Artificial intelligence (AI) research has made remarkable progress in recent years, and its application is also expected in the healthcare field. On the other hand, there are still several issues to be considered for AI-based medical systems. The healthcare field involves many complex problems for which there are no correct answers, and it is the role of humans, not AI, to consider these issues in a multifaceted and comprehensive manner. To coexist with AI in a human-centered society, it is essential to improve AI literacy among healthcare professionals who use the AI system, and the public receiving medical services, and education and awareness-raising activities should be promoted.

As it nears the year 2040, Japan is facing various problems such as demographic changes, coexistence of multiple diseases, multiple deaths, health disparities, increasing medical costs, emerging and reemerging infectious diseases, and disaster risks. The utilization of Pharma Tech such as ICT, AI, and robotics by pharmacists is essential to solve these problems. However, a survey of current pharmacy school syllabi shows that ICT literacy education required for pharmacists is insufficient. Currently, each university is revising the Model Core Curriculum for Pharmacy starting in 2024, and a new ICT literacy courses is being constructed. In the near future, we expect that pharmacists with high ICT literacy will be able to solve the problems of medical care, nursing care, and welfare that are piling up in Japan.

Various information on drugs is necessary for their proper and safe use. And this information is constantly being updated. The digitization of the package inserts of ethical drugs, which started in August 2021, is expected to be utilized by healthcare professionals as a means of obtaining the latest information without time and regional differences.

It is very significant that a system has been established to enable people who need information to obtain the latest information promptly through the digitization of information. Since the information provided is in electronic form, it should be easy to search for information and for secondary use by healthcare professionals. In addition, it is possible to use the information in a highly interrelated manner, and from the standpoint of drug safety measures, digitization of drug information is highly significant.

However, the digitization is not the end of the story. We still need to consider how to develop the next step in the future.