Three Years of Impact: MAPflow and the Future of Pharmacy Care

The Vision That Started It All

Three years ago, in January 2023, we launched MAPflow at a pivotal moment in Canadian pharmacy history. Ontario had just expanded pharmacist scope to include prescribing for minor ailments—a regulatory shift that represented decades of advocacy from pharmacy leaders across the country. But expanded scope alone wasn't enough. We knew that without the right clinical tools and support systems, this historic opportunity could become an overwhelming burden rather than the transformation pharmacy deserved.

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MAPflow was born from a simple but urgent belief: that every pharmacy professional in Canada should have the tools to practice at the top of their license. That patients shouldn't have to wait days for care they could receive in minutes. That community pharmacies would become Canada's front door to primary care.

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Three years later, we're living that future—and it's exceeding even our boldest hopes.

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The Numbers Tell Part of the Story

This month, as we mark MAPflow's three-year anniversary, the scale of what we've built together is remarkable:

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• More than 2,000 pharmacy locations across nine provinces use MAPflow
• Over 3,500 pharmacy professionals—pharmacists, technicians, students, and interns—work with our platform daily
• Over 250,000 patient consultations have been powered by MAPflow's clinical decision support
• A 97.8% symptom resolution rate that speaks to both the clinical rigor of our evidence-based approach and the excellence of Canadian pharmacists

In Ontario alone, over 200,000 minor ailment assessments have been completed in MAPflow over these three years. But these numbers, as impressive as they are, represent something far more profound than platform adoption metrics.

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Behind Every Number: Real People, Real Impact

Every one of those quarter of a million patient consultations represents a real moment in someone's healthcare journey:

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The parent who didn't have to choose between missing work and getting their child treated for pink eye—who walked into their local pharmacy on a Tuesday morning and walked out 15 minutes later with a prescription and peace of mind.

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The older adult who avoided a difficult trip across town to a walk-in clinic, instead receiving care from the pharmacist who knows their medical history, their medications, and their name.

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The young professional who got treatment for a UTI during their lunch break, without the anxiety of waiting days for a doctor's appointment while symptoms worsened.

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The teenager without a family doctor who finally received help for a sensitive health concern they were hesitant to discuss elsewhere, finding both clinical expertise and compassionate care in their community pharmacy.

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This is what accessible healthcare looks like. Not in theory. Not in white papers or policy documents. But in real time, in real communities, every single day.

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What the Data Reveals About the Future

The rapid expansion of pharmacist scope across Canada has revealed something powerful: when you give pharmacists the right tools and support, they don't just meet expectations—they transform what's possible in primary care.

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In Ontario, pharmacists have completed over 2 million minor ailment assessments since scope expansion began in January 2023. Think about what that means for the healthcare system: 2 million fewer urgent care visits. 2 million instances where someone got care immediately instead of waiting. 2 million demonstrations that community pharmacies are not just dispensaries—they're clinical care hubs.

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MAPflow has powered over 200,000 of those assessments—more than 10% of all minor ailment care delivered in the province. But our impact isn't measured just in volume. It's in the quality of care enabled by our platform: Our 97.8% symptom resolution rate—nearly 18 percentage points higher than national averages—isn't an accident. It's the direct result of MAPflow's holistic, evidence-based clinical approach. Every assessment individualized, and guided by the most up-to-date clinical practice guidelines. Every decision supported by comprehensive patient history integration. Every interaction documented to ensure continuity of care.

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This is what happens when clinical excellence meets the right technology.

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The Collective Power of Scope Expansion

We often talk about MAPflow's growth, but the real story is about what Canadian pharmacists have accomplished collectively. The speed and scale at which the profession has embraced expanded scope—and the clinical outcomes they're delivering—should make everyone in healthcare sit up and take notice.

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Consider: In just the first two years after British Columbia’s June 2023 regulatory changes, pharmacists completed over 500,000 minor ailment and contraception services. That's not a gradual adoption curve. That's a profession ready and waiting to do more—a profession that immediately stepped up when given the opportunity and tools to practice at the top of their license.

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Across Canada, we're seeing similar patterns as provinces expand scope. Pharmacists aren't just capable of delivering this care—they're excelling at it. And they're doing it in the places where Canadians already go for health advice, in the communities where access barriers are highest, during the hours when other options aren't available.

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This is the shift we believed was both urgent and inevitable. And it's happening faster than even we anticipated.

