Mina Wanis - From Pharmacy to Tech: Embracing Digital Healthcare and Informatics

Mina Wanis is an experienced Product Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Skilled in Health Informatics, Business Planning, Sales, Databases, and Administration. Strong product management professional with a Master's degree focused in Information Technology from University of New England (AU).

He completed his Bachelor of Pharmacy at the University of Sydney and pursued his passion of digital health completing a Grad. Cert. in eHealth & Health Informatics with the University of Tasmania. As well as his extensive community pharmacy experience, Mina has previously held roles as a Pharmacy Expert with McCann Health Australia as well as Business Development Manager and Medical Editor with MIMS Australia. His current role is with Corum Group (ASX: COO) as the Product Manager for their flagship pharmacy information system, Corum Clear Dispense. He works very closely with pharmacists and pharmacy owners to make sure his team are providing value in the features and functionality they are producing.

You can find Mina Wanis on LinkedIn.

Do you have questions about your pharmacy career? Then contact us or meet our team.

Transcript

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Your Pharmacy Career podcast proudly brought to you by Raven's Recruitment Australia's Pharmacy recruitment agency

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spotlights the myriad of careers available to pharmacist your host Kristi Lee Patterson and her esteemed

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guests will be sharing invaluable career advice that you can Implement at any stage of your career Journey welcome to

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the your Pharmacy career podcast where we dive into the journeys challenges and triumphs of Pharmacy professionals who

0:26

are making their mark in our industry I'm your host Kristi Lee Patterson and today we're exploring the intersection

0:33

of the pharmacy and digital Health world with a very special guest Mina Wanis welcome

0:39

to the show thank you excited to be here Kristi thank you now Mina your career

0:44

Journey from Pharmacy to it is quite unique but I'd like to go back to the

0:50

beginning and really understand what drew you to Pharmacy initially but then

0:55

also what led to your decision to Pivot into the it digital Health space thank

1:02

you so for me I think what really drew me to Pharmacy initially was actually

1:07

one of my local pharmacists so uh it was a local pharmacy in in bwood here in

1:13

Sydney was an amcal and you know my parents were always speaking really

1:18

highly of the local pharmacist and I um I really took a liking to that and I

1:24

think sort of part of my journey was we've got a lot of Pharmacists in the family as well in here in America

1:30

overseas so for me Pharmacy seemed like a very logical Choice obviously everyone

1:35

grows up thinking they want to do medicine but then after seeing what my sister went through I uh was thanking my

1:41

lucky stars I never made it into medicine because I'm very happy with where I'm at but I think yeah Pharmacy

1:47

for me was really one of those opportunities to really be out there you're still in health you're still

1:54

someone who is uh involved in your community and you're there for people in

1:59

their time of need at almost 9:00 a.m. or 8:00 a.m. till 10: p.m. sometimes the

2:04

hours that the pharmacy would open so that was always really appealing to me just being able to serve and to to

2:11

service your local community the it aspect really came from in the home I think you know my mom's in it so I grew

2:18

up with that around home you know since I could remember still remember playing

2:24

you know like Prince of Persia on the Windows 3.1 48 six back in God knows

2:31

when so that was always sh my age a bit here but that was always fun and so I

2:37

always grew up with that in the background and it was really bit of a uh

2:42

journey to to continue with you know with the health sort of perspective and health to me was always where I was

2:48

going to end up I just just had an affinity to that part of the the world and the workforce and eventually I found the

2:56

opportunity to use both what I knew and what I was taught and what I liked and what I loved and you know that's being

3:02

health and technology and so yeah finding my way into a digital Health sort of related career was almost felt

3:09

like I was just riding the wave and just taking the opportunities as they came so yeah it was really really pleased to be

3:17

in in the position that I'm in very privileged to be in the position that I'm in as well absolutely yeah I remember some of those games as well

3:23

so some of our listeners may not so maybe it is showing your age a little

3:29

bit now with the transition to doing it and bringing that into Pharmacy you said

3:35

that you've got background from your home life and your family but did you have to go and do any further education

3:43

or study to actually help you make that switch as well I didn't have to but I

3:48

wanted to I think that's really the main distinction for me it was always you

3:53

know I'm I'm always a a learner I always see myself as the student I always want

3:58

to learn and and whatever problems that I see I'm always interested in well why

4:04

is there a problem in the first place and what is the actual problem because what sometimes we see is that

