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A Minor Ailment Scheme – Streamlining What We Have Always Done
The PGA has submitted a proposal to government for the provision of a minor ailments program. While pharmacists have provided this type of service for many years, a more streamlined and integrated version might well serve the community better. The Australian Self Medication Industry (ASMI) commissioned a study in 2008 and found that 15 percent…
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Balanced view in professional opinions
The new-look Australian Journal of Pharmacy heralds a interesting direction in medical marketing and related advertising. The front cover and inside two pages tell us that Panadol Osteo is “Australia’s No 1 pain reliever brand for osteoarthritis”. Pharmacists insist on “evidence” when discussions emerge on other options for arthritic pain, and accordingly, may I supply…
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The Gap Report & Its Opportunities
Self Care has been a platform of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia for as long as I can remember. It is good that it is at last receiving government recognition, particularly as it so easily fits a platform of patients taking responsibility for their own care and that the education required for patients is a…
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Reinventing the Condom with a range of useful benefits
A group of scientists in Australia is developing a series of condoms which it claims could feel even better than wearing nothing at all. A team at the University of Wollongong (UOW) have been experimenting with hydrogel materials, which they say have a range of benefits over latex. Ultra-strong and flexible, hydrogels have been around…
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The Start-Point for Community Pharmacy Clinical Services – The Walgreen Model
There is no doubt that when an individual undertakes fitness training they measurably do better if they have a fitness coach supervising the process. And it works even better if there is some form of reward attached when goals are reached. Jenny Craig weight loss programs would not have the success they have had without…
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Supermarket Comparisons – are they individually different?
i2P began reporting on Aldi well before they opened their first store in Australia and it has always been favourable. They are renowned for their constant attention to detail in designing their internal systems and their continual auditing of costs. They also tend to put cost savings back into their retail prices. And by putting…
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Organise online to succeed offline – the connected world
Business online architecture is driven by the culture of cloud computing adapted for use with mobile technologies. And it creates a “constantly connected” environment that we either master to serve us in three major themes, or we become slaves to our own electronic environment. Those themes are effectiveness and productivity, balance and awareness, growth and…
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Zinc and kidney stones
New research on kidney stone formation reveals that zinc levels might contribute to an increased risk. Research from the University of California, published in PLOS ONE opens a new perspective into the cause of urinary stones and related diseases. We all have patients who are prone to kidney stones. Once you’ve developed a first stone,…
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Replacing the PBS market for a sustainable Income – home health technology, self care and primary health care
PBS is almost a lost cause. The amount of time that is invested in this product compared to the return on invested capital, is now not viable. This will not improve as health minister, Sussan Ley, has stated she is “not interested in pharmacists’ pay packets, only lower costs for consumers”. A directional change is…
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The truth about herbal ‘medicines’
Herbal medicines have been defined as “an unknown dose of an ill-defined drug, of unknown effectiveness and unknown safety“. Now under the spotlight by regulators in the US, the UK, Canada and here in Australia, do they work, are they safe and do you even get what you pay for? More than 60% of Australians…