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Medical postcard from New York, April 2016
Dear Colleagues, I can report that spring has sprung in New York. After a cold start, April has seen a wonderful transition from winter bareness to a colour-wheel of splendid blossoms, bulbs and canopy greenery. Easter was early this year and so were the cherry blossoms which are at their peak over a week before…
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Understanding the Impacts of a Global Pharmacy Invasion
Recently, i2P ran some articles postulating the expansion strategies of global supermarket and pharmacy groups. It is a story of consolidation of the pharmacy industry, both horizontally and vertically to form up massive conglomerates that concentrate purchasing power and market share of retail pharmacy goods and services. And it is a story that is mostly…
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Alliance Boots will Spearhead a Global Onslaught with our Goverment’s Assistance
The news broke last week that Alliance Boots was making plans to enter the Australian market. This appears to be another step in the global concentration of community pharmacy, which Australian pharmacy has been able to withstand. Until now. The original Boots pharmacy group, a UK-based company, was recently taken over by the largest retail…
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A Pharmacy Clinical Service Model – Innovating and Adapting from Others
Recently, in my capacity as a management consultant, I was asked to review some policies for a security company I had an association with, in a health capacity. Security guards, because of their continual work during the night and early mornings, suffer from health problems related to their interrupted circadian rhythms. The first casualty is…
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What Does Domino Pizza and Pharmacy-in-the-Home Service hold in Common?
One of the realities of an ageing population is that pharmacies will need to have a presence in a patient’s home as elderly people begin to lose their mobility and become more fragile. As lifespans increase, the number of family members able to provide support also diminishes (as they die off themselves or become equally…
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Health Fund Managed Care – Will it be a short-term positive or a long-term negative for Pharmacy
There seems little doubt that the Australian government is setting out to introduce a US style of healthcare management using health funds to “front” for some of their objectives. Despite the fact that the US has the worst health system in the world (as well as the most expensive), government seems to think that by…
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Health Disruption to Health Care – by Health Funds and Major Investors
Health funds are beginning to look at disruptive or innovative acquisitions that will help in their objective of converting as many health systems as possible to become part of a managed care consortium. While the process promises lower health costs, low health insurance premiums and a five star system for patients to rate their health…