Critical care pharmacists have a rich history and evolving roles

Critical care (CC) pharmacists have been contributing to patient outcomes, team effectiveness, education, research and quality improvement for approximately 50 years. Current CC specialists are evolving the practice, science and scholarship into new and exciting areas as described in the series of articles collected for a special series in this journal. To summarize past accomplishments and contemplate how next level achievements may develop, brainstorming by experienced CC specialists, researchers, educators, and scholars was done to establish a foundation for this paper and three of that group summarized it into an overview of the challenges of the past and opportunities that are shaping the future. A small group of CC pharmacists identified need and opportunity to improve patient care in a limited number of settings but subsequent CC pharmacists have expanded into numerous specialties and subspecialties. Comprehensive medication management of CC patients and survivors of their critical illness is now a standard, but delivery may be influenced by new technology and equipment. Improved quality of care and outcome measures are being developed and measured. The imperative to move practice forward and adopt new practices while maintaining a core set of guideline‐based practices may be facilitated by technology such as wearable devices, personalized medicine, machine learning or artificial intelligence. However, these new tools may create new obstacles. Similar changes in education and expansion into administrative roles afford new opportunities and challenges. CC pharmacists have created a solid foundation, but continued growth in number and expansion of roles requires the next generation to continue to push ahead and continue to demonstrate value in key areas.