FeedEditorial
Welcome to the December edition of i2P-Information to Pharmacists.
As we wind down in 2013 for the holiday period we will be filing some updates, but at a little more leisurely pace.
Where has the year gone?
Certainly the rate of change for 2013 has been more than hectic and there has been little time to organise thoughts and set appropriate directions.
This is the season for hard negotiations for the 6CPA but there is little left to squeeze.
Pharmacy has had the equivalent of bariatric surgery.
Government has taken it all, as usual.
As current price changes work their way through the pharmacy cash flow cycle, for some there will be insufficient- and heartburn.
Crunch time is that there will be more bankruptcies over 2014.
Media reports that some pharmacies have received free shop refits as a form of payment for purchasing a specific generic drug range is certainly not obvious, as the average pharmacy is in need of some renovation or repair and looking a bit jaded.
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Volume 1 Number 1
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Newsflash Items for December 2013 and January 2014
Regular weekly updates that supplement the regular monthly homepage edition of i2P.
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Feature Contribution
How to Avoid Becoming a Commodity
These days more than ever the competitive advantage pursued by many is to discount and commoditise an industry.
The prime example of this is warehouse pharmacy stores.
However, this is not unique to pharmacy, but too many industries out there, including electrical retailing and hardware.
As a result, the relentless pursuit of being the cheapest product and service provider has meant that the smaller, service focused business is eventually forced out of business.
A Clinical Services Pharmacy Design (Canadian Style)
Editor's Note: This pharmacy design would suit an Australian pharmacy set up for clinical services and for survival over the next five years. Pharmacists interested in adapting this design to suit their local market should contact Neil Johnston at neilj@computachem.com.au for an introduction to Sartoretto Verna design services.
Villagio Market Pharmacy -St- PerreJolys , Manitoba, Canada Technical Data
Total area: 90 sq.m.
Area open to public: 75 sq.m. Area open to public / total area: 83%
Exposure: 39 lm
The task was to create a pharmacy inside the market in St -Pierre Jolys , a rural village which is situated not far from Winnipeg, Canadian province of Manitoba.
In recent years, the owner Mark Duddridge has transformed a simple grocery into a full-service drugstore that it is visited approximately by 400 visitors per day.
Sartoretto Verna was asked to create a pharmacy that can boast an excellent design with thorough attention to details.
PGA Moves Into Primary Care
This week I received a pleasant surprise in the form of a PGA news item endorsing a range of primary health care services, an area that had been progressively abandoned from as far back as 1978, but in particular, within the last decade.
Importantly, the PGA has recognised that the current pharmacy business model has reached its “use by” date by stating:
“The Guild’s National Council has recognised that the successful and widespread integration of these primary health care services into pharmacy businesses is likely to require significant changes to the traditional pharmacy operating model, including in relation to workflows and the roles and responsibilities of pharmacists and other staff.”
Building a clinical services model in a difficult marketplace
It seems to me that there is a confluence of events overtaking pharmacy.
On one hand there is a genuine disappointment by health consumers that they have not been able to access pharmacists for basic primary care services, and on the other, there are a host of pharmacy critics and academic advisers that have a range of solutions, none of which are compatible with a community pharmacy environment.
And in the middle are a host of dedicated pharmacists working and piloting a range of solutions while simultaneously being torn apart, as unreasonable chunks of cash flow and profitability disappear from its business heart.
My Best Team
Quite coincidentally, over the last few months, I’ve been thinking about where we’ve been in our profession, and where we’re headed.
Some recent comments within this fine publication have cemented my thoughts on how we can recover some ground in our perceived role of “do what other health professionals tell you to do, and don’t dare step outside those parameters or your world will end.”
At the end of each football season, “expert” commentators rate their “best 18” (in the AFL) or the “best 11” (in cricket).
Lists like this often precipitate vigorous debate.
I’m no expert, but each of us has our professional heroes.
Some of mine are still with us, and some have gone to that big professional healthcare practice in the sky.
Within that latter group, I wonder what they are thinking.
Continuity of care in residential care
Kay Dunkley - BPharm, Grad Dip Hosp Pharm, Grad Dip Health Admin, MPS, MSHPA
In February 2011 I wrote on the topic of continuity of care with regard to hospital discharge (Volume 3 No. 2).
At that time I was working in hospital pharmacy practice.
Now I am sitting on the other side of the fence working in residential care undertaking medication reviews and I see just how fragmented care can be in the community.
The situation is exacerbated as the patients are usually elderly and they and their families are not always able to communicate important health information to the various health care providers involved.
This puts these patients at significant risk of medication misadventure and adverse outcomes. Some examples follow. All of these scenarios are based on real cases.
More Pharma Abuse
Editor's Note: The corrupt nature of Big Pharma's evidence-base to justify the marketing of bad medicine is slowly unraveling through courts of law around the world.
The corrupt medical academics who fuel this process through allowing themselves to be "bought" by a number of creative means will also be similarly addressed.
Different levels of government are also tainted when it is seen that mandatory vaccination is being used to drive corrupt health policies, even when evidence exists to the contrary.
i2P supports true evidence-based arguments or best evidence where something has had traditional use and is waiting for evidence support to occur.
We do not support the claims made by Skeptic extremists that permeate the landscape, that tend to support corrupt evidence even though it may have been published in a peer-reviewed journal.
How the medical fraternity and Big Pharma will sort out this absolute mess remains to be tested.
And they must realise that they are no longer trusted or respected by members of other health professions, simply because of this unprincipled and illegal behaviour.
Why is WHO guilty of WOO?
Acupuncturists claim that they can treat many serious illnesses, including depression, dysentery, osteoarthritis and whooping cough. As 'evidence', they even refer to the World Health Organisation (WHO) website.