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What We've Learned Along the Way

Three years in, we've learned profound lessons about what pharmacy professionals need to thrive in expanded roles:

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1. Clinical rigour is non-negotiable. Pharmacists are scientists and clinicians. They don't want shortcuts or simplified algorithms; they want evidence-based tools that respect their training and clinical judgment. MAPflow's comprehensive approach succeeds because it treats pharmacy professionals as the experts they are.

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2. Having a system is everything. A clinical decision support tool that operates in isolation isn't truly supportive. What makes expanded scope sustainable rather than overwhelming is having comprehensive systems in place—structured assessment workflows, automated follow-ups, standardized documentation that meets both clinical and regulatory requirements, and seamless coordination between patient care and billing processes. The right system doesn't just support clinical decisions; it supports the entire patient encounter.

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3. Documentation matters as much as the assessment. Comprehensive, standardized documentation isn't just about compliance or billing. It's about establishing pharmacists as legitimate primary care providers, building evidence for future scope expansion, and ensuring continuity of care for patients.

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4. The profession is starving for connection and learning. The thousands of pharmacy professionals using MAPflow aren't just looking for a tool—they're seeking community, mentorship, and ongoing clinical education. The future of pharmacy practice is collaborative, not isolated.

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5. Patients are ready for this shift. One of our biggest surprises? How little patient education was needed. People already trusted their pharmacists. They were just waiting for the healthcare system to catch up to that trust. The data confirms it: pharmacies using MAPflow report a 95% patient satisfaction rating for minor ailment services—well above national healthcare averages. When patients can access quality care where and when they need it, they don't just accept it. They love it.

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Looking Ahead: What's Next for MAPflow and Canadian Pharmacy

Three years in, we're more energized than ever. Not because of what we've accomplished, but because of what we can now see is possible.

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The opportunity ahead is massive:

Canada faces a primary care crisis. Over 6.5 million Canadians don't have a family doctor. Emergency departments are overwhelmed. Wait times for non-urgent care can stretch into weeks or months. Meanwhile, there are over 47,000 active pharmacists across the country—highly trained, geographically distributed, accessible without appointments.

The math isn't complicated. The solution is standing right there in every community.

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What MAPflow is building toward: Over the next three years, we're focused on three key areas:

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1. Deeper clinical intelligence: The data flowing through MAPflow represents an unprecedented view of primary care needs, prescribing patterns, and clinical outcomes at the community pharmacy level. We're building analytics and insights that will help pharmacists, policymakers, and researchers understand and optimize this new model of care delivery.

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2. Broader scope support: As provinces continue expanding what pharmacists can do—from contraceptive prescribing to chronic disease management—MAPflow will evolve to support every aspect of pharmacy's clinical role. Our platform grows as the profession grows.

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3.System-level integration: The future of primary care isn't siloed providers operating independently. It's connected teams where pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals collaborate seamlessly. We're building the infrastructure to make that collaboration possible.

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The bigger vision:

But here's what really drives us: We believe that a decade from now, the question won't be "Can pharmacists deliver primary care?" It will be "How did we ever think we could deliver primary care without pharmacists?"

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MAPflow exists to accelerate that future. To provide the clinical tools, the data infrastructure, the workflow integration, and the professional support that transforms scope expansion from policy into practice, from possibility into reality.

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To the Pharmacy Professionals Making This Real

To every pharmacist, pharmacy technician, student, and intern using MAPflow: you're not just using a platform. You're pioneering a fundamental shift in how Canadians access healthcare.

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Every assessment you complete, every patient you help, every clinical decision you make—you're writing the story of pharmacy's future. You're proving what we've always known: that community pharmacists are not just medication experts, but healthcare providers capable of delivering excellent primary care.

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Thank you for trusting us to support this work. Thank you for your clinical excellence, your commitment to your communities, and your willingness to step into expanded roles with professionalism and compassion.

The journey has just begun, and what lies ahead is extraordinary.

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Here's to the next three years—and to building the future of accessible care together.

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Yours truly,

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Nardine

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About MAPflow

MAPflow is a health technology platform providing clinical decision support for pharmacists across Canada. Used by over 2,000 pharmacy locations in nine provinces, MAPflow empowers pharmacy professionals to deliver evidence-based care for minor ailments and expanded scope services. Founded in 2022 by Dr. Nardine Nakhla, Dr. Andrea Edginton, and Michael Sevestre, MAPflow combines clinical rigor, workflow integration, and comprehensive documentation to support pharmacists in practicing at the top of their license.

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