In 2015, to make the expertise of Quebec pharmacists available online, Alexandre Chagnon built the website Ask a pharmacist. Users can ask questions of pharmacists on call in their region, who respond within 24 hours. We wanted to learn more from the founder of this application, who offers an alternate way of practising pharmacology: remote consultation.
Interview with Alexandre Chagnon, creator of the site Ask a pharmacist
Where did you get the idea of creating the Ask a pharmacist website?
In both hospitals and in the community, I saw patients presenting with information found on the internet which was often dangerous, because it was not up to date or did not apply in their situation. Convinced that web users would not go to a pharmacy to validate the information found on the internet, I thought there was a need for health professionals to be more accessible on the web. This is the case, for example, in British Colombia with the www.healthlinkbc.ca website, which invites web users to ask questions of different health professionals. I was inspired by this initiative to create a website which would make pharmaceutical experts available online.
Ask a pharmacist seems to call more and more on your working colleagues. What motivates your on-call pharmacists to be volunteers for your project?
I initially wanted to emphasize the social contribution that the site would bring. When a patient asks a question, they are answered by pharmacists in their region. If necessary, the user can then go to the pharmacy to meet this professional. Ultimately, the pharmacist will be seeking new clients that would probably not have been well-informed via the internet. However, I realized that the pharmacists who join Ask a pharmacist do so primarily to help people.
With Ask a pharmacist, do you have the impression of it being an alternate practise of pharmacy?
Yes, obviously. Remote consultation is already practised by other health professionals. Indeed, there are applications that involve doctors and nurses. But none benefit from the expertise of the pharmacist.
How do you foresee your professional future and the future of your website?
As we speak, we are taking steps to increase the number of professionals on the site and to allow pharmacists and patients from outside Quebec to be able to have discussions through a website like ours. We are thinking in particular of the other Canadian provinces, but also of France and the United States. The future of Ask a pharmacist is therefore international. The Internet-Health phenomena, where patients consult the web for medical questions, allows for popularization of a website like ours. Wherever there is medicine, the internet, patients and pharmacists, there is room for Ask a pharmacist.
In an ideal world, Alexandre would love to work at combining his work at the hospital and development of his website. With his vision and the time he devotes to his project, let’s bet that the future will be favourable to him!