What does WHO claim acupuncture can cure?
Does this match the evidence?
Unselfishness has a special place in business
Bill Bradley recently spoke to a group of Minnesota Timberwolves season ticketholders. The topic wasn’t his stellar career, basketball strategy or memorable wins. Instead, he talked about unselfishness. After 40 years of traveling America as a Hall-of-Fame basketball player and a U.S. Senator, the Rhodes Scholar has a lot of stories to tell about the remarkable unselfish accomplishments of people both famous and unknown. He features them during his weekly American Voices program on Sirius/XM Radio.
I’ve been thinking about, Boston, Belichick, UPS, and transporting properly prepared IVs to the right patients on time
I’ve been thinking about, Boston, Belichick, UPS, and transporting properly prepared IVs to the right patients on time.
Boston is my favorite public transit city. I’m like a kid while being transported by user-friendly Charlie through the labyrinth beneath her historic streets.
It’s not uncommon for outsiders to say Bostonians are not so user friendly. Stereotyping suggests they are not terribly diplomatic, sometimes condescending, and always in a rush.
Sort of the way the Patriot’s Coach Belichick comes across on Sports Center’s post-game interviews.
Big Data - A Business Power Shift
Season’s greetings.
With the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of Australian society and its people the Christmas festive period is becoming progressively less dominant, particularly for businesses.
However, the Christian values of love, compassion, sharing and understanding are relevant at all times for all people.
We all benefit and should enjoy embracing the sense of family... Australians are all part of one cohesive, extended family. This year we should make the time and effort to reflect, reach out, respect and value the sense of virtue of family.
In commerce the same commitment should be given to virtues of quality customer service.
The following text highlights why. And remember, there is no holiday or break in the need for and advantages of service excellence.
Kindest Personal Regards
Barry Urquhart
Nearpod helps revolutionize medical education teaching using mobile devices
One of the most impressive apps for medical education purposes is Nearpod.
The premise behind nearpod is simple–to bring the classroom to life with interactive mobile presentations that teachers can create and customize themselves.
Nearpod relies on a cloud based system to distribute interactive presentations to students in a classroom. It is particularly well suited for institutions that own or use tablets regularly (although you can use a phone).
New discoveries in quest for better drugs
A new crystal structure of a GPCR bound to both an activating molecule and a drug
Two studies into alternative drug recognition sites on G protein-coupled receptors have been published in Nature.
Scientists have combined cutting edge computer modelling, structural biology, pharmacology and medicinal chemistry to reveal new insights into how the body interacts with novel drug treatments, in research that could lead to the creation of drugs that are more targeted and with fewer side effects.
SHPA’s new president to champion excellence in medicines management
Story by Suzanne Newman
At a meeting of SHPA’s Federal Council on the weekend, Professor Michael Dooley, Director of Pharmacy at Alfred Health, and Professor of Clinical Pharmacy, Centre for Medicine Use and Safety, Monash University, was elected as the new President of SHPA.
SHPA welcomes prescribing pathway for health professionals
Story by Suzanne Newman
SHPA welcomes the news that the Health Professionals Prescribing Pathway has been approved by Australian health ministers.
The Health Professionals Prescribing Pathway project has been undertaken by Health Workforce Australia (HWA) to develop a nationally recognised approach to prescribing. SHPA has been involved in this project from the outset: contributing feedback on a draft version and being represented in workshops and other settings by SHPA representatives including former President Sue Kirsa, CEO Helen Dowling, Yvonne Allinson and Greg Weeks. SHPA member, Dr Lisa Nissen, has been a clinical advisor to the project.
Prime Minister announces new funding to support delivery of chemotherapy
Story by Helen Dowling
SHPA welcomes the announcement on 30 November 2013 by the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott of more than $82million additional funding to support the delivery of chemotherapy medicines in Australia’s public and private hospitals.
Although few details have been released, the new funding that commences from 1 January 2014 removes the immediate concerns of SHPA members regarding the delivery of chemotherapy medicines.
Professional Pharmacists Thank Sue Kirsa for her Contribution to Pharmacy
Professional Pharmacists Australia Spokesperson
Professionals Pharmacists Australia today paid tribute to the hard work and vision of Sue Kirsa who recently resigned as President of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists Australia.
CEO of Professional Pharmacists Australia, Chris Walton said Ms Kirsa worked tirelessly to see pharmacists better able to utilise their skills to improve community health.
Pharmedia: No Benefit in Pharmacist Intervention
Editor's Note:
The media item below was recently published in MJA Insights.
It, along with many other articles, is a sample of the ongoing anti-pharmacy sentiment that is being spread by official medicine.
To me it is a nonsense to talk of collaboration between pharmacy and medicine on one hand, and to be professionally insulting on the other.
My view is that the medical profession has a lot of repair work to undertake to purify the drug evidence base that has been damaged beyond belief by its collaboration with Big Pharma, and the ongoing bid to denigrate the profession of pharmacy at every opportunity.
What seems to terrify official medicine about pharmacy and other registered health professionals such as nurses?
I2P asked Mark Coleman to comment on this situation, and his comments appear below the Insights item.
Research Reports
Dr Andrew Byrne & Associates: Poor retention on buprenorphine compared with. methadonePractice Development
Staff Writer: Nearpod helps revolutionize medical education teaching using mobile devices | open full screen
Fiona Sartoretto Verna AIAPP: A Clinical Services Pharmacy Design (Canadian Style) | open full screen
Information Technology
Dr David More: Australian Health Information Technology - Weekly Overseas Health IT Links - 30th November, 2013 | open full screen
Aged Care
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