SPEECH BY DR KOH POH KOON, SENIOR MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND MINISTRY OF MANPOWER, AT THE 34th SINGAPORE PHARMACY CONGRESS

Ms Debbie Do, Chairperson, 34th Singapore Pharmacy Congress Organising Committee

Ms Lim Hong Yee, President, Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore

Professor Giorgia Pastorin, Head of Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, National University of Singapore

Associate Professor Camilla Wong, Chief Pharmacist, Ministry of Health

Delegates, speakers from overseas, distinguished guests, friends

1.     A very good morning. Let me begin by congratulating the Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore and the Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at NUS on your 120^th anniversary.

2.     It is an important milestone for any institution and this anniversary marks not just a century of dedication by pharmacists, but also the broader pharmacy community and your contribution to Singapore’s healthcare system. From ensuring medication safety to advancing clinical care, the pharmacy profession has been an integral part of Singapore’s healthcare journey.

The Role of Pharmacy in a Changing World

3.    Pharmacists have been a trusted presence, from community pharmacies to hospitals, from research to education, improving patient care at every touchpoint. The role of pharmacists has evolved to meet the healthcare needs of a rapidly aging population, augmented by technologies and artificial intelligence, as you’ve just heard earlier, to handle the growing complexity of information and the workload. In healthcare professions, we evolve not just because of science, but because of societal needs. The theme of this year’s Congress, “Connecting People, Bridging Science and Practice”, captures that very well. Let me share four key areas where pharmacy is shaping the future of healthcare, at least here in Singapore.

Digital Transformation – Advancing Healthcare Delivery

4.     First, digital transformation. Pharmacists are strategically harnessing technology to transform patient engagement and expand care delivery. The HealthHub AI assistant, enriched with pharmacist-curated medication information, will deliver personalised health advice in our official languages. Innovations like embedding QR codes on medication labels provide digital medication counselling videos and leaflets, extending the pharmaceutical care beyond the physical pharmacy counter that typically patients are used to. Pharmacists are also partnering with Synapxe to explore AI agents to provide medication counselling via phone calls, creating a smart triaging approach that enables more support for those who need it most while at the same time ensuring basic medication guidance is accessible to all. In fact, with technology, the pharmacist is within reach 24/7. These innovations mark a paradigm shift in healthcare delivery - from face-to-face counselling to an inclusive, multi-channel approach where every patient has access to pharmaceutical support 24/7.

5.     The advancement of automation and AI in pharmacy practice is equally significant. I hope you are not worried about AI replacing all of you, because I think that as professionals, we must actually use AI as a useful tool to extend ourselves. There is very little chance of AI replacing you, because pharmacist is still a high-touch profession where you need to interact with patients. AI may be able to deliver information, but it certainly cannot pat a patient on the back, hold the hands of an anxious patient, and contextualise a conversation to what the patient is prepared to accept at that point in time. So rest assured, you will be here for a long time to come, and we'll be celebrating another 120 years. Notably, pharmacists in Singapore General Hospital developed the Augmented Intelligence in Infectious Disease solution to support smarter and swifter prescription of personalised antibiotic regimen. NUHS, another hospital, is also leveraging its advanced Predictive Intelligence Forecasting to anticipate discharge loads, which enables pharmacies to proactively align staffing levels to peak periods, improve patient experience and provide higher value activities such as discharge counselling. Harnessing digital solutions and automation enable pharmacists therefore to focus on higher-value personalised patient care.

Healthier SG – Strengthening Preventative Care

6.     The second aspect is preventive care. Our national shift towards preventative care through Healthier SG represent a fundamental transformation in healthcare delivery here. Each and every one of us, whether you are a care deliverer or whether you are just a member of the public, is beginning to benefit from the Healthy SG movement. Every healthcare professional must play their part in shifting the mindset from reactive disease treatment, which we are all very used to, to preventive strategies and keeping our population healthy and well in the community. So, it is moving away from sick care to health care, and in Healthier SG, we are putting our priorities right.

7.     Launched in October last year, the community pharmacist influenza vaccination sandbox initiative seeks to improve access to influenza vaccination within the community. Over 1,200 influenza vaccines have been administered as of 31 July 2025, the middle of this year. Pharmacists can now complement general practitioners and primary healthcare teams in a team-based care model. Earlier out there, there was a poster showing how pharmacists are experimenting with co-locating within a family medicine centre to deliver pharmaceutical consultations. I think that is a good approach, and hopefully, with this kind of collaboration, we can expand this a lot more in the community. Now additionally, through MOH-supported Pharmaceutical Care Services pilot, pharmacists are delivering comprehensive medication-related services in the community settings. These pharmacists provide structured medication reviews, medication reconciliation and therapy management services at various community touchpoints including our community health posts, senior activity centres, and residential facilities. So, we are bringing the services right to the doorstep literally, where the patients and their needs are. The improvements in medication adherence and reductions in medication-related problems show that pharmacists can take on expanded roles in preventive care, further strengthening our community health ecosystem.  And part of the reason why it can strengthen that kind of outcomes we want to see is not just because you are close, but because you can now build a relationship with the patient. With trust, with better communication, with better understanding, you can influence their behaviour. 

