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The Desensitised Culture
It’s time for a new prescription The community pharmacy is fighting to survive amid aggressive price disclosures, high expenses and pressures from wholesalers. Yet, the treatment of slashing costs and pushing discounts only focuses on the symptom of financial turmoil, rather than treating the root cause of the problem. The financial turmoil facing the pharmacy…
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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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Do we do enough for our statin patients?
Even though statins are the “go-to” therapy for lowering “bad” cholesterol, other treatments can effectively reduce the risk of future heart problems according to a new evidence review. The Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that a heart-healthy diet can confer the same level of heart health protection as statins. When we dispense a…
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Consumerism, health care costs and patient-centred “homes”
Health objectives in Australia are shifting from fee for service models to capitation models in a bid to simultaneously improve quality and reduce costs. The idea of a patient-centred “home” led by a doctor is touted as the principal model of care. i2P has always pointed to the fact that any business model led by…
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Three Bioethicists Critical of Pharmacy Retailing
Three bioethicists have combined to criticise the concept of community pharmacy conducting retail front of shop activities, while simultaneously working in the best interests of the patient. Their comments are published in Croakey here. The bioethicists, Wendy Lipworth, Christopher Mayes and Ian Kerridge (all medical academics attached to the University of Sydney) discuss what is…
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A Patient’s Real Cost – Their time Involvement and a future cause for health system collapse
For some time we have seen media references portraying GP’s as overworked, becoming more stressed and now being underpaid due to the freezing of Medicare rebates. It seems GP’s have now been put on the same treadmill as pharmacists. Welcome to the real world that we pharmacists already inhabit! But what is not identified within…
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Do You Promote Free Advice?
Frequently there is a lament recycled by pharmacy commentators that the business model for community pharmacy has relied on providing services through the margins received for recommended products. That model is still a valid part of community pharmacy culture, except that it has not been appropriately adjusted to counter market changes that have occurred over…
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Avatars May Take Over Patient Communications – Where to from there?
Global Pharma’s are known to be funding the development of systems to deal directly with patients. These systems will involve the use of Artificial Intelligence and the use of Volumetric 3D immersion technologies. The former will allow delivery of technical information through well modulated voice transmission, while the latter will provide an “avatar” transformed from…
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Medical Cannabis – a Product That Clinical Pharmacists Could Match to Chronic Illness
While there has been movement in the right direction in getting medical cannabis on to the market in Australia there are still some glaring anomalies in its introduction and you would have to ask “Why?” Where I live in NSW I am on the fringe of some of the best cannabis growing soils and climate…
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Low dose aspirin – pro or con?
The US Preventative Services Task Force now recommends that all 50 to 70 year olds take a low-dose aspirin for preventing cardiovascular disease. Medical press last week gave this story legs, and I’m puzzled as to why? Current Australian Heart Foundation guidelines reflect the position that there are no or minimal cardiovascular benefits. In fact,…