How to Find Actual Pharmacy Informatics Experience
When I first started my career in pharmacy informatics, I had no idea what I was in for. I knew that I wanted to work in the field, but I didn’t really have any sense of what the actual job would entail. It wasn’t until I was already working in the pharmacy IT field that I truly understood what pharmacy informatics was. I wish I knew how to get real experiences back when I was still a student.
Nowadays, you can learn a lot about the field through a number of resources online. A simple Google search will provide you with many different areas to learn about informatics. However, knowledge is just one aspect. What’s more important is actual pharmacy informatics experience. So how does someone get actual pharmacy informatics experience?
Here’s a list of ways you may be able to get hands-on experience.
During Pharmacy School
Internships
As a student, you will have opportunities to apply to internships while you are still in school. In order to gain some pharmacy IT and pharmacy informatics experience, you should look to see what your internship can provide you. Some pharmacy interns in the hospital setting are able to connect with the institution’s pharmacy informaticist, which allows some pharmacy-specific project work and shadowing to occur. Other ways you could attempt to get experience is applying to nontraditional internships at healthcare technology companies and bringing a fresh perspective there.
Rotations
Similarly to internships, rotations will give you some opportunity to reach out to the clinical applications team to shadow or help out with projects. If you are doing a rotation in a hospital setting, keep an eye out on things you think could be improved with technology in the medication use process. Have those ideas ready to present to your preceptor and ask them if you can work on a project planning that idea out. See if you can incorporate that idea with something that you can work on with the informatics pharmacists if your institution allows it.
After Pharmacy School
Pharmacy Residency
We have a whole article written about whether an informatics pharmacy residency is right for you or not, so I won’t go into too much detail here, but pharmacy residency programs are the most obvious and straightforward path to gain pharmacy informatics experience prior to being a practicing pharmacy informaticist. However, getting into these programs are often difficult and competitive because of the skills required. You will have to do your research on each of the programs to see what they are looking for in a resident, and seeing if you have the skills needed to fit their program. If not, then you have some work to do before you can be considered for their pharmacy residency program.
Health Technology Companies
Newer healthcare technology companies may be needing some clinical specialists on their team. Being a pharmacist puts you in a unique spot to be part of this, and it also allows you to have some hands-on experience in the health technology side before jumping into the informaticist roles. Who knows, you might love it so much in the technology side that going solely to a pharmacy informaticist role may not be in cards anymore. But this would be a great option if you are okay with starting off in young programs and companies where pharmacy clinical knowledge will be appreciated.
Project-Based Avenues
The following groups are additional potential avenues to get experience in the field.
deCode32
Founded by one of our co-founders, Dr. Brian Fung, deCode32’s mission is to match students with mentors that are in the digital health field. Not limited to just pharmacy, deCode32 specifically aims to address the challenge that is faced by many: getting practical and real experiences in healthcare informatics. At the time of writing (April 2022), deCode32 is still in the beginning stages, but be on the lookout for future announcements.
About deCode32:
CodeRx
If you’re looking for project experiences that involving fixing real issues, check out CodeRx. This is a group of pharmacy folks who are into coding and developing. There’s a myriad of sources to reference, and you can join their Slack group and start connecting right away. Projects at CodeRx tend to lean a little more heavy into the techology integrations and coding space. They have a list of projects that they’re currently working on. It’s worth noting that the CodeRx team are first place winners of the ONC Synthetic Data Challenge. CodeRx is full of pharmacy professionals that are using their skillsets and passions to work on projects outside of typical pharmacy practices.
About CodeRx:
CodeRx is a collective of pharmacists and other healthcare professionals who have a skill set in tech and apply it towards building useful things.
We are currently working on several open source projects, creating guides to some common sources of health tech data, terminologies, and frameworks, compiling resources for different areas of tech in general and health tech specifically, and writing a newsletter about topics relating to pharmacy and technology.
If It Ain’t Broke…
Networking, Mentorship, and Building Relationships
The tried-but-true method of gaining experience is getting your name out there in the pharmacy IT space so that when the opportunity comes, you’re the first person others think about. Networking, mentorship, and building relationships will always be an important aspect of your professional career, so starting early will get you a leg up in the future. You never know when you’ll be given an experiential opportunity through networking. Not only will this get you experience, but it may even help you get a job role in the future. Those who are in demand and have jobs have already built a reputation within their networks.
Some organizations that you can be part of that may be beneficial for your future career as a pharmacy informaticist are:
Do you have other suggestions on getting experience in pharmacy IT? Let us know in the comments!
Learn more about pharmacy informatics in our free course.