4:10

particularly from a a software perspective when someone talks to you about an issue that they're having with your software it's always from their

4:17

point of view but they haven't really defined the problem for you and so being

4:22

involved in that conversation with them you really start to unpack where the problem actually is and you're able to

4:29

then and find a solution for it so I think from my perspective looking at I suppose the yeah so wasn't necessarily a

4:38

must do but it was something that I've always wanted to do for me I'm a student

4:44

at heart I always been a student I like to learn and being able to pursue

4:50

further study and education in I suppose from in purely it sort of perspective so

4:56

I'm currently finishing a um masters of it with uh University New England I feel like that's helped me do my job better

5:03

but it's not necessarily a requirement depending obviously on the organization that you're working for but

5:10

it's not necessarily a requirement to be able to use your Pharmacy knowledge to be able to allow a particular

5:17

organization or software or or service that is focused on digital Health to be

5:22

able to be that voice of the customer particularly if the customer is Pharmacy but also to bring in your health

5:28

knowledge as a pharmacist and health industry knowledge to help again bridge that Gap from a digital Health

5:34

perspective where I found the education was really helpful for me is it helped me be able to to speak with our

5:41

technical teams so that we're talking the same language but at the same time it helped me understand enough to be

5:48

able to communicate and I suppose translate to our users what it is that

5:55

particular feature or functionality or uh integration was going going to be delivered and I think that's where

6:02

pharmacists really Excel is where we sort of sit is we sit in between the

6:08

patient the prescriber the age Care Facility the Allied Health professional

6:15

and we translate the health jargon and the health speak to our patients and I

6:23

found that that was a real benefit because we have those skills sort of

6:28

built in us as students and as we practice you know in Pharmacy irres of the um environment that you practice in

6:35

we're able to do that we're able to absorb the information from one particular discipline or principle and

6:42

translate that to the person that we're trying to to serve at the end of the day and that's your patient or your your

6:48

customer for example if you're working from a commercial perspective that makes a lot of sense and as you're talking

6:54

about being that link between the pharmacy and then the the tech

7:00

people in your organization I think it's almost like a translator role really isn't it correct and I will be honest

7:08

that one of the education degrees that you did I might actually start that

7:14

again now when I was prepping for this podcast I had a bit of a look on your LinkedIn and I saw that you had done a

7:22

educational degree in Health informatics and ealth I will be honest I did have to

7:29

ask chat GPT what that actually was so I'm sure there's some listeners that are

7:35

also in the same boat are not really understanding what that is and so I think what you were talking about before

7:42

is a good segue into this and so yeah why is Health informatics becoming so

7:49

important in Pharmacy practice from your perspective and how can we actually use

7:56

that information to drive better health outcomes really for our patients yeah

8:02

absolutely it's been important for a very long time I think it's only really

8:07

coming to light and becoming ever more prevalent just in the last sort of I

8:12

probably say in the last 10 15 years or so especially with the improvements in

8:18

technology and the improvements in Computing and computer power and and

8:24

information systems in general and database Technologies as well I think that's really fundamentally why it's

8:29

becoming ever so prevalent when we really sort of boil it down like what is informatics in general and sort of

8:36

thought to look up a quick sort of definition uh beforehand so I'm not making this up there's a reference if

8:42

you guys really want the reference but it's really your the way that we use technology to collect to store process

8:50

display retrieve and communicate timely data and information across whatever

8:56

sort of environment that we're in so if you sort of apply that principle to whatever system

9:03

that you've used whether it's your dispensing software whether it's your phone or an application on your phone

9:10

those principles are really around how do we treat and manage data and

9:17

information and I think just given the world that we're in everything's electronic and in inverted commers

9:23

electronic e this I that Pharmacy I think would really particularly Pharmacy

9:28

students will really benefit I think from a primer on what informatics and health informatics is and what

9:35

information systems are because fundamentally health informat or informatics is really those practices

9:42

but where it's heading is how we collect store process display etc etc that's all

9:49

occurring information system so if you're in a hospital that's your EMR if you're in a pharmacy that's your

9:55

dispensing software or whatever other Clinical Services software that you're using if you're in a GP Clinic it's you know

10:04

it's your prescribing software it really is a I suppose it's very important to

10:09

have the understanding of what you're really trying to achieve with that particular system and so when you look

10:15

at it from a different sort of levels you've got you know your concept of informatics and how you sort of manage

