Written by Judit Mora, CEO and Co-founder, Nuumad
AI is everywhere in pharmacy tech right now, and a lot of it is genuinely useful. It can tidy up admin, help teams find information faster and take some repetitive work off busy pharmacists. At Nuumad, we use it where it makes sense.
But there’s one question every pharmacy should ask its software provider: who wrote the clinical content behind your PGDs?
It matters because a PGD isn’t just another form. It sets out who can be treated, who can’t, what to ask, when to refer and what to supply. If an error creeps into that pathway, it doesn’t stay on the screen. It reaches the pharmacist making the decision and the patient in front of them. If something goes wrong, “AI wrote it” isn’t an explanation any pharmacist, or patient, should have to accept.
How we do it at Nuumad
Our clinical pathways are written by trained clinicians with years of pharmacy and clinical experience. AI doesn’t write them. Each of our PGDs is drafted by a pharmacist, reviewed by the nurses and pharmacists in our clinical team, then checked and signed off by our medical lead, a GP, before it goes live. We also collaborate with a number of our superintendent pharmacist customers to sense-check PGD practicalities and outcomes.
Through clever automation, we always have the latest medicine information and updates to hand. When updates are needed to the PGDs we go through the same process outlined above and our clinical team update the PGD quickly and accurately. Throughout, we’re thinking about what the pharmacist using it needs to make a safe decision.
With Nuumad, AI doesn’t make the clinical decision either, the pharmacist does. Our platform brings the right information together in the right order, using rules-based logic rather than AI. The same answers always lead to the same outcome, whereas AI works on probabilities. The pharmacist can see what the patient has told them, spot anything that needs checking and make the call. That’s their professional judgement, and we’ve designed everything around protecting it.
Safe doesn’t have to mean slow
Some people assume this level of clinical care means a slower system. It doesn’t. Speed comes from good design and smart application of the latest technology like AI, not from cutting corners. Our platform was built by experienced UX experts and shaped by pharmacists, so consultations flow the way a pharmacy actually works. Teams find their way around quickly, locums can pick it up on their first shift, and pharmacists spend their time on the patient rather than the software.
Questions worth asking your provider
If you are thinking of investing in PGD software, or you already have it, there are some important questions to ask providers:
Who writes the clinical pathways and which clinicians sign them?
Where do you use AI, and where does it stop?
Who is accountable if something in a pathway is wrong?
We’re excited about what AI can do for pharmacy, we just think the clinical bits deserve clinicians.