How Pharmacists Can Adapt to Change and Innovation | Asembia AXS26

In this video, Ryan Telford, vice president of health system pharmacy portfolio strategy at Cencora, explores how rapid market change and innovation are reshaping health system pharmacy and demanding new levels of agility from pharmacy leaders. He notes that 81% of surveyed health system leaders view current market dynamics as a high or moderate concern, underscoring how top of mind these issues are across the industry.

Telford explains that the pace and fluidity of change in pharmacy today is unlike anything the market has experienced before. Because what’s true this week may look very different next week, pharmacy leaders can no longer treat agility as a “nice to have.” Instead, the ability to adapt quickly, stay vigilant, and respond thoughtfully to shifting conditions has become a core competency for long-term success.

A key opportunity area is innovation and automation in pharmacy operations. Rather than focusing only on large-scale, high-cost tools, Telford emphasizes starting with highly repetitive, mechanical tasks that can be automated in almost any setting—from small community pharmacies to specialty pharmacies to large health system pharmacies—regardless of budget. Incremental automation can free up pharmacists and staff to focus on higher-value clinical and patient-facing work.

He highlights pharmacy’s expanding role as a connector across the patient journey, from the initial provider visit and diagnosis through to therapy delivery and ongoing care. In complex, high-impact domains like specialty pharmacy, cell and gene therapies, and other advanced treatments, pharmacy teams are increasingly stepping into multidisciplinary leadership roles. Telford concludes with a call to action for pharmacy leaders to be bold, embrace innovation, and leverage their strategic position to drive better outcomes for both patients and health care organizations.

“What we're seeing is that pharmacy is really a connector,” Telford said. “It's a connector from that patient, from that patient experience, when you talk about [it] all the way from the point of that provider visit, when we diagnose, all the way through the delivery of that care.”