What is pharmacy informatics?

In short, pharmacy informatics can be thought of as the application of technology in the medication use process. I’ve talked about this in a few videos, but have covered a broader definition of it in this video about What is Informatics and a very old video here: Overview of Pharmacy Informatics.

What is a day in the life like for an informatics pharmacist?

Personally, I suspect that you’ll get a different answer with every informatics pharmacist you ask. However, to give a few perspectives, I have 3 three videos where I’ve covered the topic: A Day in the Life of an Informatics Pharmacist (most recent) and two older videos I did with a few of my colleagues: A Day in the Life of an Informatics Pharmacist | Episode 1 and A Day in the Life of an Informatics Pharmacist | Episode 2.

How do I get into pharmacy informatics without a residency?

With each passing year, this question seems to become more and more popular. Granted, many students in the last few years have begun to express interest in other areas of pharmacy or pharmacy-adjacent fields that include pharma, digital health, and government. Although my perspective has slightly changed from a few years ago, I think the video I made in 2017: Pharmacy Informatics Without Residency Training still reflects my main viewpoints. However, it’s important to point out that my perspective at the time in 2017 was largely influenced by Meaningful Use which brought about a large demand for informatics jobs. That landscape has drastically changed as the vast majority of the United States already has an EHR implemented. Thus, my perspective nowadays is that there are still jobs in pharmacy informatics, but definitely not as many as there were before in comparison.

What skill sets or certifications should I get for pharmacy informatics?

I created a few videos in the past that talk about this. One is a discussion amongst my personal group of friends and colleagues and the other are various perspectives from informatics pharmacists, primarily PGY-2 Pharmacy Residency Directors, at ASHP Midyear.

More recently, AMIA released their AMIA Health Informatics Certification in 2021. I share more about it in this video.

Which masters degree (e.g. MBA vs. MPH vs. MBI) should I pursue?

It really depends on your interest. I have a couple of videos I’ve created in the past that covers my thoughts on this that you can find below.

• Ask Me Anything | Episode 4 - PharmD + Masters

• Ask Me Anything | Episode 7 - Epic Certifications, Pharmacy Informatics, & MPH

Common questions about Epic certifications

You’ll find the most common questions about Epic certifications in the following two videos: Epic Certifications: The Five Basic Questions and Epic Certification Training: Four Common Questions.

How do I transition into health tech?

I’ve been intrigued with health tech ever since I finished my MPH in 2020 and finally broke into the industry in April 2022 after interviewing with a wide range of health tech jobs that spanned academia, government, management consulting, startups, and big tech. After 99 job applications and many interviews, I’ve distilled the highlights and lessons learned into this course: Navigating the Clinical Informatics & Health Tech Job Market.

What type of skills should I learn to transition into health tech?

Although I’ve made the transition already, I’m still trying to figure out the answer to this question myself. I imagine the answer will differ from one individual to the next as the ideal skill set is dependent on the position you ultimately land. Though, I do think there are some fundamental skills that would be beneficial for the vast majority of health tech positions out there. I created a free course, which is more of a resource than it is a course, that links to all the actual materials I’ve personally used in upskilling myself for these health tech roles.

I want to get into health tech, but what jobs or positions should I even search for?

I ran into this exact same issue too when I was looking to make the transition. As I began doing my own research for positions, I began to compile a list of the positions that I personally applied to. You can find a subset of those positions in this LinkedIn post.

What is working in health tech like?

It’s been a very interesting journey thus far to say the least. As I neared my 1 year mark at Verily, I reflected on this question a bit in this video: My Experience Working as a Clinician/Pharmacist in a Technology Company.

What are your thoughts on data science?

I have SO many thoughts on this! However, it’s still a relatively new idea in my mind and I’m currently exploring it in a variety of ways. The best representation of my thoughts on data science right now is via this video: Data Science: To Pursue or Not Pursue | My Experience Taking Stanford's Data Science for Medicine (Click here for the blog version, which has more links to the referenced content in the video). I’m currently enrolled as a biomedical informatics graduate student at Stanford University and considering the MS computer science path as a result of my experience mentioned in the video.

I heard you’re taking biomedical informatics and computer science courses at Stanford, can you share which courses you’re taking?

I am, yep. I officially started my journey in the Biomedical Informatics Graduate Certificate Program in September 2022 and will complete the program in June 2023. In August 2023, I’ll kick off the Foundations in Computer Science Graduate Program and apply to the Masters in Computer Science Program in October 2023 for matriculation. My goal is to obtain 18 credits or so prior to matriculation and apply them to the MS CS program - assuming I get accepted :).

You can find my planned 2022 - 2027 curriculum here if you’re interested. My planned specialization is in artificial intelligence (AI) as I’m interested in identifying opportunities to improve healthcare using AI.

Is the Pharmacy Job Market Saturated?

Although this video is from 2020, I still believe many of the arguments I shared in this video: Pharmacy Job Market 2020 | Is It Worth It? still applies. I also have a YouTube channel that covers a variety of questions related to pharmacy and healthcare informatics here.

Do you have some time to chat?

Unfortunately, I do not at the current moment. My goal is to provide as many self-service and asynchronous resources to help others so I can focus on scaling the information folks are seeking. However, I also host monthly live streams on LinkedIn, YouTube, Meta, Twitch, and Twitter the first Saturday of every month at 1 PM EST. Check my LinkedIn Events or upcoming livestreams on my YouTube for specific details. Lastly, if you’d prefer to engage in 1:1 chat and have already reviewed the resources that I have, I’m doing limited virtual coffee chats (15 min, 30 min, and 60 min) for a small fee. Before signing up for a coffee chat, I’d highly encourage you to seek out as many free resources as possible since most answers are freely available on the web.

Would you like to collaborate on a podcast or video?

I’d love to! Please send me a message at https://www.briankfung.com/contact with more details and I’ll get back to you.

Are you open to brand deals, sponsorships, or consulting gigs?

Of course! Please send me a message at https://www.briankfung.com/contact with more details and I’ll get back to you.