If you know me then you know that I’m a proponent of expanding the role of pharmacy technicians in the acute care pharmacy setting. I believe pharmacy technicians are underutilized and are capable of doing many functions within a healthcare system to improve patient care, both directly and indirectly, as well as free up pharmacists to do the things they should be doing.
Month: January 2012
Quick hit: Confusion over industry terminology
I had an interesting conversation with a colleague earlier today. We were talking about a feature set for a new product that we have due out later this year. Some of the language being used to describe a certain feature, and how it would be used, was causing quite a bit of confusion for me. … Read more
Robots better than human surgeons? Maybe…maybe not.
MedPage Today: “Robotic prostatectomy has spread all over the U.S., despite the fact that we don’t have clinical trial data to show that it’s better than traditional open surgery. The company marketing the robotic surgery systems boasts on its website about news coverage from ABC’s “Good Morning America” and from CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta. And, … Read more
Cool Pharmacy Technology–KitCheck
Anyone that’s ever worked in an acute care pharmacy knows about med trays, code trays, transport boxes, intubation kits, etc. They’re a bit of a headache because all the medications inside each kit has to be manually manipulated and tracked, including the dreaded lot number and expiration date of everything in the trays.
Well, KitCheck is a system that uses RFID technology to track the medications found in all those different med trays, code boxes, etc. I thought it was pretty cool. It’s a great idea. Wish I would have thought of it.
Telemedicine in rural areas [video]
Seems like a reasonable platform for clinical pharmacy services.
Eliminating Barriers To Care Using Technology [Video]
Interesting video that talks about the use of telepharmacy for Medication Therapy Management (MTM).
Quick Hit: The decision to be indecisive
Have you ever had something on your plate that just won’t go away because someone is “thinking about it†or trying to “justify itâ€? Sure you have. I know I have. I always wonder what the person is thinking about when it takes months to make a decision. Doesn’t the information you have to make … Read more
Telepharmacy, it’s not just a made-up word
The definition of telemedicine is “the use of telecommunication technologies to deliver medical information and services to locations at a distance from the care giver or educator.†So what’s the definition of telepharmacy? I’m not quite sure, but replacing “medical information and services†with “pharmacy information and services†seems reasonable.
I saw a lot of interest in telepharmacy at the ASHP Midyear meeting in New Orleans last month. Based on all the activity one might think it’s a new concept. Au contraire, telemedicine has been around since at least the 1960’s, when NASA built this technology into spacecraft and astronauts’ suits to monitor physiological parameters. Crud, one could argue that the concept has been around much longer than that (see image to the right from April 1924).
Cool Pharmacy Technology – ZiuZ Inspector
The ZiuZ Inspector – or is it the Foresee Inspector – is an interesting system designed to inspect the contents of unit dose packages produced by high-speed unit dose packagers. I don’t think there’s much need for this in most acute care pharmacy operations here in the U.S. because we don’t unit dose enough tablets and/or capsules to make it worth while, but I do think it may have potential in some long-term care pharmacies using a central dispensing model. Who knows, that’s not really my area of expertise.
Don’t confuse Durezol and Durasal (S.A.L.A.D.)
PharmQD: “FDA is alerting pharmacists and other health care professionals of potential injury due to confusion between the FDA-approved eye medicine Durezol (difluprednate ophthalmic emulsion) 0.05% and the unapproved prescription topical wart remover Durasal (salicylic acid) 26%. There has been one report of serious injury when a pharmacist mistakenly gave an eye surgery patient Durasal, … Read more