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Pro Bono Pharmacy Services Create a Social Dividend
Pharmacists have always embraced a culture where service provision for health problems have been provided free of charge to local communities, while the physical product that resulted as a solution to those health problems attracted a monetary value. In contrast, GP’s charged for their services (consultations) and basically avoided selling products. Given that pharmacists and…
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Micro-practice – Future Direction for Pharmacy
I2P has long proposed that pharmacy attracts two types of consumers – customers and patients. A little reflection will resolve this issue because clearly, customers will be attracted to the more commercialised aspects of pharmacy that compete with retailing in general, and the reason why pharmacists see their major competitors as supermarkets and variety stores.…
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Patient Navigation – An old-new Opportunity for Pharmacists
i2P has commented before that community pharmacy has (and still is) the epicentre for primary health care. In many ways it was the original patient-centred home and it had a market share approaching 70 percent in the mid to late 1970’s when it was first surveyed. The entry point to primary health care within community…
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The Lessons From History – From Someone Who Has Lived It
Two weeks ago we published an article called Make the Right Turn at the Next Crossroads . It was based on a story written by a senior US pharmacist named Truman Lastinger and published in the US magazine, Drug Topics. Because Truman Lastinger and I are of similar vintage I could strongly identify with the period…
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Collaboration- What does it mean for health professions?
The new “buzz” word floating around the health professions is “collaboration”. In the same breath it is linked to other expressions such as “patient-centred homes” or “patient-centred neighbourhoods”. But what does it all mean – particularly when referenced in respect of community pharmacy? Starting with the dictionary terminology we find collaboration means: 1. “the action…
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The Paris Attacks – an Impetus for Community Pharmacy to be an Emergency Triage Point
Recently, I have written two articles relating to triaged services from a pharmacy environment and how community pharmacy could be integrated into a public emergency system. In these articles I made the proposition that Location Rules night have more meaning if pharmacies were able to be strategically located throughout Australia because of the need to…
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Our Thinking and Thought Leadership is Reflected
I2P has long espoused that community pharmacy has deep roots embedded in patient centering and engagement and has won all of its “stripes” on the basis of all the things that our antecedents did right. Those “roots” were responsible for our unique style of “over-the-counter prescribing” as well has building a market in compunded prescriptions…
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Phoctors and Docpharms
In these days of constant change or business disruption we often find ourselves in a constant state of anxiety. This is not good for mental health and is probably the underlying reason why mental health issues have shown such a massive increase across the spectrum of entire populations, over the past five years As a…
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Leadership, Future Direction, Public Health and Triage Services
Most pharmacists recognise the need to expand their focus from dispensing to something wider. Community pharmacy is the most visible “face” of pharmacy, but its leadership struggles to keep its members focused on creative pathways that utilise the natural advantages of a community pharmacy – convenient location, health professional availability and access, a “core” duality…
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Create Infinite Growth Through Appropriate Brand Building
Recently, I came across a paper published on the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) website and it was titled “Eight Lessons to Secure Infinite Growth”. It was a paper that involved simple processes to create strong brand images. As I read into the detail I found that if I changed some of the nomenclature it was…