10:20

that data and in the past that may have been on paper forms and eventually it became electronic and then it became how

10:26

do we use an information system how do we build databases Etc Etc then you're looking at the next stage of

10:32

understanding well what is the the the data like a pyramid for example it's

10:37

called the data information knowledge wisdom pyramid so you're really looking at a hierarchy of well I want to go from

10:45

data which is really like a particular reading of some sort say it's a blood

10:50

pressure reading for example that's just a piece of data the information is understanding that this is a blood

10:56

pressure reading for so and so the knowledge aspect to it is knowing

11:02

whether it's really high really low and then when you're sort of looking at wisdom is well what should I really do

11:07

about that and then understanding where the value and that's where the value of Information Systems comes in is well we

11:13

need to do something about this where this patient hears some recommendations so it's a way of understanding how your

11:19

information system works and then essentially all of this is wrapped up into an information system where you're

11:25

really bring all these ideas into a bit of a framework and it really is a way to

11:30

capture that data and information it sort of does something and that's where the calculations and sort of little bits

11:38

and pieces occur and then it spits out and generates for you that knowledge and the wisdom of the data that you sort of

11:45

put in to create more value and that's why they cost a lot because what you're trying to do is to create value and more

11:51

value from the information that you entering into it dispensing software you know just because we're putting in trans

11:57

it's almost it's quite transaction putting in the different scripts that are coming through but it what does that

12:03

mean in Context of that patient history right it's being able to view the history being able to understand where

12:09

the opportunities are for a particular counseling Point using your your system and any inbuilt clinical decision

12:16

support tools that are able to highlight these uh opportunities for you that's

12:21

where the information system becomes really handy and being able to understand these principles allows you

12:27

to keep in mind you know Concepts such as data quality and making sure that

12:32

we're capturing all the relevant pieces of information and relevant data about a particular patient to be able to

12:39

generate the right outcomes for the algorithm that's running in the background for example to generate for

12:44

us the insights that we want it to generate so I think being able to keep that in mind being able to recognize the

12:53

opportunity that the understanding of Information Systems so as pharmacists we

12:59

need to really understand and appreciate the value of the data that we're putting into our software whatever that software

13:06

might be and understand where it's going and how it's going to help you in the

13:11

pharmacy but also who else has access to that information who else had access to that data and I think in the future I'm

13:18

really expecting to see data and Pharmacy information really almost being

13:24

considered as part of the valuation of the pharmacy because it will become an asset to that particular Pharmacy having

13:30

a well-formed information system where there's research at one of my lecturers

13:36

that in one of the subjects has actually did his PhD on this and that's putting a commercial quantity or commercially

13:43

quantifying the value of an organization's data that's something that we'll be seeing a lot more of in

13:49

the future given the fact that if you have an organization with a really valuable data set there's a very good

13:56

price tag to something like that because what we're doing at at the moment is we're feeding all these large language

14:02

models and AI chat Bots with our own company information our own data to

14:08

generate those insights for us so I feel like that's where Pharmacy needs to really start being aware of the value of

14:18

putting in that you know that extra piece of information about someone but understanding obviously the impact of something like that but also recognizing

14:26

how that's going to help the pharmacy generate commercial outcomes because it is a health business at the end of the

14:31

day from from the clinical insights that they're generating from their clinical Information Systems so I think overall

14:40

you understand exactly what you're doing how you're doing it and the the

14:46

information that you're putting into your system is vital I think that's the biggest takeaway message there for me is

14:52

yeah understanding the value of the data that you're putting in I know in Pharmacy and you just almost feel like

14:59

you're just asking questions or inputting data for the sake of it and it's could be seen as timec consuming

15:06

and duplicating things and I'm sure more and more software will become more

15:11

interoperable and minimize that but yeah as a pharmacist this is our patients

15:19

data and by collecting this we have this huge opportunity to make some really big

15:26

Health outcomes and I don't think I almost don't think everyday pharmacist

15:32

really understands that because I think they're you're in The Daily Grind and you're just trying to get through the day yeah by really appreciating the

15:40

value of it but then that also translates to understanding how

15:46

important that data is to the individual as well of that patient and thinking as

15:52

a pharmacist who else has access to this information so I'm sure you we've worked

15:58

in pharmacy where you've got the the password on a Post-It note password

16:03

one that type of thing and I think yeah if we appreciate that the value that

16:09

that data holds yeah we can be a little bit more careful with that as well as to who has access to it yeah absolutely and

