SafePhARm: Safe and Efficient Pharmacy Practice Through Augmented Reality

Pharmacy practice involves complex, high-stakes workflows that require pharmacists to verify prescriptions, check for allergies and drug interactions, and retrieve medications from inventory systems. These tasks are distributed across multiple digital platforms and physical processes, leading to frequent context switching, high cognitive load, and workflow inefficiencies.

Such fragmentation contributes to dispensing delays and increases the risk of medication errors, particularly in high-volume settings. While digital health systems support information access, they are not optimised for real-time, task-integrated decision support. Emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) offer the potential to embed critical information directly into the user’s field of view, yet their application in pharmacy remains underexplored.

Research Idea

SafePhARm proposes the use of AR glasses to deliver context-aware, real-time information overlays that support pharmacists during key tasks such as prescription verification and medication dispensing. By integrating data visualisation, workflow design, and human factors principles, the project will develop and test AR interfaces that reduce cognitive load and streamline task execution. The core idea is to shift from screen-based, fragmented interactions to embodied, in-situ information access, where relevant data appears exactly when and where it is needed.

Project Aims

• Identify workflow inefficiencies and drivers of cognitive load in pharmacy practice through observational study and qualitative interviews.
• Co-design and develop AR-based interfaces with pharmacists, tailored to critical pharmacy tasks using human-centred design approaches and simulated pharmacy data.
• Evaluate the impact of AR support on task efficiency, usability, and cognitive load compared to standard workflows.