The ASHP Midyear 2011 Conference basically concluded for me today. I’d like to evaluate the meeting, but honestly have very little to say. This was my first year working in the role of Product Manager for a vendor, and not acting as an “attendee”, i.e I was here for work. The conference took on an entirely different feel this year as I wasn’t able to attend any of the sessions. For the most part I was stuck in the company booth playing the role of demo jockey. It was a strange feeling to say the least. I tried to follow the Twitter stream (#ashpmidyear) a bit, but finally relented and gave up.

I ran into a few old friends that came by the booth to mock me. It was good to talk pharmacy for a while here and there, but it was far and few between. I would have liked to seen and talked with more colleagues and friends, but it wasn’t meant to be. I wonder why I didn’t see more familiar faces in the exhibit area? Hmm.

Anyway, I found a few minutes here and there to wonder the exhibitor area and check things out, but nothing like previous years. The exhibitor area used to be one of my favorite places to be as it’s typically full of all kinds of cool automation, technology and new ideas.

Some vendors were worth visiting such as Omnicell, CareFusion, Baxa and Healthcare Logistics (HCL). Those were really the only booths I took time to peak at in any detail. Both Omnicell and Carefusion are doing some cool new stuff. Looks like both companies see a change in the future and are making moves to get ahead of the curve. Baxa had some great IV room stuff. Simply put, they’re kicking the crap out of everyone else. And HCL always has a great booth with a cool design. This year was no exception; Scottish theme complete with castle, kilts and Loch Ness Monster. Sorry, but I didn’t think to snap a picture.

I was thrown out of a vendor booth for the first time ever. That was pretty exciting. Apparently they didn’t think another vendor should be snooping around. The most interesting thing about the whole ordeal is that this particular vendor and my company aren’t doing any of the same things. Weird.

One of the most innovative things I’ve seen in a long time had to be IV Check by SEA Medical Systems. I’ll blog more about that later. Needless to say, I was impressed.

On the upside, New Orleans was an interesting place to visit. The city certainly has its share of night life activity and there’s no shortage of good food. The highlight of my entire visit, however, had to be my trip to the Superdome to watch the Saints take on the Lions on Sunday Night Football. What a great experience.

Dan Garza, assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Stanford School of Medicine, and his team recently completed a study of the mouth guards using crash-test dummies, and  plan to publish the data soon…

Garza believes that the mouth guards may turn out to be more accurate than helmets because they don’t shift as much during impact. They also read forces inside the skull more closely, and they’re cheaper…. The Stanford studies will collect data from the mouthpieces as well as video of plays, when available, and clinical information about players’ injuries. 

Seriously, how cool is that. Leave it to Stanford – yes that wonderful school just up the road from where I live – to make science fun. How can you go wrong applying science to football?

You can read more about impact sensing mouthguards at the X2IMPACT website here.

I stumbled across a website called High Performance Pharmacy. The site is “based on a landmark study by The Health Systems Pharmacy Executive Alliance. The study identifies proven best practices for achieving high performance across 8 dimensions of hospital pharmacy practice. Read on to learn how your pharmacy can become a High Performance Pharmacy — delivering the best clinical outcomes for your patients and financial results for your entire health system.” It appears to be tied to McKesson somehow, which makes me look at the information with a bit of skepticism. With that said, I found the information on the site valuable. There’s a lot of material there so make sure you have a little time on your hands before you get started.

I spent a little time this week looking at unit-dose distribution systems. Most of the articles I read on the topic kept referring back to Chapter 10 Unit-Dose Distribution Systems in Making Health Care Safer: A Critical Analysis of Patient Safety Practices from AHRQ. The information on the site is good, but a little out of date. Actually I should say the information is old (2001), however it’s still applicable. How disappointing is that.

I’ve been rummaging around in the Chrome Web Store recently. The web store is growing rapidly and there are a lot of great applications to be found. Unfortunately, like all online app stores, there’s also a lot of garbage out there. Anyway, as I was trying out various applications this week I came across an interesting service called Diigo. Diigo is another in a long line of web-based applications designed to capture notes, bookmarks, images, etc, and help you organize and share that information in a somewhat coherent manner. It reminds me of Springpad. I’ll let you know more as I figure out how to use Diigo better.

Lifehacker: “The iPad is easily the best tablet you can buy right now, but that’s changing. Google showed off their upcoming tablets today, casting a spotlight on the iPad’s shortcomings.” – The Android OS vs. iOS war is as brutal as ever. Just read the comments following the post and you’ll see what I mean. Honestly I don’t think either the iOS or Android OS is the best platform for a tablet. The best possible platform for a tablet is one that seamlessly works across all devices and applications. Believe it or not, Microsoft currently has the best opportunity to make it happen. Notice I said opportunity, not chance. Don’t count Google out of the equation as they continue to dabble in just about everything these days.

Annals of Internal Medicine (Ann Intern Med. 2011;154:174-180): “High-Value, Cost-Conscious Health Care: Concepts for Clinicians to Evaluate the Benefits, Harms, and Costs of Medical Interventions – Conclusion: To preserve quality, we recommend careful assessment of both benefits and costs of interventions rather than focusing on either aspect alone. Evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions should include an analysis of both benefits and harms and use the best available evidence for each.” – This is an important distinction as I think many of us fail to see the long term implications of many of our decisions in healthcare. While this article is specifically addressing the clinical side of healthcare it could just as easily be applied to other areas as well such as automation, technology, safety, etc.