16:16

I think always read the fine print particularly when it comes to applications that are sharing data

16:23

externally from your Pharmacy always read the fine print and understand what the applications are for your business

16:30

but also for your patients because you are the custodian at the end of the day

16:35

of your patient data you don't own it but you are the custodian of that data and you look after and from a a data

16:42

governance perspective you need to make sure that you're acting in their best interests as well so I think that's

16:47

really really important because someone might release a calculate this report or whatever that might be but know what's

16:54

happening in the back end and in the background and that's really where having that that technical aptitude will come in

17:01

handy to understand the implications of what you're about to do but also how

17:07

it's going to happen so that you're complying or you're refusing and making sure that it's not happening without you

17:12

knowing about it so that's also really important as well absolutely really good

17:18

advice I think what we've been chatting about I wanted to kind of delve in a

17:23

little bit more about what your role is as a product manager and I think you you've kind of touched on it throughout

17:29

the conversation already but yeah maybe if you could give us a bit of an

17:35

overview as to yeah what a product manager is and what do you actually do

17:40

I'm sure that could be a how long is a piece of string type of a question but yeah you worked at Quorum which most

17:47

pharmacists would know dispense software so yeah what would a typical day kind of

17:53

look like for you what advice do you have for people that maybe want dive into that type of role it's not for the

17:59

farted I could tell you that now it's a product management in general and I think let's take a step back because the

18:06

pharmac like pharmaceutical industry has product managers as well product management can differ between different

18:12

Industries when you're in the pharmaceutical space you're really looking at it more from a marketing

18:18

perspective when you're in the device space like or Hardware space you're

18:24

looking at it more from a operational perspective making sure that your prods are built for future proofing but when

18:32

you're in the software space you're really there as the conduit to your to

18:39

the customer you're in this particular instance the subject matter expert of Pharmacy because you've got a technical

18:46

team and Engineers that aren't pharmacists some might be that aren't pharmacists that need context to why

18:54

they're building what they're building I think the motto for me when it comes to product management I remember reading

19:00

this somewhere in can't remember in in LinkedIn or something like that but it's tell your developers the what and the

19:08

why and they'll tell you the how I sort of that sort of alludes to a previous the previous question that you were asking well what did you need to study

19:15

to be able to do what you do you don't necessarily need to have that technical

19:20

background so I didn't have to do a masters of it or I didn't have to study really anything because what I was

19:26

bringing to the team was the knowledge of Pharmacy and what a typical day in a

19:33

pharmacy looks like knowing you know for example that a pharmac some pharmacists

19:38

prefer to use the keyboard only as opposed to using a mouse and making sure that they're always cognizant of that so

19:44

whenever we're developing a particular feature or a particular new functionality well how's the keyboard going to help how's the pharmacist going

19:50

to use the keyboard to be able to achieve something like this or to use this particular feature so just being cognizant of little things like that

19:57

explaining to them day-to-day workflow of a pharmacy and being that that source of Truth for them but the trick is

20:05

you're not imposing so it's a very fine line when you're the product manager for

20:11

a software where you could also be the user so you need to create a bit of a a

20:20

firewall in your mind when you're having these conversations to not allow your own personal prejudices to come through

20:27

in the development so oh you know what I don't like the button being on the left hand side I

20:32

prefer it on the right hand side well actually that's the answer to that question is not meant to come from me

20:40

it's meant to come from our users so it's and that's where my role really comes in it's being the voice of the

20:45

customer and not necessarily just telling them what I think Pharmacy wants it's having those conversations with our

20:52

Pharmacists and with our users so I I have a particularly for the product that

20:57

I manage Quorum CLE dispense I have a bit of a a go-to group of users that I

21:04

consult with whenever it comes to needing you know a quick answer on a particular piece of of functionality or

21:12

or a feature that we're implementing and being able to be conduit to the technical team means that the team can

21:20

develop faster they've got their their requirements set and you you're really

21:25

there as a source of of Pharmacy knowledge because when you're providing

21:31

that that part of the development work their job becomes that much easier because technically you could do

21:38

anything and everything technology is never the barrier at the end of the day like that's just the general rule it's

21:45

why are you doing something and what is the market opportunity so a lot of the

21:50

times it's sometimes forgotten there's a commercial aspect to it as well it's not purely just the technical aspect there's

