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Blockchain Connects with Gold and Silver
Governments around the globe are starting to withdraw large denomination banknotes. It seems that this form of currency is used by the people who want to hide their income. On the other hand governments are finding that existing (old technology) digital payments are easy to track and can be brought into the taxable domain. India…
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Ransomeware Attacks Reported in Australia & Globally
A recent alert from an Internet security organisation: “For a few hours, bad news is spreading quickly about a massive wave of infections by a new ransomware called “WannaCry”. We are still trying to collect more information about it. It seems that 45K attacks were detected from 74 differents countries: Big targets have been telecom…
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Robots + AI = Rx Replacement?
In an earlier article (Avatars May Take Over Patient Communications – Where to from there?, I discussed the possibility of pharmacists being able to be displaced, especially in the area of drug information delivery to patients. Big Pharma has always wanted to be able to advertise directly to patients because they know the power of…
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Marketing Focus – Essays on Management and Marketing Issues
INTRODUCTION Time could be against you. Business owners and managers who have addressed the consequences of GFC (Global Financial Crisis) and the mining sector downturn with cost cutting and operations refinements may contend that they are now well placed for an economic upturn. It could be a long wait. So many indeterminable variables are, and…
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Avatars May Take Over Patient Communications – Where to from there?
Global Pharma’s are known to be funding the development of systems to deal directly with patients. These systems will involve the use of Artificial Intelligence and the use of Volumetric 3D immersion technologies. The former will allow delivery of technical information through well modulated voice transmission, while the latter will provide an “avatar” transformed from…
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Community Pharmacy or Commodity Pharmacy?
Are pharmacies becoming a glamorised outlet for widely advertised complementary and over-the-counter medicines that require no skill to “pack and wrap”? Sales based on an advertisement in weekend papers (all heavily discounted of course!) and sales of nutritionals into China are driving our professionalism underground. Pharmacists who have never entertained supporting a particular complementary medicine…
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The Move Towards PBS Privatisation – It is a Possibility and Could Provide a Wrecking Ball for Community Pharmacy
I am always suspicious of government motivation when they move the chess pieces around the board without an appropriate explanation. Dating back to the start of the Coalition taking power there was discussion that highlighted the poorly defined role private health insurance plays in the funding and delivery of Australian health care, and how government…
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Alliance Boots will Spearhead a Global Onslaught with our Goverment’s Assistance
The news broke last week that Alliance Boots was making plans to enter the Australian market. This appears to be another step in the global concentration of community pharmacy, which Australian pharmacy has been able to withstand. Until now. The original Boots pharmacy group, a UK-based company, was recently taken over by the largest retail…
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Health Disruption to Health Care – by Health Funds and Major Investors
Health funds are beginning to look at disruptive or innovative acquisitions that will help in their objective of converting as many health systems as possible to become part of a managed care consortium. While the process promises lower health costs, low health insurance premiums and a five star system for patients to rate their health…
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Get Up Advert banned
As government becomes secretive and undemocratic and mainstream media aids the process, it generates a climate that allows for the formation of equal and opposite alternatives, and to mobilise affected communities. These manifest as a range of “whistle-blowers”, online polls and surveys, blogs published over the Internet and news aggregators that attempt to provide a…