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EDITORIAL for Monday September 14, 2015 – Includes urgent vaccine information
Welcome to this weeks’ edition of i2P (Information to Pharmacists) E-Magazine which also coincides with the “No Jab – No Pay” legislation which was quietly introduced to Parliament on Thursday 10 September 2015 in the form of a two-part bill. Part-Bill #1- the Australian Immunisation Register (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2015. This link was…
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A Former Community Pharmacist Now a Practice Pharmacist- We Have a Q & A With Him
Clinical service pharmacists basically find themselves as a “divided bunch” and have an unclear vision for the future. Certainly they have been derailed by having their voice taken from them by the PGA/PSA controlled Australian Association of Consultant Pharmacy (AACP), which incidentally, had its named changed from the original which had “pharmacist” in the title.…
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GM Lobby Will Damage Australian’s Health Future
On Tuesday, 9 September 2015 I tuned in to the ABC broadcast of the address given to the National Press Club , by John Entine, described as a “journalist, scholar, skeptic and GMO advocate. I have followed the genetically modified organism (GMO) debate for some years and had personally arrived at a conclusion that GM…
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Get Up Advert banned
As government becomes secretive and undemocratic and mainstream media aids the process, it generates a climate that allows for the formation of equal and opposite alternatives, and to mobilise affected communities. These manifest as a range of “whistle-blowers”, online polls and surveys, blogs published over the Internet and news aggregators that attempt to provide a…
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The Final Statistic
There is no more ‘final’ statistic regarding drug use than overdose deaths. And in England the official figures go back to Victorian times, then often involving opium, laudanum and other strong drugs including alcohol. The British Coroner’s Act of 1844 was ahead of its time and even pre-dated the famous Broad Street Pump reports of…
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Intervention skills compromised
A new study in the Medical Journal of Australia doesn’t reflect on us all that well. How’s this for a statistic? “…..of patients admitted to hospital with broken bones following a fall, 85.4% were 65 years or older and had been prescribed a falls-risk medicine”. Does this mean that at some stage, 85 out of…
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Cell Phone Can Alter Brain Structure And Function
A new clinical study has found that just 15 minutes of cell phone talk time radiation exposure can alter the structure and function of the brain, including brain wave activity that is connected to cognition, mood and behaviour. Thirty-one healthy females took part in the study, published in PLOS ONE; all participants were measured twice. On…
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PSA Media Releases – Pharmacists have a real role in advising on use of complementary medicines
September 10, 2015 Pharmacists have a real role in advising on use of complementary medicines The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, the peak organisation representing pharmacists across all sectors of the profession, has issued a position statement recognising that complementary medicines may have a role in the management or treatment of some conditions and that pharmacists…
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ASMI Media Release – Evidence for Complementary Medicines-What’s the truth?
Evidence for Complementary Medicines-What’s the truth? 8 September 2015 – There is much debate about the evidence for claims made about complementary medicines. International expert in complementary medicines, Dr Mary Hardy, will shed light on the debate in her plenary session at the ASMI Conference on 11 November 2015. “In Australia and globally, the key…
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NPS Media Release – PHARMACISTS – NEED TO CATCH UP ON CPD?
7 SEPTEMBER 2015 PHARMACISTS – NEED TO CATCH UP ON CPD? As the end of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) year fast approaches, pharmacists are reminded that NPSMedicineWise offers free CPD learning activities for pharmacists. Participating in NPS MedicineWise’s evidence-based activities assists pharmacists and pharmacy interns in the provision of quality patient care and quality use of medicines…