Welcome to the current edition of i2P (Information to Pharmacists) E-Magazine, dated Monday 6 February 2017.
Just for a moment, imagine that you are a drug manufacturer and start to think about how you might promote your product range.
You might think that a proactive approach might be to communicate your product benefits to the health professionals who could facilitate and even amplify your intended message to the consumer.
So you might create a budget for a sales representative and also an advertising budget for the journals that they read.
But what if that strategy became ineffective due to the promoted benefits not delivering as promised?
You may then offer some form of financial or other value benefit to drive the required result.
And you may extend your budget to get all of your health professionals together in one room and “educate” them with some intensity.
You might also sweeten the deal and pick an attractive location and invite the family to participate in the “holiday ” appeal of such a package.
Or you might go back to the journals you advertise in and point out that you should be getting preferential editorial content as part of the package and even offer to provide the content to save journal resources.
Suddenly there is a line-up of authors willing to “cherry pick” the evidence base and provide a torrent of valuable information that prescribers find useful.
But what if all the above still does not measure up as an expected return on total investment?
Each promotional format costs money that has to be retrieved in the cost price of those products.
What now?
Well we could limit choice by getting rid of all those pesky alternatives – homeopathics, herbals, other complementary medicines, even nutritional supplements.
That way we can eliminate the alternatives that help patients, and force consumer choice to only be my evidence-based medicine with all side-effects fully documented (well, most are- the rest can wait until discovered by unwary practitioners).
Anyway, there is no good reason why consumers should sup port these alternatives because they do not have supported evidence (at the vey least evidence that we drug manufacturers would support) and because we write and own the industry fairy stories,the alternatives should never get a toehold.
But those consumers have created a multi-billion dollar industry for alternatives that should rightfully be ours.
After all, we created the research grants for selected academics and we pay politicians well for making proper decisions like the mandatory vaccination of all children.
The evidence of course, is settled (because there is no evidence!).
It’s not fair!
And just when we thought that we had confined those rebellious pharmacists to their own turf (with a little help from our doctor “friends”) we still see them promoting alternative solutions.
How unprofessional!
Let’s “doctor” their Code of Conduct to bring them back into line.
Better still let’s work on a Final Solution!
Let us eradicate all health professionals that will never toe the line, starting with homeopaths, chiropractors, naturopaths and all pharmacists who will not “collaborate”.
Let use also invest in robotics and holographic imagery so that we can take over the role of all health practitioners and deliver our message through “proper” consumer conversations that we can mind-manipulate into addicting themselves to our drugs.
That is the proper order of things!
Well the above may parody events within our healthcare world, but those of you who have ever taken a good look on the outside of your four walls will know that what is described already exists or is in development.
And because health is a major political issue in all western economies i2P would state that global political erruptions (in the form of BREXIT and Donald Trump) will translate to Australia and a roll-back of corrupt political influences at all levels will occur as voters rebel and support extreme forms of leadership to get the job done.
I note as I write this editorial that Pauline Hanson and her One Nation Party are gaining wider support in the latest polls and that she now has approximately 8 percent of Australian voting intention.
Meanwhile, both major parties are steadily losing ground with support for either leader dininishing, particularly for Malcolm Turnbull (Trumble) since his abortive telephone conversation with Donald Trump concerning the refugee deal.
Meanwhile, Australian pharmacists must batten down the hatches and begin to micro-manage their own community environments, while the politicians get sorted out and proper business can resume in place of what currently exists.
How long that will take is anyone’s guess.
Our lead article continues the general theme of Design Thinking that started with our last edition and is topical in the sense that it covers planning, uncertainty and anxiety.
Remembering always that “in the midst of change everything remains the same”.
The trick in survival is recognising what has changed and in what appearance it manifests in.
Designing strategies to evolve progressively to a new format will reflect the management skills of the individual and a willingness to invest in those skills to go against the tide of events that are characterised by poor leadership.
Read: Planning for Uncertainty and Anxiety
An example of a system design that has the effect of enhancing pharmacy practice is provided by Peter Sayers.
In a rare example of a mainstream newspaper in the US that conducted a genuine investigation into contemporary pharmacy practice, it was found that community pharmacy was badly lacking.
Because it was a genuine critique, it provided a spur for US pharmacy leadership to upgrade a management tool to overcome the problem and stimulate a creative and innovative component within each pharmacy that could be adapted for other solutions.
A positive result all round.
Read: Design for a Medication Safety Plan
Inherent in the introductory component of this editorial is the fact that the best clinical practice model for pharmacy is an integrative model.
Divisions within the pharmacy profession have sown doubt for this model and the mind-manipulaion of Big Pharma and their medical “friends” is responsible.
It’s way past time for pharmacists to shrug off all this BS and get on with making a full success of that model.
Consumers support a wellness approach and readily identify with the commonsense of “integration”.
Gerald Quigley tells why in the following article.
Read: Coincidence?
Following along with a similar theme, Rita Ayoub describes how gaps that exist in health delivery can be picked up by clinical pharmacists and be created as specialties.
Many pharmacists have formed up into a specialty in the past but such initiatives have never really been given oxygen in the sense that it has been difficult to share this type of information and it has often been isolated through peer group criticism or lack of leadership support.
At this time all positive clinical initiatives should be welcomed and applauded.
Read: What can we learn from Thyroid Pharmacist?
I2p is preparing a regular series on medical marijuana.
This is a market that is a natural fit for pharmacy with a positive promise for the health and well-being of Australians.
Our leaders should be out there proactively by ensuring appropriate regulation in Schedule 3 or Schedule 4 of the Poison’s Act.
Yet a recent a series of unnecessay adjustments to the scheduling of cannabis were recommended at a joint meeting of the Advisory Committee on Chemicals and Medicines Scheduling.
The decision lowered the cut-off for total cannabinoids appropriate for hemp seed oil to be exempt from Schedules 8 and 9 from 50 mg/kg to 20mg/kg.
It also added to the cannabis entries regarding the hemp seed oil exception the advice :
“when labelled with either of the following warning statements:
- Not for internal use; or
- Not to be taken.”
This means continuing the farce of selling food grade hemp products for external use only when the rest of the world simply sells hemp as a food without restriction.
Another interesting point in the delivery of medical marijuana is that the corrupt US government agency, the CDC, has actually taken out a patent on a range of cannabinoids and is only licencing Big Pharma to market a range of synthesised versions.
A government agency running like a business with a massive conflict of interest in regulating the same companies for compliance issues.
A new way to protect Big Pharma – and the world is becoming more insane each day.
Never mind, Donald Trump will fix it with his appointment of Robert Kennedy to oversee an investigative commission into the CDC.
Read: Understanding Medical Cannabis – What are the basic Components?
The tide is turning against the rabble that have formed up as “friends” of Big Pharma and its corrupt processes in the marketing of vaccines globnally, particularly where coercion has become a feature of ensuring massive profits for vaccine manufacturers.
An investigation into the CDC has been heralded by Donald Trump and once the alleged criminality of this government agency is exposed for the public record, global rollback of all that was wrong with that system can be closed down permanently.
And with that in mind Australian pharmacists should be maintaing a knowledge base of accurate information if they are preparing to become involved in the delivery of vaccination services.
They should be provided with a fully informed consent
And we complete our offering for this edition with media releases from pharmacy leadership organisations.
NPS – NPS Media Releases – Latest Edition of Australian Prescriber
We hope you enjoy our content and please do not hesitate to offer valid comment in the panel below each article.
Neil Johnston
Editor i2P E-Magazine
Monday 6 February 2017