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Clinical Services – What Patients Will Pay For
Pharmacists have always been well regarded by their patients for their ability to deliver health literacy programs, over the counter in semi-private spaces in roughly three to five minute segments. Generally, this service has been delivered free of charge and it has formed a nearly invisible component of “core” business. Only invisible because it was free,…
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Statin Therapy – A new Low?
I have a 90 year-old female patient who is physically OK but starting to face the reality of dementia. She showed me the “lovely” invitation from her GP to enroll in the StaREE trial. StaREE is the acronym (don’t you love them!) for “Statins in Reducing Events in the Elderly”. A quaint idea, brilliantly conceived…
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Integrative Medicine: OMNS – The Need for Iodine Supplementation
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, June 12, 2017 The Need for Iodine Supplementation (OMNS, June 12, 2017) Feeling tired, having low energy or depression, gaining weight, memory problems, having dry skin, dry mouth or immune system issues? There is good chance your body needs iodine supplementation. Why iodine? Because this essential to human health element has…
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Pathology Services – Better Options for Community Pharmacy
The recent pressure applied by the AMA and the RACGP in respect of the Sigma / Sonic Healthcare Project, to offer paid pathology tests through the AMCAL franchise must be bordering on unacceptable conduct under the Australian Trade Practices Act. The medical profession is looking and acting more like a cartel in every respect and…
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Friendships can lead to good working relationships
Two friends were walking through a dense jungle. Knowing the dangers, they promised to stick together whatever happened. Suddenly a tiger appeared in the bushes. One friend immediately turned and ran, climbing up a tree and leaving his companion behind. He watched as his friend dropped to the ground and played dead. The tiger…
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Setting up an Open Innovation Program
Let’s face it – community pharmacy is in a knowledge transfer bind. It can no longer function under its own self reliance. It is bogged down because pharmacy leadership has developed hardening of the arteries and finds itself immobile inside each of its traditional infrastructures. The primary cause is twofold: * Information is being collated…
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OMNS News Service – Vitamin C and Sepsis
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, May 24, 2017 Vitamin C and Sepsis: The genie is now out of the bottle The enormous effectiveness of vitamin C in helping to resolve any of a wide variety of infections comes as no surprise to anyone who has made at least a minimal effort to study the large body of…
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Are we obsessed with numbers and forget who our patients are?
We live in a world where patience is a diminishing commodity. We want each day to wrap up like an episode of a TV show. We want to end all arguments by having the perfectly worded Facebook post. We want to work out the solutions to our problems, meet our soul-mate, elect the perfect candidate,…
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MEDICAL CURIOSITY: Where Has It Gone?
What happened to curiosity as it pertains to searching for causes of poor health? Maybe it’s payback. Lack of curiosity leads to the next step: complacency. Some doctors and patients have retained their curiosity, but many more have not. Over the last several decades, there has been a cultural shift in attitudes about healthful living…
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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…