-
Pharmacy in the Home (PIH) – Designing Your Future Direction
This is a project that has finally gained traction with community pharmacy leadership. As a reference exercise, i2P plans to condense its knowledge of PIH projects and deliver this content to readers, spread over a number of articles. The necessity of the project is self evident when you consider age demographics of the Australian population.…
-
A National Community Pharmacy Minor Ailment Program – Scotland is there, Australia is where?
The UK has long been a beacon, lighting the way for pharmacists to be fully integrated into the healthcare team through clinical expertise. Scotland in particular has been very successful in gaining political support and recognition for pharmacy expertise, actual and potential. Community pharmacy in the UK and Australia has long been a first resource…
-
Getting Involved!
How often are you asked for an opinion as to whether a particular test is worthwhile. Instances here might be vitamin D or more commonly, a coronary artery calcium score (CACS). The first cardiologist who used this, and openly discussed the benefits, was high-profile Dr. Ross Walker in Sydney. His colleagues really gave it to…
-
Pharmacy Anywhere – A System for Pharmacy Enhanced Primary Care
It is now well over 20 years ago that i2P proposed that community pharmacy develop a system we titled “Pharmacy-In-The-Home”. The reason for such a proposal was because of the predictions for an ageing population demographic, expanding and potentially reaching a figure of 28 percent of total population. We argued that an ageing population would…
-
Dealing with distraction
Our digital lives might be making us more distracted, distant and drained, according to to research presented by the American Psychological Association. For example, even minor phone use during a meal with friends is enough to make diners feel distracted, and it reduces their enjoyment of the experience. Even people with their phones easily accessible…
-
Pharmacist Prescribing – It’s Time!
Australian pharmacists lag behind their counterparts in other western economies (particularly the UK) in their scope of practice involving independent prescribing. In Scotland, for example, around 40 percent of pharmacists are registered as prescribers. The problem in Australia is a cultural one. Firstly, there has been disharmony within the pharmacy profession through disruption of the…
-
Marketing Focus – 1. THE “HAWTHORNE EFFECT” LIVES ON. 2. SERIOUSLY, FUN 3. TRUE TO YOURSELF 4. INITIATING, NOT MANAGING CHANGE 5. GUARANTEED – REALLY?
1. THE “HAWTHORNE EFFECT” LIVES ON. It warrants attention, involvement and refinement by all the lessons learnt have been profound, but often unexpected. During the 1950s academics from University of Chicago undertook a study of employee performance at The Western Electric plant in the locality of Hawthorne, Illinois, United States of America. They were studying,…
-
Bypass the AMA if Collaborative Ventures are Required for Unmet Patient Needs
It is becoming apparent that the medical profession leadership has clearly “lost the plot” in direction-setting, patient engagement and collaborative health when you analyse statements attributable to AMA leaders at their recent national conference. Cries that GP’s feel “under assault” through pharmacists encroaching into “their” territory of vaccinations and sick certificates, with no mention of better…
-
A Sensible Community Pharmacy & GP Collaboration
In a win for commonsense, a professional collaboration between community pharmacists and local GP’s coupled with a simultaneous a solution for a major public health problem, a mutually respectful system has been piloted in the County of Staffordshire in the UK. And patients involved in the pilot study have documented high levels of satisfaction, simply because…
-
Can we make a difference on mental health?
It’s Men’s Health Week, and I’m sure that you are aware of the shocking statistics surrounding depression in men. The reasons why men seem to be so vulnerable are debated constantly, but statistics don’t lie. We pharmacists are in a rather privileged position to help. Or, on the other hand, we can decide not to…