In an interview with Pharmacy Times, Mark Makhinson, PharmD, MBA, senior director of outpatient and specialty pharmacy at Mount Sinai Health System, discussed what he sees as the biggest shift in specialty pharmacy in 2026 and how artificial intelligence (AI) is changing pharmacy workflows.
According to Makhinson, the field is working to refocus pharmacists, technicians, and liaisons away from manual work and toward patient experience and clinical encounters. He described using AI tools now coming to market to automate tasks such as patient outreach, manual calls, and financial assistance, allowing staff to concentrate on helping patients navigate the access process, get to care, and stay on it. A secondary priority, he said, is tracking those efforts and ensuring outcomes are appropriate.
