Australian pharmacy software company Qiri has launched an AI-enabled clinical decision support and pharmacy management platform, with its first paying pharmacy customer live since September.
The platform combines clinical screening, dispensing workflows, point-of-sale functions, controlled drug records, patient communications and consultation management, with an emphasis on recording the reasoning behind pharmacists’ clinical decisions.
Qiri uses a clinical reasoning engine to assess prescriptions against patient information and provide recommendations supported by cited sources. The recommendations are checked against clinical rules, with pharmacists required to review and sign off on decisions.
The company said its approach was designed to reduce administrative workload while maintaining a record of the information, reasoning and decisions involved in dispensing.
Clinical decisions are stored alongside their supporting information and signed by the responsible pharmacist. Corrections are recorded as linked entries rather than overwriting the original record, creating an audit trail as work is completed.
Qiri co-founder and chief executive Javed Sheikh said the platform was intended to address the administrative burden on community pharmacists.
“Pharmacists trained to care for patients, not to reconcile three systems after close. We built Qiri so the work that does not need a pharmacist stops landing on one,” Mr Sheikh said.
“There is AI in Qiri, but it is not the point. The point is the pharmacist’s time, and a record an owner or a regulator can read and trust.”
The platform includes prescription screening, PBS pricing, inventory management, point-of-sale functions and accounting exports to Xero and MYOB.
It also supports in-person and video consultations, a patient app for prescription information and collection updates, and an AI-enabled clinical question-and-answer function that cites its sources.
Its controlled drug register includes pharmacist-signed entries, stock counts and an inspection mode.
However, the company is still working towards several requirements needed for broader deployment in Australian community pharmacies.
Qiri said its electronic prescribing connection to eRx Script Exchange was operating end to end in a test environment, while it was preparing to submit its patient app for conformance assessment against Australian Digital Health Agency specifications.
Conformance for dispensing electronic prescriptions is being pursued separately.
The company has also applied to Services Australia for access to the Healthcare Identifiers Service and PBS Online claiming.
Until those processes are completed, Qiri operates alongside a pharmacy’s existing dispensing system rather than replacing it.
The company said a clinical advisory board of practising community pharmacists was reviewing its clinical reasoning capabilities against real-world dispensing workflows.
Qiri is initially targeting Australian community pharmacies but has also received demonstration requests from organisations in the United States, Middle East and Europe.
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