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Dementia – can we educate and reduce risk?
At the inaugural Swisse Preventative Health Symposium held in Melbourne last Friday, I was privileged to hear a fascinating address by Professor David Smith, Professor Emeritus, University of Oxford on “the role of nutrition in the prevention of cognitive impairment”. He classes dementia as a disease – not an inevitable part of ageing and certainly…
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Health Literacy – A Concept for a Valid Direction for Community Pharmacy
Recently, I had a conversation with a health professional involved in the public health system. Research had emerged that large pockets of populations were experiencing epidemic levels of chronic illness such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, and heart disease. These population pockets correlated with areas of low socio-economic households where people had generally poor diets and…
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A4M Proposes a $1 trillion health cost save for US – why not Australia?
The American Academy for Anti-Ageing (A4M) is a medical group researching and treating the ageing process through utilising the concept of Integrative Medicine. They have come up with a simplified 10 point proposal designed to slash major costs from the health bill in the US – they say reductions of up to $1 trillion are…
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The Patient Proposition
I am wondering if there are any pharmacists out there who have ever created a written proposal to recruit patients to your practice. The reason I ask is that so many pharmacists in their communications with each other or with other health professionals, talk in terms of having “customers”, with the word “patient” appearing spasmodically…
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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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Methods for gaining knowledge – mentors, advisers and choosing a discomfort zone
I was reading up on some material written by marketing guru Seth Godin and marveled once more at the insight this man brings to his writing so effortlessly and at once, so obvious as to wonder why you hadn’t tapped the same vein of thought through your own resources. He highlights that if we go…
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Caring as a competitive advantage
It’s 3:28am and our teething daughter’s fever is raging through her shivering body. Her cheeks burn red and our hearts burn with desperation and hope.My tearful wife gives our baby some medicine, and I hear her silent prayers caress every drop entering our sick baby’s mouth. ‘I hope this will help you, sweetheart.’ What was…
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Do your patients use their blood pressure medications correctly?
A recent analysis of the use of blood pressure medications within the United States Medicare system reveals that 26 per cent either skip doses, or stop taking their drugs entirely, thereby increasing their risk of heart attack and stroke. Other research within that system shows that up to 25 per cent of new prescriptions for…
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Onboarding – a Key Word to Learn for Your Future Profitability
In planning resources for a pharmacy I often pose the question: “Which of the two resources of staff and patients is the most important, and what must be budgeted for first?” Seems a bit of a rhetorical question and if you answered “patients” both times you are technically wrong. If you do not have a…