Welcome to the current edition of i2P (Information to Pharmacists) E-Magazine dated Monday 28 May 2018.
While the major event since our last edition was the staging of the Harry-Meghan Royal Wedding it is universally acknowledged that the sermon delivered by the eccentric Episcopalian Bishop Michael Curry, really stole the show.
It could be said that while he was speaking to Harry and Meghan, his message really went right past them and connected to the wider world with the simple theme that the power of love is a powerful unifying force in its broadest sense.
The unexpectedness of the delivery style, a universal theme and the presentation from a Royal Wedding stage virtually ensured his delivery to a massively connected world.
He has become a social media sensation!
And the passion of Michael Curry guaranteed that his message would be heard and understood.
He certainly intrigued me when he joined business and government within his framework of universal love.
When you see the fallout from the Australian Royal Commission into the Banking Industry, it is obvious that bank leaders need a deep injection of compassion given the damage they have unnecessarily caused to a range of decent customers.
So I began to apply that thinking to the rather antagonistic messages that are deployed by the medical profession towards pharmacy (and other health modalities), through various media channels.
Are we pharmacists really that unloved or is the medical profession isolated in a vacuum and trying to seek attention for its own plight?
Certainly as a profession, the medical profession claims a leadership role for all of health.
But is it really performing as a leadership group?
Is it earning the respect that is a first requirement of leadership?
It is continually utilising an elitist and aggressive mode towards those health modalities it should be collaborating with.
The Medical Profession ought to be making space for all health modalities, adopting the best practice features from all of them, and in turn generating a respectful and universal collaborative framework.
Patients are defecting daily from the medical profession to these modalities – even to pharmacies for flu vaccinations.
And all we get for a service improvement is criticism about the timing of vaccinations and “spin” about the lost opportunities that may arise from a medical patient evaluation at the time of administering a vaccine.
Patients simply want a choice in their health care.
They are vulnerable if they are in ill health and appreciate a compassionate service delivery.
They simply “walk” to where their needs are best serviced.
Meanwhile, the Medical Profession finds itself in a leadership crisis and continually isolates itself from the entire range of health modalities.
Their own model of health is a flawed one and they seem unwilling to restructure and provide a more acceptable version.
They seem to be unable to deal with their crisis and will not until they are able to “own” the problem of being “the problem” itself.
As that famous Beatle’s song says “All you need is love”, particularly when conducted in the style of Michael Curry.
Our lead article for this edition follows along a similar theme.
“Life wasn’t meant to be easy” and while many people can align with those thoughts it seems that most people do currently seem to align with that message more than usual.
In the global picture of health we are told daily of new developments promising brilliant solutions for health problems.
As health professionals, pharmacists are willing to engage with new initiatives but we always seem to attract some sort of a skirmish that results in a delay through some form of political obstruction.
But perhaps this is a global and universal problem being experienced by many people from all walks of life.
And maybe that was why they resonated with the message delivered by Bishop Michael Curry at the recent Royal Wedding.
Read: The Medical Profession Leadership – Is Their Pharmacy Rant a cry for a Direction?
Gerald Quigley is back with an article that analyses and refutes negative comment generated by the Medical Profession against pharmacy.
Any business that is not reinventing itself and continually refining its practices is a business that will not develop and eventually become redundant.
Community pharmacy is a business that undergoes change over a cycle of approximately 40 years – the first 20 years in reinventing itself and generating an ascendant change and the last part of its cycle refining and improving its systems.
It is in the latter stage of the second half of the cycle when pharmacy leadership becomes complacent and “falls asleep at the wheel”, becoming descendant.
Then the cycle begins again with pharmacy leaders seeking direction and reinvigorating its culture.
The medical profession has always employed negative tactics to disrupt the pharmacy cycle (currently in ascending mode) to try and divert competition in a direction it can control.
Pharmacy leadership can lengthen the pharmacy cycle by continually developing pharmacy culture that fosters creativity and innovation.
That will put the medical profession back in its own box where it will have to play “catch up” or be left behind.
Only then will the medical profession become “collaborative”.
Read: Is Health a Team Game Anymore?
“The science is settled”.