21:56

a commercial aspect to the role to try and understand well where's what's the market opportunity that I'm trying to

22:02

capture is it this particular type of customer is it pharmacies that dispense

22:08

a particular type of prescription to use a sort of an example that's what you've

22:14

got to also put forward when you're putting forward your road map when you're you're talking to your Executives

22:20

about why you're going to be pursuing a particular set of features and functionalities in your software and

22:26

then working with your sales team and and your marketing team to align with

22:32

the the features that you're going to be delivering throughout you know the next sort of 12 months so they have the

22:38

ammunition to be able to go out there and have those Communications because not everyone wants to swap over their dispens software let's be honest but at

22:45

the end of the day relationships is what sells so if someone's able to have that relationship with a particularly our you

22:52

know our bdms and our customer service managers be able to have those conversations withes and recognize what

22:59

their pain points are and show them that we've got something that actually solves those pain points and more then it's a

23:06

very easy conversation to have and that's really what my job is is to find what those pain points are and be able

23:13

to find solutions for them using technology in our application sounds so interesting like I it's cool I love it

23:20

yeah yeah it's interesting when you're in the pharmacy and you're dispensing or

23:26

entering a service or whatever you're doing sometimes you might get frustrated like oh why why can't I just do this and

23:34

it seems like such a simple thing but like you said so much more goes into it from the back end and until you're in

23:40

this sort of space you really have no idea and you're like oh right okay it's not as not as simple as that and the

23:47

biggest thing is I think is that why like why why do you want to do that why have we be doing this and as you've been

23:53

talking I've been reflecting a little bit on just stereotypically what it looks like in Pharmacy and why

24:01

we do things a certain way and do you think that yeah that like the future of

24:07

Pharmacy do you think maybe pharmacists need to to think a little bit more outside the square rather than just kind

24:14

of thinking about okay let's just digitize this process or digitize this

24:20

thing and maybe there's completely different way of thinking that could actually streamline a bit bit better and

24:27

so from a pharmacist perspective that might be yeah communicating with their

24:32

tech companies and providing that feedback if they're thinking more about why they're doing things rather than

24:39

like the what do you think that would be more useful yeah I think as pharmacists

24:44

we tend to be problem solvers we're always looking at to how to solve a problem because that's just how we're

24:51

trained you know we see a patient come in with an ailment what are we going to give them how are we going to help them

24:57

improve how we're going to help solve their problems I think what this role has really taught me is to spend more

25:05

time in the problem space and try and understand a little bit more well what

25:10

is the actual issue I think in health it's a little bit more it could be a little bit more easier you know someone's grazed their knee we know we

25:17

have to you know clean it up and good wound management etc etc but it really

25:22

comes back to well understanding why they graze their for example so actually spending more time in the problem space

25:29

and realizing will hold on they Grace their knee because they're feeling a bit dizzy and they missed a step and decided

25:37

and they fell well why are they dizzy and really starting to think about well the problem more and asking you know the

25:44

the five levels of why for example and probably a very simple example to to bring up but could be something else

25:50

going on and it's really applying that same principle to what we do from a a software perspective and understanding

25:57

why is some someone having a particular issue all the time well actually it's

26:02

because they are trying to use the system this way where it wasn't designed to be used this way it's designed to be

26:09

used a different way and then it comes down to well actually there's a training issue there there needs to be more

26:15

training that needs to be uh given webinars or one-on ones whatever it might be because there's a that problem

26:22

hasn't been really identified and so someone will come to the far like to the to this to our team to support team or

26:28

whatever and really put out there oh your software needs to do this well why do you want it to do this what are you

26:35

actually trying to achieve in your day-to-day because what we're really here to do is try to help you run a

26:41

better business that's really where I think there's a lot of uh a lot of benefit for us yeah oh absolutely

26:49

there's a huge huge value of yeah it and and digital Solutions in Pharmacy and

26:56

earlier you mentioned you dropped the word word Ai and and so that's

27:01

definitely a Hot Topic everywhere you go at the moment and I I've definitely used it myself for many things and but do you

27:09

think that's going to be the biggest transformation in the sector or you do

27:14

think that there's other things happening or other digital solutions

27:19

that you think is kind of coming or what pharmacy should be using look at it like this there's been so many different new

27:28

technologies that have come out and you know devices and new ways of working and

27:34

etc etc but you still have pharmacies that are running 10year old PCS and

27:40

monitors that aren't even running the minimum resolution that's expected these days that's the world that we live in I

