February 2026
Dear SOPIT Members,
We hope this message finds you warm! Winter will soon shift into spring, as our section’s focus has shifted from planning to execution. Across our section advisory groups (SAGs), members are advancing practical work, generating, and sharing ideas on medication-use data analytics, pharmacy automation, governance, and the day-to-day ecosystems that support safe, effective medication use. This work reflects our core charge: To build and share knowledge that improves pharmacy practice. Thank you to our SAG leaders and members for contributing your time and expertise!
As the ice melts, Artificial intelligence (AI) remains a clear accelerant. Published analyses suggest capabilities are doubling every 6-7 months in the length of real-world tasks agents can complete reliably. We are also seeing early policy signals, Utah is moving forward with a pilot to allow AI to authorize refills for select prescriptions, and some physician colleagues are now debating whether certain clinical AI should be licensed more like practitioners than like static devices. This is the moment for pharmacy to engage — and to lead. Clinical judgment is ethical, relational, and contextual; it cannot be replaced by AI, even as it may be meaningfully augmented through the systems we build with patients and pharmacists designed into the medication use process. Our responsibility is to set governance, measurement, and implementation so augmentation translates into safer, more equitable care.
With that in mind, ASHP Pharmacy Futures 2026 (June 13-17 in St. Louis) will include a Summit on Pharmacy Workforce Transformation in the Age of AI. If you are navigating AI adoption, workforce impact, or governance in your organization, this will be a great opportunity to learn, share ideas, and influence the direction of practice. Please consider attending - and watch for additional details on SOPIT networking sessions and social events soon.
Encouragingly, pharmacy school applications increased 6% this past year. Creating strong educational opportunities is central to our SOPIT charge, and we are excited to welcome the Informatics Pharmacy Resident Network (iPRN) more formally into SOPIT this spring. Resident members are a critical part of our community, and we intend to create more engaging opportunities for them as they gain experience and grow into practice. If you are involved in a residency program, please look for more information in the coming weeks.
I'd like to recognize our SOPIT Executive Committee — Jeffrey Chalmers, Bryan Shaw, Casey Olsen, Emmanuel Enwere, Kendall Gross, and ASHP Staff Scott Anderson — for keeping our priorities focused and our momentum steady.
Thank you all for your continued commitment to SOPIT, to the teams we support, and most importantly, to our patients. Please consider me a resource if you have questions, ideas, or would like to become more engaged.
Warm regards,
David Agüero, PharmD, MSTL, FASHP, FAMIA
Chair, Section of Pharmacy Informatics and Technology
sections@ashp.org