So say the people who promote vaccination as some form of extreme medical ideology.
“Scientism is settled” is a more accurate description of the manipulation of the science surrounding vaccines – and it is certainly “unsettling” to hear the dishonest claims that blare out in all forms of media.
“First do no harm” is the concept that underwrites all medical practice.
Australian vaccination policy is so poor and damaging, that it beggars belief that legislators can be so close to manufacturer sales objectives as to guarantee them a market through coercive legislation that involves simultaneous removal of patient choice.
The evidence supporting vaccine policy failure and its lack of safety is becoming so voluminous that it will eventually destroy the unnatural power alliance that desperately tries to hold it all together.
Read: The Safe Vaccination Debate – 1. Jon Rappoport: The big vaccine-autism lie 2. Robert Kennedy’s World Mercury Project:The Varicella Vaccine, Skyrocketing Shingles and CDC Chicanery 3. Dr Judy Wilyman: Newsletter # 198 The Censorship of the Vaccination Debate in Australia
WHO has made a statement saying that cannabis should be decriminalised world-wide because existing laws cause health discrimination.
In Australia, patients are being actively discriminated against as police are instructed to enforce existing laws and close down “illegal” supplies, leaving critically ill people with no workable solutions for their health problems.
Flawed health policy generates bad laws and lowered community respect for policy and laws.
Yet again, Pharmacy is in a position to provide solutions very simply and simultaneously create opportunity for the profession to treat chronically ill patients efficiently and economically.
Pharmacy leaders need to be proactive in the regulatory area because other health professionals are actively competing to lock pharmacy out of any opportunity whatsoever.
Potential for pharmacists is found in the compounding of THC and CBD in specific ratios to match the best result for patients with chronic illness.
Further pharmacist potential also lies in using cannabinoids in harm minimisation programs involving opioid dependencies and as an adjunct for the management of pain.
Pharmacists also need to be active and have a voice in the regulation of these substances ensuring that maximum patient access can be obtained through the application of Schedule 3 of the Poison’s Act.
Read: Understanding Medical Cannabis- 1. CannabisTech: Cannabis Testing For Potency And Terpenes 2. Ganjapreneur: Colorado Cannabis Sales in March Highest Yet in 2018 . Neutraceuticals World: American Botanical Council: Schedule 1 Status of Cannabis ‘Outdated and Inappropriate’
Barry Urquhart is back with an article illustrating how “bricks and mortar” businesses are regaining markets thought totally lost to online competitors.
Even Amazon is expanding its “bricks and mortar” presence.
Perhaps this satisfies a human need to feel genuinely connected and be able to communicate with a real person.
The trick for pharmacy is to design its business model so that it becomes a trusted online information source and offers a modified catalogue of goods and services that can genuinely compete with other online businesses.
Always ensuring that the local catchment is well serviced and promoted to with the “human” bricks and mortar presence.
Read: Marketing Focus – Let’s Get Physical
Harvey Mackay is back with an article describing the skills required to communicate in a business setting in a positive manner.
Telephone calls and their derivatives, (text messages,) particularly those from a mobile phone, have become a primary communications system.
Yet many people do not know how to use the system respectfully and do not practice recognised forms of etiquette when using the telephone.
In business communication it is necessary to quickly communicate politeness, articulate language and consideration for the recipient, because any telephone call may be considered an interruption of that recipient’s day.
Those who are respectful will, more often than not, be a welcome distraction for the recipient.
Those who are not may find resistance and a corresponding loss in business activity.
Read: Make The Call To Improve Phone Skills
We conclude this edition of i2P with a range of media releases from pharmacy leadership organisations:
PSA – PSA Media Releases – Essential pharmacy resource APF24 launched
ASMI – ASMI Media Releases – ASMI urges Federal Senators to Support Complementary Medicine Reforms
NPS – NPS Media Releases – Health Report Confirms: Consumers Want Control of Their own Health Data
We hope you enjoy the content of our current edition and you are invited to be part of the debate stimulated by any of our content by entering your comment in the panel provided at the foot of each article.
Neil Johnston,
Editor i2P E-Magazine
Monday 28 May 2018