27:46

and that's why it'll sort of come back to the point of we need to improve the I

27:53

suppose the basics and bring everyone up together and explain why running that

28:00

10-year-old PC is a is a bad idea not just for for the sake of Technology but

28:06

for the sake of having a secure and and functional business I think that in itself is a conversation that needs to

28:12

be had first but at the same time it's the bell curve right you've got your early adopters and you've got the ones

28:18

that don't adopt anything until you know 95 or 99.99% of the you know the group has

28:24

adopted it right so I think if we keep focusing on those early adopter we keep focusing on the change makers and and

28:31

the people that are going to lead the way being able to show how these

28:37

Technologies can be used in everyday practice I think we're still not there yet particularly for health I really

28:43

don't think where're they're at for health but it could be a matter of using these sorts of Technologies to help

28:49

improve the way the business is running for example if it's an EDM that the

28:54

pharmacy wants to write to send out to its customers I think Pharmacy not using you know crms as as often as they should

29:01

for example there's not a lot of not yet anyway uh not a lot of Engagement I think that could really be improved and

29:07

this is just from what I've seen I mean sure there's phes out there that are you know that are doing that but I think

29:13

again it comes down to these tools and these new technologies like AI are

29:19

always going to rely on the quality of the data in your systems and in your

29:26

environment for them to become super effective so it comes back to that

29:31

those first principles again of well if we're not doing that right then the results that come out won't be as we

29:39

expect them to be so we'll lose faith in the technology and that's a bit of a downroad spiral there so I think one

29:47

educate yourself on what is actually coming and the applications of that in

29:52

health to understand where that fits in your business and in your Pharmacy and

29:58

in your career in general because you don't have to be a pharmacy owner to use these details you could be doing a you know a HMR at home and you're like you

30:05

know what I can't be bothered writing it today I'm just going to put all the details into chat GPT and see where that goes I'm sure someone's done that but I

30:12

hope they haven't but understanding the implications of something like that I think that's really important I see a I

30:17

saw an article a couple of months ago about Chad GPT where a woman she put all

30:22

the symptoms of her son after 18 months of going to various doctors and no one could diagnose the condition and

30:28

eventually she she put into chat GPT and it gave it exactly what what was wrong with him went to a doctor asked to get

30:34

it confirmed and they're like yep that's correct so like yes that is cool to see and you're like wow it's going to solve

30:40

all our problems but when you really Dig Down Deeper understand the technology

30:46

that's there and how it actually works and all you got to do is go to YouTube put in explain whatever the topic is to

30:53

a 5-year-old and I'm sure there's a video out there that can explain it in the most simplest terms so that you're

30:58

able to also explain it to other people should they ask you as well so I think that's really the most important thing there for me is yes this stuff's going

31:05

to come it's going to be integrated into our applications we're going to use it

31:10

for reporting we're going to use it to generate insights you know one of the things I'd love to be able to do is put

31:16

in a a prompt into my dispense software and ask how many people are on this particular medication in this particular

31:22

postcode and there you go you've got a group of patients in your Pharmacy that are that have this particular condition

31:28

you're able to Target those patients and reach out to them and hold classes tell

31:34

them about new services that are running in the pharmacy and really dig deeper into your data I think that's really

31:40

where the benefit I see will come not necessarily just scan the script and tell the AI to go dispense it I mean

31:46

very easy these days with e scripts you don't really need to do much and one of the features that we implemented was

31:52

essentially just load the data directly from the escript without really having to type anything and if any data missing

31:59

make sure you fill it in as well again going down to the first principles of data quality so you could almost really

32:05

dispense in you know in your two clicks for example but it's understanding again what that really means for your Pharmacy

32:12

and and then being able to utilize that data should those tools and Reporting facilities sort of come through to drive

32:19

those insights build those clinical insights and those clinical insights will eventually lead to commercial

32:25

outcomes for the pharmacy business but also the clinical outcomes and improved Health outcomes for your patients and

32:31

for your pharmacists as clinicians in your business I had a thought and it's disappeared but that's okay I was a

32:38

really good too that doesn't matter anyway I think it's cuz I um it's

32:44

a bit it's a bit late baiting a little bit okay I've got a question just got to tie it into what you've you've said from

32:51

what you were saying around that data quality I think that's a really key aspect that I'd like the listeners to

32:58

get out of this and and understanding that value that the data that they're putting in as well in the custodians of

