We'd appreciate your feedback. Send feedback Subscribe to our newsletters and alerts


Annals of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapy

2026 Volume 6 Issue 1

Generative AI in Pharmacotherapy: Why Evidence Traceability, Verification Burden, Uncertainty, and Human Override Define the Boundary Between Clinical Assistance and Medication-Safety Risk


, ,
  1. Department of Generative AI in Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
  2. Department of AI Safety and Human Override, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.
Abstract

Generative artificial intelligence is increasingly being evaluated for medication information, clinical-pharmacy questions, treatment recommendations, deprescribing, documentation, and other pharmacotherapy tasks. Its apparent efficiency can obscure a medication-safety problem: fluent output may be difficult to audit, expensive to verify, insensitive to changing patient context, or persuasive even when wrong. This Current Opinion argues that the clinically relevant boundary is not whether a model can generate a plausible answer, but whether the surrounding use condition preserves evidence traceability, feasible verification, interpretable uncertainty, and meaningful human override in proportion to the consequence of error. Available literature supports useful task-level capabilities, retrieval-supported improvements, and emerging methods for uncertainty estimation, while also documenting fabricated references, omissions, variable calibration, context-sensitive failures, and adverse effects of incorrect AI advice on human decisions. We therefore propose an assistance–risk boundary architecture in which generative AI remains assistive only when its evidential basis can be inspected, checking effort is commensurate with workflow capacity, uncertainty and context limitations remain visible, and a qualified human can reject or escalate the output before medication action. This argument does not establish a validated risk threshold, autonomous-use criterion, or medication-safety benefit. Model version, retrieval corpus, clinical task, drug and patient characteristics, local guidance, workflow design, user expertise, and post-deployment change remain material boundaries. Prospective, task-specific evaluation is required before higher-consequence pharmacotherapy responsibilities can be justified.


How to cite this article
Vancouver
Wilson E, Jong FD, Peters L. Generative AI in Pharmacotherapy: Why Evidence Traceability, Verification Burden, Uncertainty, and Human Override Define the Boundary Between Clinical Assistance and Medication-Safety Risk. Ann Pharm Pract Pharmacother. 2026;6(1):51-60. https://doi.org/10.51847/xT3dQdT8kP
APA
Wilson, E., Jong, F. D., & Peters, L. (2026). Generative AI in Pharmacotherapy: Why Evidence Traceability, Verification Burden, Uncertainty, and Human Override Define the Boundary Between Clinical Assistance and Medication-Safety Risk. Annals of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapy, 6(1), 51-60. https://doi.org/10.51847/xT3dQdT8kP
Articles
Therapeutic Approaches to Facilitating Expulsion of Distal Ureteric Stones
Annals of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapy
Vol 2 Issue 1, 2022 | Ravindra Ambardekar
Evaluation of Antidiabetic Drug Prescribing Practices in Primary Care Clinics in Rural South India
Annals of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapy
Vol 3 Issue 1, 2023 | Kumutha Theivasigamani
Comparative Evaluation of Oral Wound Dressing Materials: A Comprehensive Clinical Review
Annals of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapy
Vol 4 Issue 1, 2024 | Maria Pia Ferraz
Development of an RP-HPLC Method for Dapagliflozin and Metformin HCL Analysis
Annals of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapy
Vol 1 Issue 1, 2021 | Khagga Bhavyasri
Evaluation of Antibiotic Use and Financial Costs in University Hospital Intensive Care Units
Annals of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacotherapy
Vol 4 Issue 1, 2024 | Viviana Hodoșan

About GalaxyPub

Find out more

Established in 2019, Galaxy Publication stands as a global academic publishing house focused on advancing scholarly work across medicine, nursing, and health sciences. Through its network of peer-reviewed journals, the organization brings together original research and academic contributions from scholars around the world, creating a shared space for knowledge exchange and intellectual collaboration.