A new artificial intelligence hub at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy will centralize the college’s diverse AI efforts, positioning UF as a national leader in pharmacy AI through research, clinical collaboration and services.
This initiative is spearheaded by Khoa Nguyen, Pharm.D., a clinical associate professor of pharmacotherapy and translational research, and Md. Mahmudul Hasan, Ph.D., an assistant professor of pharmaceutical outcomes and policy with a joint appointment in the Information Systems and Operations Management Department of the UF Warrington College of Business. In their careers that bridge research, clinical applications and teaching, Nguyen and Hasan often collaborate with colleagues on AI-powered initiatives; yet the pair said the college lacked a centralized resource to keep track of its varied, far-reaching AI efforts.
“The core purpose of the hub is to serve as a home for our college’s AI efforts — a place where we can showcase our faculty’s achievements and establish the college as a premier leader in pharmacy AI,” Nguyen said. “Beyond visibility, the hub is meant to be a living resource, somewhere faculty can find potential partners, exchange research ideas and explore ways to advance AI in both clinical practice and education. Ultimately, I want it to be the connective tissue that turns individual efforts into a collective, collaborative force.”
Hasan said this goal will be achieved by providing AI researchers with the scientific data and industry expertise they need to transform their ideas into tangible tools.
“My vision is for the hub to be the engine that bridges the gap between research and reality, ensuring our AI innovations directly empower pharmacists and improve patient outcomes,” Hasan said. “I’ve seen brilliant pharmacy research and innovative AI models struggle to make a real-world impact because of the so-called ‘last mile’ problem, or the immense difficulty of translating an AI model from a computer into a clinical decision support tool that works seamlessly within a hospital’s complex workflow. The hub is designed to solve this problem by providing the essential data science backbone that our researchers need to turn their ideas into validated, scalable and user-friendly applications.”
The project’s concept and direction were shaped in part by guidance from John Gums, Pharm.D., executive associate dean and professor in the UF College of Pharmacy, and Lari Cavallari, Pharm.D., chair of the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Translational Research and the Debbie DeSantis Excellence Professor.
Nguyen and Hasan’s forward-thinking vision is being implemented today within the hub’s flagship project: PharmAIcist, a commercially viable AI platform designed for seamless electronic health record integration. Amplifying hospital pharmacists’ clinical effectiveness, this program is designed to optimize safe, equitable medication management in the hospital by identifying which patients benefit most from pharmacist involvement and integrating those insights through a clinical decision support tool.
“The future role of AI in pharmacy is to make our vision a practical, everyday reality,” Hasan said. “It’s about building reliable infrastructure that moves AI models from our research servers into the hands of a busy pharmacist at UF Health.”
Beyond PharmAIcist and the college’s centralized implementation hub, Nguyen and Hasan have identified a handful of initiatives that will power this long-term project. First, they aim to position the college as a leader in pharmacy AI research by securing major federal grants and providing comprehensive support to faculty, staff and students across research initiatives, clinical applications and educational programs. They also aim to support AI education with strategic initiatives integrating AI into pharmacy education and practice, preparing future pharmacists for an AI-enhanced health care landscape.
“We intend to create a self-reinforcing ecosystem that keeps the UF College of Pharmacy ahead on all fronts,” Nguyen said. “PharmAIcist anchors our clinical leadership, while the AI portal unifies our college’s fragmented efforts into a visible, connected presence. Investments in an AI postdoctoral fellowship, international partnerships and structured training programs ensure we are not just participating in pharmacy AI, but actively shaping its future.”
Within the next five years, Nguyen and Hasan said the program will establish certification programs for AI in pharmacy, sustain operations of its AI service directory, integrate PharmAIcist into UF Health workflows and establish partnerships with hospitals to further evaluate its functionality — advances poised to create a measurable impact that will be felt throughout the coming years.
“When everything comes together, the UF College of Pharmacy will look and function fundamentally differently,” Nguyen said. “Instead of a college where AI work happens in silos across departments, we will have a unified, visible and nationally recognized enterprise where research, clinical innovation and education reinforce one another. The hub can transform the UF College of Pharmacy from a college with great individual AI efforts into a cohesive, self-sustaining leader that shapes the future of pharmacy AI nationally and globally.”