Toward a coordinated national pharmacy workforce research and data strategy

The pharmacy workforce is experiencing persistent challenges related to employee well-being, staffing shortages, turnover, and evolving practice and payment models. Despite widespread recognition of these issues, progress has been hindered by fragmented workforce data and the absence of a coordinated national research strategy. The purpose of this commentary is to articulate a vision for a coordinated national pharmacy workforce research and data strategy, describe the infrastructure needed to accelerate evidence-based workforce solutions, and propose immediate research areas of focus.

Drawing on insights from the 2025 Implementing Solutions Summit 2.0, this commentary highlights critical limitations in the current approach to pharmacy workforce research, including inconsistent terminology and measures, siloed data collection, and limited capacity to conduct large, multi-site studies. These limitations impede benchmarking, supply and demand modeling, and the evaluation of workforce and workplace interventions. Expanding the scope and infrastructure of the existing Pharmacy Workforce Center (PWC) could address these gaps by leading workforce measurement standardization, conducting multi-site research studies, coordinating data aggregation through a centralized data warehouse, and developing more robust modeling of pharmacy workforce supply and demand.

Broadening and strengthening the workforce research and data infrastructure within the existing PWC represents a necessary and critical next step for advancing the pharmacy workforce. A centralized national strategy is essential to generate robust and actionable evidence that supports pharmacy workforce sustainability, practice model advancement, as well as policy and payment reforms.