Welcome to i2P (Information to Pharmacists) E- Magazine, dated Monday 8 February, 2016.
This week we look at the problems of community pharmacy in more visualised terms, and the first two articles attempt to do just that.
Blue Ocean Strategy is a very simple strategy.
You compete only in the Blue Ocean where bodies per metre cubed are lower in number and they are there because they are attracted to a form of “bait” that you have invented so that it is “different” to the alternative – the Red Ocean that is littered with bodies per metre cubed and coloured red because of the constant blood-letting that occurs in what is termed “competition”.
The theory is that if you play in the Blue Ocean by only using concepts that your have innovated or invented and have changed the rules of engagement by dealing only with consumers that are swimming in the Blue Ocean looking for a fresh and satisfying service offering, then you have an uncluttered opportunity to deal with this type of market unhindered, simply because your normal competitors do not understand the market you are swimming in and one you are thriving in.
By the time your competitors have caught up with your thinking and begun the expensive process of converting your pristine Blue Ocean to a muddy Red Ocean, you will have evolved and developed to a new level by still swimming in the Blue Ocean, but at a deeper level.
Blue Ocean strategies can be applied to any David and Goliath struggle and we have published an analogy to pharmacy using the Iraqi Youth Orchestra’s evolution and development as an example.
A heart-warming story surrounding the formation of an orchestra comprised of so many problems – cultural (because of all the nationalities involved), infrastructure breakdown (because of continual war), education and training delivery (because of movement restriction and lack of trained teachers), and a lack of money (but some donations and a government grant), were just some of the major factors that could have caused failure.
But success was the outcome.
Substitute “youth orchestra” with “pharmacy” in the story and you should get a totally new vision for your professional life.
Read: Blue Ocean Strategy – It Fits a New Pharmacy Model
Connected to the Blue Ocean strategy we follow on with understanding the shape and size of a pharmacy problem and we find that the object called a frustum is the best way to visualise a problem in terms of shape, size and position.
By connecting the dots in strategy and visualisation for an entire problem you are more easily moved to a solution.
Read: Define Your Pharmacy Frustum
Barry Urquhart assists in connecting some of the dots with his series of essays on management and marketing.
While Barry is looking at industry generally, his concepts and ideas will also fit a model of pharmacy if you go looking for the comparisons.
Read: Marketing Focus 1. The Year of the Entrepreneur 2. A Black Star 3. Pursuit of Business 4. Digital-Era Local Marketing 5. The Digital Divide
New models of collaboration are being explored by pharmacists and GP’s.
Some have merit and some do not.
Care will need to be taken if there are third parties attached to a potential solution, particularly if it is a drug company.
Gerald Quigley makes comment on a new weight loss product in Ethical weight loss?
Make up your own mind on this program style.
Judy Wilyman is back and documents the detail of an unprecedented and organised attack on her thesis.
Pharmacists need to be aware of the manipulative forces that surround areas of health, including pharmacy and vaccinations and shine a light on unethical practice as it arises.
Read: An Orchestrated Attack on a PhD Thesis
Vitamin C is one of the safest nutrients on the planet with major health benefits.
The molecule resembles glucose in its structure.
In fact it is manufactured from glucose and it is thought that the body mistakenly takes in Vitamin C instead of glucose in certain biological transactions.
Those transactions often occur at high dose levels.
Orthomolecular.org explains these transactions and their potential to displace some mainstream medicines more cheaply and efficiently.
Yet we have a medical skeptic currently lodging complaints against its use, particularly high doses.
The safety profile of Vitamin C is 100 percent safe. Even the hyothesis that high doses might precipitate kidney stones has been proven incorrect.
Why then is there a need to pursue a cheap and very safe substance that has a potential to reduce doses of chemotherapy substances that have a far lesser safety profile?
Also, it is one of the few substances that can treat heavy-metal poisoning.
Nobody has ever died from high dose Vitamin C or even been damaged through its use,so where is the basis for a crusade against it?
Read: How Doctors Use Vitamin C Against Lead Poisoning
And we finish up this weeks’offering with some media releases from some of pharmacy’s leader organisations.
PSA – PSA Media Releases – 1. Naloxone Pharmacist Guide 2. Tasmanian Vaccination Soars
ASMI – ASMI Media Releases – 1. Support For OTC Codeine Measures
NPS – NPS Media Release – February Australian Prescriber Articles
We hope you enjoy this weeks’ read.
Neil Johnston
Editor
i2P E-Magazine
Monday, 8 February, 2016