The future of pharmacy is already here: can we afford not to invest? Reflections from the seventh EAHP Synergy Certification Course 2025 in Bratislava

The transformation of hospital pharmacy is not a future aspiration; it is a present necessity. Yet across Europe, investment in pharmacy services continues to lag behind their demonstrated value.1 2 This editorial argues that without systemic investment—in health data integration, workforce development, personalised medicine and performance measurement—we risk undermining both patient safety and healthcare services sustainability. The pharmacy of the future is already functioning in pockets of excellence. The question is whether the rest of the system will catch up—or be left behind. We base this reflection on the insights raised during the seventh EAHP Synergy Certification Course in Bratislava. This event served not only as an educational event; it served as a sharp mirror of the pharmaceutical profession. The following five main issues were the core of the meeting and each raised questions and observations that the authors of this editorial try to discuss here. Hospitals are sitting on goldmines of data. Too often, these data remain fragmented, inaccessible or unused. Multiple speakers cited international examples where pharmacists led data-driven interventions that improved care and saved millions. Swiss authors demonstrated the financial benefits of clinical pharmacists performing medication reviews to prevent adverse drug events (ADEs) in hospital settings and recommended their wider implementation as part of ADE prevention in hospital care.3 The Cleveland Clinic saved $90 million over 6 years through pharmacist-led analytics.4 At Karolinska University Hospital, tailoring chemotherapy with 'dose bands' reduced dosage by 20% without compromising care.5 These are not costly projects. They are models of efficiency and patient safety. But as Martin Smatana asked during the course: is analytics still seen as an unnecessary or non-essential part of healthcare—or have we finally realised it's indispensable? … Correspondence to Dr Ľubica Slimáková; lubica.slimakova{at}kr.unb.sk