New platform helps pharmacists prescribe with confidence, streamline administrative tasks and improve patient outcomes
Dr. Nardine Nakhla
Professor, School of Pharmacy
> Faculty of Science
> Co-founder and CEO, MAPflow
MAPflow is a Waterloo health-tech platform reshaping how Canadians access care by helping to modernize pharmacy practice and elevate patient care across the country.
Dr. Nardine Nakhla, pharmacist and co-founder of MAPflow, served on the Ontario College of Pharmacists’ Minor Ailments Advisory Group that informed regulatory changes enacted in the province in 2023. The changes allow pharmacists to autonomously prescribe medications for 19 minor ailments, with 14 more under consideration for 2026.
Recognizing the need for a solution to help pharmacists work within the new regulations, Nakhla and her co-founders developed MAPflow to support pharmacists in assessing and prescribing for minor ailments. The platform streamlines workflows and automates documentation while ensuring compliance, allowing pharmacists to spend less time on paperwork and more time delivering care.
“MAPflow was built in Canada for pharmacists, with the deep understanding that technology should amplify human expertise — not replace it,” Nakhla says. “Our algorithms provide evidence-based guidance that empower pharmacists to make informed clinical judgements.”
The platform integrates seamlessly into the way a pharmacist works, using algorithms that consider both patient- and condition-specific factors to generate individualized care plans. The tech currently automates documentation while keeping practicing pharmacists central to both its development and clinical decision-making, ensuring it meets real-world needs.
“As AI evolves, we’re committed to using it to enhance clinical decision-making while preserving the irreplaceable human elements — empathy, clinical intuition and therapeutic relationship — that define excellent pharmacy care,” Nakhla adds. “At the same time, we’re leveraging AI to streamline administrative tasks, giving pharmacists more time to focus on what matters most — patient care.”
MAPflow is the only platform offering both comprehensively holistic care and true province-specific customization with algorithms and documentation tailored to each jurisdiction’s unique regulations. Currently supporting more than 2,000 pharmacy locations across nine provinces, the team plans to have nationwide coverage by 2026.
MAPflow is also transforming pharmacy education. Students at Waterloo and six other pharmacy schools and technician programs across Canada utilize the platform in professional practice courses, gaining hands-on experience with regulatory-compliant tools that prepare them to deliver technology-enabled, team-based care from day one.
“We have achieved a 97.8 per cent symptom resolution or significant improvement rate at follow-up which is well above the national average of 80.8 per cent,” Nakhla says. “This is not just about efficiency. It is about delivering measurably better patient outcomes through technology-enabled excellence.”
MAPflow’s success stems from interdisciplinary collaboration. Nakhla brings clinical and regulatory expertise while her co-founders, Dr. Andrea Edginton, MAPflow’s chief operating officer and Hallman Director of the School of Pharmacy, offers strategic leadership and operational insight, and Michael Sevestre, MAPflow’s chief technology officer, contributes the technical vision that translated clinical workflows into the user-friendly platform.
From left to right: Nakhla; Michael Sevestre, co-founder and chief technology officer at MAPflow; and Dr. Andrea Edginton, MAPflow’s CEO and Hallman Director of the School of Pharmacy.
Their vision extends far beyond minor ailments. The team is expanding to support pharmacists across their full scope of practice from chronic disease management and medication reviews to preventative care and emerging services. By combining clinical insight with technological innovation, they are creating a scalable model for pharmacy-based health care that’s poised to transform how Canadians access care and inspire change well beyond Canada’s borders.
