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January 2015—2014 ASHP MidYear Meeting Technology Wrap-Up
I’ve been thinking about my twenty-first American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition in Anaheim, December 8-9. My first ASHP was Miami in 1995—the same year the society announced that the “h” in its abbreviated name would henceforth stand for Health-System rather than Hospital as documented on its birth certificate. Recognizing…
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Saving Health – and Pharmacy if you can find it
I don’t know whether this is unique just to me or because I have a long and clear memory of pharmaceutical events since my entry to the profession in 1956. But I get very angry when I see a national TV program supposedly involving all of “health” where none of the participants are pharmacists! Nada!…
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Fish oil – is it on the nose?
Considerable confusion and many unsubstantiated beliefs abound when it comes to fish oil supplements. An estimated one in four Australians currently take them for a wide range of conditions, even though good research is unconvincing. However, there are suggestions that increased doses of fish oil might provide health benefits. What are fish oils – and…
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ASMI Media Releases 1.New research confirms benefits of chondroitin for osteoarthritis 2. ASMI welcomes complementary meds review
New research confirms benefits of chondroitin for osteoarthritis 27 February 2015 – The Australian Self Medication Industry (ASMI) today welcomed new research that confirmed the benefits of chondroitin sulphate for osteoarthritis. A Cochrane Review of 9,110 people across 43 randomised controlled studies revealed that chondroitin sulphate (alone or in combination with glucosamine) was better than…
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Downstream From Hospital Re-admissions
The US hospital system has finally discovered its pharmacy department in respect of its ability to help in the prevention of re-admissions – a very costly exercise. Of course, frustrated hospital pharmacists, both in the US and here in Australia, knew that this was feasible. However, the system here in Australia seems to be permanently…
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Precision Medicine – Pharmacy needs to get a move on
Primary health care teams in the US are currently being considered for the promotion of personalised medicine based on gene analysis. This has to be pharmacist territory, but given the time lag of pharmacist leadership organisations, Australian pharmacists may again miss the boat by not having decentralised training systems to be able to deliver suitable…
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The Patient-Centred Primary Care Collaborative
This article contains an evidence-based report on US physician-led Patient Centred Primary Care (PCPC) “Homes” that are likely to be modeled and supported here in Australia. i2P would simply like to expand the debate for pharmacist-led models that will initially evolve from clinics that will be established in community pharmacies. Many of these clinics will be…
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Withdrawn drugs – our patients deserve better
Patients are dying because of year-long delays in withdrawing dangerous drugs from the global market, according to Oxford University researchers. They say that the danger could be reduced by better reporting of the deaths, and quicker action by manufacturers and regulators. Unbelievably, the time between the first death being reported, and the drug being withdrawn,…
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Top Vitamin D Research of 2014
Higher vitamin D blood levels may reduce the risk of many types of disease including autoimmune diseases, cancers, cardiovascular disease, dementia, diabetes mellitus and falls and fractures. Research into the health effects associated with vitamin D continued to be strong in 2014. The number of publications with vitamin D in the title or abstract listed…
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I’ve been thinking about drugs, wars, Christmases, and your hospital (the one you work in and/or the one you go to as a patient).
On my daily walks, I’ve been listening to Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. I’m at Christmas of 1943—the year Bing Crosby’s newly recorded “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” began tugging at souls on radios across America. The tug persists. Though the bestseller’s central figure, Louis Zamperini, did…