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Community Clinical Pharmacists as “Medication Coaches”- lessons from a great coach
I recently read this great piece of research published in the British Medical Journal by Australian Pharmacists. It reviews the literature to identify barriers to optimal prescribing and discusses strategies to overcome these barriers. http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/12/e006544.full.pdf+html As a keen sailor in my teenage years and early twenties I was extremely lucky to have as my coach…
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Orthomolecular Treatment for Adverse Effects of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccine
Editor’s Note: i2P stands for “Safe Vaccination” and does not support the extreme stances of the “anti-vaxers” or the “pro-vaxers”. For this reason we encourage pharmacists to carefully read the comments contained in the news item below, because they are evidence-based and valid. They highlight the unsafe qualities of one vaccine (HPV) containing aluminium as…
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Retail Health Clinic Study – Many Positives
In the US, retail health clinics are now a permanent part of the health care landscape with the potential to become a much more powerful enabler of a “culture of health,” according to a recent report by Manatt Health, the health care division of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. This perspective will be of interest to…
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Evidence Based Design Will Encourage Patient Outcomes
A pharmacy environment is a complex one of patients, customers, products and services. It is a little understood environment because evidence surrounding its structure and presentation is sparse. All the elements require integration. It’s one thing to spruce up a space aesthetically, but it’s equally important to address the underlying conditions to support the experience…
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I’ve been thinking about minding the gap, looking right, and a potential blindspot in the medication-use process.
There is little pedestrian about being a pedestrian in the UK. It pays to heed the painted warnings underfoot between the platforms and trains throughout the color-coded labyrinth of the famed Underground—“MIND THE GAP.” It is paramount, however, to heed the painted curbs at nearly every intersection—“LOOK RIGHT.” Perhaps you’ve had your close call with…
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Ice Pack for Injections Courtesy 3D Printing
Rice University undergraduates have developed a quick and easy way to numb the skin, making shots virtually pain-free. And it could be a value enhancement that might differentiate pharmacy vaccination clinics from those provided by all other health professionals. Getting the flu shot is one of the many rituals that comes once a year, inoculating…
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A Clinical Look at Pharmacy
As pharmacies move towards establishing vaccination clinics, pharmacy is experiencing major resistance from medical groups. This was predicted by i2P and in fact we commented that clinical pharmacists would come under scrutiny from a range of sectors that includes doctors, nurses, patients and government agencies, and that scrutiny would be harsher than what they would…
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I’ve been thinking about SOS, shingles, and the v-word.
SOS is the worldwide signal for distress. When originally used in 1908, the letters did not represent words. Rather, the characters were chosen for the ease with which they could be telegraphed and deciphered via Morse Code. The signal employs perhaps the least ambiguous combinations available: dot-dot-dot, dash-dash-dash, and dot-dot-dot.The maritime call letters quickly evolved into an…
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New Paradigm Pharmacy Design
Pharmacy Workplaces are fairly sterile places to work in as regards to interaction with co-workers and fulfilment for patients and customers. Design improvement is one of the last items generally considered when setting up a pharmacy because there are many models to view and adapt that are already developed, and can be readily copied. But…
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Vaccines – the Controversies Continue
As a member of a science-based profession I try to ensure that I follow processes that are evidence-based. Over the past decade I have become disillusioned over the quality and presentation of evidence for drugs which has become more of a marketing exercise than a scientific one. Even the design of clinical trials have been…