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Health Coaches Will Gain Acceptance in Supermarkets Because of PGA Policies
The Australian College of Pharmacy recently held a conference in Hobart. Within the conference structure was a panel of Pharmacy Guild personalities who fielded questions on the future of HMR’s and RMMR’s and what restrictions may be in place within the 6CPA. The general consensus appeared to be that: “It was highly likely that the…
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Patient-Centred Care is Giving Emotional Support – Are You Up To It?
Have you ever wondered why the various polls for different occupations vary when measured against the parameters of honesty, ethics and caring? The top three positions are usually fought out between nursing, pharmacy and medicine. Nursing has consistently come in at number one, with pharmacy a close second, and usually medicine a little further back…
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Time for debate on maximising pharmacists’ role in improving consumer health outcomes
Pharmacists, doctors and other health professionals need a serious and objective discussion on the future role of pharmacists in the health system, the Acting National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, Joe Demarte, said today. Mr Demarte was responding to calls by the AMA President, Associate Professor Brian Owler, for the Government to immediately…
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Our Pills Talk – an Aussie Pharmacist Initiative
Editor’s Note: I recently had contact with an enterprising pharmacist by the name of Steve Cohen. Steve had an idea for a mobile phone app that would bring dispensed medicine directions to life by utilising QR codes to enable a patient to “hear” their medication instructions in a language of their choice. This initiative forms…
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Pharmacy Practice Research – a New Disruptive Approach
Pharmacy Practice research is something we are aware is happening, but the breadth and depth of research is not clearly visible. At a time when pharmacy needs some sort of direction with evidence to back it up, information is very sparse. There is an awareness that a range of grants is made available to pharmacy…
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Recreating Pharmacy’s Story in an Invigorating Format
An opportunity is being created to present the story of Australian pharmacy in a significant manner. Significant because of the government beating inflicted on the profession, plus the “spin” created by competing health professions, has caused all of pharmacy to pause, lick its wounds and find the way forward. The Pharmacy Guild of Australia has…
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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…
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The 10-Year Market Plan: A new Pharmacopiea+ New Clinical Services
A 10-year market plan has been called for pharmacy. Who will have the lead in this initiative and how will it be made inclusive so that any pharmacist may contribute? Indeed, does the traditional leadership group for pharmacies, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, have sufficient moral capital to be even considered for this important job?…
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Understanding Substitutes
Editor’s Note: We have republished an excerpt from marketing guru Seth Godin’s blog, because we thought it relevant to pharmacy practice, particularly when pricing clinical services. A link to Seth’s site appears at the foot of this article Seth Godin: This is a pretty long post, and I know that you could easily substitute another…
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Trends in Healthcare – From Quantitative to Qualitative
The near ubiquitous acceptance of smartphones and mobile internet access have ushered in a new wave of connected devices and smart objects that help us compile and track an unprecedented amount of previously unavailable data. This quantification of self, which used to be the sole domain of fitness fanatics and professional athletes, is now being…