated. The appliance of newer technology such as Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to verify medication adherence is introduced, as well as the use of Transdermal Optical Imaging (TOI) to measure vital signs such as blood pressure after taking the medications. Lastly, the use of technology to help in fall detection and prevention, and the adoption of eye movement patterns in face recognition to assess cognitive decline in the older adults is revealed. All these new and innovative initiatives further enhance and demonstrate the important role of clinical pharmacists in the multidisciplinary care for older adults in the pursuit of ageing with dignity.