33:06

when you mentioned that word custodian I thought yeah it's not it's actually not our data even though we like to say it's

33:12

our Pharmacy data it's our patient St and we the custodians of it so I think that's a really great message to

33:18

reinforce when you're looking at these type of digital Solutions and as you said there's all these really cool

33:25

things out there and but yeah if you you really do have to read that fine print I

33:31

know most people don't you just tick the box but it's Health Data it's it's not

33:37

just ones and zeros it's actual there's a person behind that behind that data and I think that's as pharmacist yeah we

33:45

we're here for the for the people and the patients correct the other thing I wanted to also touch on as well is that

33:52

yeah I think sometimes we see Innovation as something that's new exciting and

33:59

things that as you said those early adopters and the change makers are are looking at and focusing on but that's

34:05

not the the majority of where everyone's at and so yeah if you're listening now

34:10

even just having a look and maybe doing even just a bit of a assessment of where

34:15

you're at with your technology that could be a really good place to start and yeah I've worked in um pharmacies

34:23

where they're still using Windows 7 and yeah there just yeah like you said

34:29

the tech so old that it's um probably was there before I was even born so yeah

34:34

and that's okay but it's probably not ideal or best practice yeah I'll tell you this Kristi what I found is a lot

34:42

of the times it's not just the pharmacy owner a lot of the times a pharmacy has

34:47

their all things it Champion you know I speak to a lot of the pharmacy owners who have owned their phes for a very

34:53

long time and when it came to uh rolling out you know my sell into our dispense

34:59

software and trying to go through the whole process of of getting that up and running and explaining to them what they

35:04

need to do they're like don't talk to me go talk to this particular person they're the ones that are running all

35:10

our it stuff so I think there's always someone there that we can talk to and there's always someone there that can be

35:17

of help and if there's no one with you in the pharmacy and there's no one there that can help you the end of the day

35:23

give your vendor a call if give your dispensing vendor a call ask them for help if you need to that's why you pay

35:29

licensing at the end of the day you know like we're there to help and um they're there to to give them the guidance so I

35:36

think that's really important as well ask colleagues that's always really uh that's always really good sure there's

35:41

someone there absolutely I think this is a great time to wrap up it's been a a

35:47

great session chatting to you today I've definitely learned a lot and my final

35:52

question for you is if you were to give a your young young self some advice what

36:00

would you give to yourself I know you told me this earlier and I was trying to

36:05

think about it the whole time but even something even not even related

36:10

to the conversation honestly it's don't be afraid to try new things don't be afraid

36:17

to get out of the comfort zone and don't be afraid to switch lanes for a second

36:23

from a career perspective I think that's really important as a young pharmacist I think one of the things that I would

36:30

really tell to my young self is the knowledge that you have is really highly

36:36

regarded in health in general you feel like you know because you're a young

36:42

pharmacist you've got thousands of other pharmacists around you that you're like everyone knows more than me but the

36:47

moment you take that little bit of a side step out just to see what the rest of the world looks like and understand

36:54

where Pharmacy sits in the rest of the world uh in when I say the rest of the world mean the rest of the health sort of sphere and the health sort of

37:00

Industry just recognize that the knowledge that you have is valuable and

37:05

not to downplay it I think that's really really important I think that's great advice absolutely I I definitely think

37:13

that's something to take yeah take on board and when you mentioned to about

37:20

don't be afraid to sidest step as well and and try new roles and take that step

37:26

to reach out to or apply for something that might be might seem a little bit left filled and I'm sure there might be

37:32

people that might say to you why are you doing that and it doesn't make sense and you should do this or do that but yeah

37:39

don't be afraid and and give it a go you never know where life's going to take you yeah I think you and I are both very

37:44

good examples of that absolutely who knows where we'll be in another two to five years who knows who knows well

37:52

thank you so much Mina for the chat today I really thoroughly enjoyed it and

37:57

yeah I hope that you'll be able to join us on the show again and let us know what your your next step in uh the

38:05

Pharmacy career Journey For You So yeah thank you again for sharing your journey and insights with us and yeah it's

38:13

definitely clear that Pharmacy and digital Health holds incredible potential for the future so thank you so

38:19

much for joining us today thank you for having me Chris thanks be very happy to just say the

38:25

word you've been listening to Your Pharmacy Career podcast brought to you by Raven's Recruitment don't miss our next

38:33

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