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Technology is a vital part of community pharmacy's future, and is what younger patients in particular want to see developed in pharmacy, Cormac Tobin, Celesio UK's managing director has said.

€It's very important that the technology in healthcare becomes more apparent, because technology will be one of the ways that we can solve the challenges the NHS faces: using the speed, effectiveness and efficiency of technology with the human intimacy and understanding,€ he said. €[Patients] want digital solutions but they also want physical engagement, so it's very important to us in the products and the services that we provide that we build it around that.€

LloydsPharmacy is being €reinvented€ with a strong focus on patients, customers, physical pharmacy and digital solutions, he said. €I see wonderful opportunities, but I do not see anything in the past that will give those solutions to me: I see the future. I see the future with technology, intelligence and human effort,€ he said. 

Younger people in particular don't always want to go into a pharmacy, he commented.

In the future personal monitoring devices talk to one another and professionals will interpret people's personal data collected real time, on blood pressure readings, for example, and take action as a result. €I'm really excited about that for pharmacy€, he said. €We're in a position to do that, because we know so much about the patients.€

Pharmacy needs to be involved in changes in technology, he said. €I see a bright future, I really do €“ but it's not going to be easy. Change is never easy.€