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I’ve been thinking about SOS, shingles, and the v-word.
SOS is the worldwide signal for distress. When originally used in 1908, the letters did not represent words. Rather, the characters were chosen for the ease with which they could be telegraphed and deciphered via Morse Code. The signal employs perhaps the least ambiguous combinations available: dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, and dot-dot-dot.The maritime call letters quickly evolved into an […]
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Electronic Shelf Labelling – a Nucleus for your own Local Area Marketing System
Developing technology for retail shelf pricing is being presented in an e-paper format. Originally, this type of labelling was invented using LCD displays, but it was fuzzy and indistinct, with an inability to handle graphics, logos etc.A new version known as ESL (electronic shelf label) uses a combination of e-paper and e-ink. This new system […]
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January 2015—2014 ASHP MidYear Meeting Technology Wrap-Up
I’ve been thinking about my twenty-first American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition in Anaheim, December 8-9. My first ASHP was Miami in 1995—the same year the society announced that the “h” in its abbreviated name would henceforth stand for Health-System rather than Hospital as documented on its birth certificate. Recognizing […]
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I’ve been thinking about drugs, wars, Christmases, and your hospital (the one you work in and/or the one you go to as a patient).
On my daily walks, I’ve been listening to Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. I’m at Christmas of 1943—the year Bing Crosby’s newly recorded “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” began tugging at souls on radios across America. The tug persists. Though the bestseller’s central figure, Louis Zamperini, did […]
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Pharmacy by Design – Reinventing the Dispensary
Recently, we published some work (Pharmacy by Design) carried out by some US design researchers that involved pharmacy design basic research. The company, which is called Nurture by Steelcase, conducted research over a number of differing pharmacy settings and came up with a number of principles that held true for a pharmacy in all those […]
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Preventing Medical Errors with Proven Bar-Code Technology
Bar-code technologies, which have proven effective at points-of-sale in stores and during order-fulfillment in warehouses are preventing errors at points-of-care and during medication preparations in hospitals. A US television commercial for Berlitz language courses begins with a senior officer briefing a draftee on how to man the station before leaving him on his own. No […]
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New Pharmacy Paradigm – Drone Delivery
Editor’s Note: In keeping with our “over-the-horizon” view of pharmacy we allow staff writers to exercise their imagination and publish “what if?” material. Drone technology could become an integral component of a pharmacy-in-the home project, and because of its widespread uptake, it will be at a reasonable cost. We will check back in over time. […]
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I’ve been thinking about presidents, engineers, nurses, and the law of unintended consequences
The bulk of the word consequence is sequence. In sequence, outcomes (intended or not) follow actions. Typically, consequences is used in reference to negative outcomes. In 1974, Richard Nixon had neither intended nor anticipated the devastating sequence of events that would follow the Watergate break-in and subsequent cover-up. He had not expected his actions would […]