Precision Medicine – Personalising Care for Every Patient

8.      The third aspect is precision medicine. Under Phase II of the National Precision Medicine Strategy, pre-emptive pharmacogenomic testing was piloted in selected public healthcare institutions. Pharmacists reviewed the pharmacogenomic results and provided evidence-based recommendations on dosage adjustments and medication changes, to enhance therapeutic efficacy and minimise adverse drug reactions. As we evaluate this pilot’s outcomes and potential applications in our wider healthcare system, we will continue to explore new innovations in pharmaceutical care and the translation of clinical and cost-effective solutions into real clinical practice. So, keep an eye out for more developments in this space. I think we’re in the right direction, and many more of you will be participating in this effort.

Building Our Future Ready Workforce

9.      Now last but certainly not least – and I think in my mind the most important - is our workforce: you, the pharmacists. The roles of pharmacists have evolved significantly with changing healthcare needs. As we transform healthcare delivery, we need to ensure our workforce can meet today's healthcare needs but also be ready for future challenges. One very key shift, a very important shift that we want to undertake is recognising that Pharmacists are first and foremost clinicians who provide pharmaceutical care. The keyword is clinicians. I suppose in the traditional sense, many people still see pharmacists as being in the back room. You are just behind the counter, dispensing medications, and when the patient walks out of the doctor's consultation, the real work is done. They are just there to collect medications from you. So, I think this reframing and this re-emphasis that the pharmacist is first and foremost a clinician is an important shift, not just for the public, but importantly, as professionals, we must lead this shift. We ourselves must believe that as pharmacists, we can play a stronger clinical role. We need to change how we train pharmacists and equip them with the necessary competencies to practise at the top of the licence. Some years back, the effort was done to make this happen for nurses. So today you see nurses taking on a lot more clinician roles, not just in the community health posts, but actually running clinics in the hospitals, influencing treatment, managing patients that they can call their own. We are doing this now for pharmacists.

10.    To enable this critical shift, MOH’s Chief Pharmacist's Office has partnered with key stakeholders to revise the Pharmacist Career Development Pathway for public healthcare institutions. This new pathway develops pharmacists as clinicians first, establishing this clinical foundation before they advance through their three distinct career tracks. The first track is the Advanced Practice track which empowers pharmacists to develop broad clinical expertise in multidisciplinary care teams. The second track is the Specialty Practice track which enables pharmacists to become experts in recognised pharmacy specialties. The third is the System-Enabling Practice track, supports pharmacists in focused areas such as pharmacy informatics, pharmaceutical compounding, and procurement management. Each track will be supported by systematic training roadmaps, guiding our pharmacists towards advanced roles within their chosen career track. This will be an exciting development, especially for many of our students in pharmacy who have a bright future ahead. You will have to start contending and deciding which track suits your career aspirations and where you can play a stronger role in shaping our healthcare ecosystem.

11.   We must not also forget Pharmacy Technicians. They work closely with pharmacists to deliver essential pharmacy services, and their development remains one of our key priorities too. The Chief Pharmacist's Office in MOH has also published the Development Framework for Pharmacy Technicians today, which provides structured guidance for their career progression and competency development. The framework is a systematic approach to workforce development that encompasses five competency domains covering pharmacy services, communication and collaboration, leadership and management, development and training, and professionalism and ethics. We remain committed to partnering with all of you to progressively develop our pharmacy workforce.

Closing

12.    In closing, the pharmacy profession has come a long way in the last 120 years. But as I have just outlined, the more exciting chapter of pharmacy development in Singapore, is yet to be written. We are well poised with the foundation we laid for the past 120 years, to undertake more fundamental paradigm shift now to push our pharmaceutical profession to a higher level for each and every one of you, to practise at the top of your licence and to make a greater contribution to Singapore’s healthcare ecosystem. These foundations we lay today through enhanced frameworks and innovative practices will shape healthcare delivery for generations to come.

13.    With that, let me thank all of you for having me here, and I wish all of you a meaningful and inspiring congress. Thank you very much.