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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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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 industry is a symptom of a…
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Your Dispensary – Core Business Could Evaporate
This year will be “crunch time” for most community pharmacies who have not yet decided on adopting disruptive technologies as a means of improving the “bottom line” of their pharmacy. I am thinking specifically the decision to purchase a robotic dispensing machine. It is almost a “no-brainer”. Robotic dispensing equipment has been available to pharmacy…
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Meditating on our health
Editor’s Note: It is refreshing to see information published by an authoritative Australian source that promotes non-drug therapy, or therapies that will support other forms of treatment, and be supported by evidence. As pharmacists we are often aware of various forms of treatments (including meditation) that are supported by evidence, but we still have to…
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Digital Nomads – Providing Clinical Services That Appeal
There’s a growing opportunity that is emerging among professionals who are adapting to a nomadic lifestyle. You don’t have to be “grey” to qualify for the lifestyle – and it can accommodate any age. It does however, require a full confidence in your knowledge base and have some tech-savvy skills in addition. Welcome to the…
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A Pharmacy Clinical Service Model – Innovating and Adapting from Others
Recently, in my capacity as a management consultant, I was asked to review some policies for a security company I had an association with, in a health capacity. Security guards, because of their continual work during the night and early mornings, suffer from health problems related to their interrupted circadian rhythms. The first casualty is…
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Make the Right Turn at the Next Crossroads
In the latest edition of Drug Topics, senior pharmacist Truman Lastinger describes a scenario for what he describes as Retail Pharmacy in the US. Because US pharmacy is a bit ahead in evolution than Australian pharmacy his comments are very relevant for today’s Australian pharmacy, the practice of which has split into three components- Retail…
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A Happy Workplace is also a Profitable Business Environment
A happy workplace is one that is characterised by good leadership generating good policies, forward planning and capital recruitment, with all of that activity interpreted by good managers. Note that I use the word “interpret” for managers whose primary function is simply to make good decisions. Words can sometimes be misleading and if they ambiguously…
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Disruptive Technology for Patient Engagement
New technologies pave the way for innovation to drive business practices in pharmacy. Unfortunately, innovation appears to be a slow process in Australian pharmacies and as a result there is a pent-up frustration among young pharmacists that nothing is happening. On the other side of the coin there seems to be a majority of pharmacy…
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Blue Ocean Strategy – It Fits a New Pharmacy Model
Pharmacists have described the community pharmacy environment for as long as I can remember, as being restrictive and confined, no matter the physical size of the pharmacy. They call it the “four-wall syndrome” and it is, in fact, a form of depression. The one thing that characterises the profession overall is that there is little…