Annals of Internal Medicine (Ann Interm Med. 2011:154;160-167): “For each of 6 diagnoses at admission—acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, acute stroke, gastrointestinal hemorrhage, hip fracture, and pneumonia—patient admission to higher-spending hospitals was associated with lower risk-adjusted inpatient mortality. Predicted inpatient deaths would increase by 1831 if all patients admitted with acute myocardial infarction were cared for in hospitals in the lowest quintile of spending rather than the highest. The association between hospital spending and inpatient mortality did not vary by region or hospital size.” – Hmm, and people think money doesn’t matter. So find the hospitals that like to spend money and avoid the ones that are trying to cut costs; easier said than done.

Agile Product and Project Management Blog: “Denial is incredibly dangerous because it enables a person to postpone facing reality and therefore delays the process of either identifying a different, feasible solution or recognizing that a company is currently on a fundamentally bad course and must change course. If you’re driving a car towards the edge of the Grand Canyon but are acknowledging the data provided by your eyes, you’ll realize you must stop or turn. But if you deny the data your eyes are providing, you can drive straight over the edge of the cliff to your doom.” – More than half the people I’ve worked with would simply drive off the edge and deny that it was a problem all the way to the bottom. Unless you talking about the people I’ve worked with in healthcare, then it’s more like 90%.

EMR Daily News: “Dr. David Blumenthal announced his resignation as health IT coordinator and will return to Harvard University where he had previously served as a professor.” – Now for the litmus test: will it make any difference? Probably not. People leave jobs everyday and the sun continues to come up.

ESPN: “The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics will fire three employees and suspend two others after an investigation confirmed they inappropriately breached the electronic medical records of hospitalized football players.” – Can you say HIPAA? When will people learn? Sorry, that was a rhetorical question. People will never learn.

Speaking of HIPAA, last weekend while I was at a cheer competition with my girls their was a gentleman in front of me was using an iPad. I’m always curious to see what people do with their tablets so I looked at the screen. He was flipping through a patient’s medical record looking for something. When he found what he was looking for he wrote out a prescription. I am all about mobile technology and think it’s clearly the future of medicine, but I could see everything – the patient’s name, age, conditions, and medication list. The guy made no attempt to shield the screen from prying eyes. I assume he was a physician handling a call, but what a breech in patient privacy. Healthcare systems will never be able to secure medical records when healthcare professionals behave in such a reckless manner.

There’s an interesting editorial in the February 2, 2011 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. The editorial has a lot to say, but in a nutshell it says that academic medical centers are going to have trouble with the idea of an accountable care organization (ACO) model secondary to costs and reimbursement structure. “The effectiveness of ACOs will depend on the centralization of the administration of medical care, whereas clinical departments in medical schools operate on a decentralized model.” Looks like it’s time for a change.

Does anyone else think the ACO model is simply a rehash of the old “managed care” model that morphed into an “HMO” model? Feels strangely familiar to me.

For those of you that have had your head in the sand for the last couple of weeks, The Super Bowl is this weekend. We’ve got the Pittsburgh Steelers vs the Green Bay Packers. My wife is a huge Steelers fan so obviously the Steelers are the official pick of the Fahrni household. However, if I had to put money on the game I’d take the Packers. This should be a good one.

Have a great weekend everyone.

- True Grit was #1 at the box office last weekend. My family and I saw it a couple of weeks back. Not a great movie, but worth seeing. Let’s just say it’s worth the cost of a DVD rental. This weekend it’s all about The Green Hornet.

- I spent some time on the east coast this week; work related. It was cold and snowy pretty much the entire time I was there. Went through Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. Of those places Virginia was my favorite. While I was in Virginia I had an opportunity to visit the University of Virginia Medical Center inpatient pharmacy. They’re doing some really cool stuff. I’m looking forward to a return visit a year from now to see what they’ve accomplished. I’d tell you my least favorite place during the trip, but that’s probably not Kosher.

- There was an interesting article recently in the Archives of Internal Medicine that discussed the effect of complex medication regimens on patient compliance. The article specifically looked at patients that were prescribed a statin or an angiotensin- converting enzyme inhibitor or renin angiotensin receptor blocker between June 1, 2006, and May 30, 2007. In other words they looked at patients with commonly prescribed medications. That’s a good thing. Reasons for lower compliance were discussed, and the article concluded that “Medication use and prescription filling for patients with cardiovascular disease is complex, and strategies to reduce this complexity may help improve medication adherence.” I don’t think that’s an epiphany as we’ve known this for a long time. Of course, as medication complexity goes up, adherence goes down. However, tucked deeply in the article is the mention of a “pharmacy home” where medication use is consolidated, simplified and pharmacists are involved directly with the patients. This is probably the most important takeaway from the article. One issue I have with the article is that none of the authors is a pharmacist. I find that disturbing. (Niteesh K. Choudhry, MD, PhD; Michael A. Fischer, MD, MS; Jerry Avorn, MD; Joshua N. Liberman, PhD; Sebastian Schneeweiss, MD, ScD; Juliana Pakes, MEd; Troyen A. Brennan, MD, JD, MPH; William H. Shrank, MD, MSHS. The Implications of Therapeutic Complexity on Adherence to Cardiovascular Medications Arch Intern Med. 2011;0(2011))

- HealthLeaders Media: “ The ACO model predisposes collaboration between hospitals and physicians who overall have not collaborated well with each other in the past.” – This from an article titled “5 Reasons Why ACOs Could Fail”. If you’ve ever worked in a hospital then you know that working with physicians can be, um, challenging. The hospital rarely, if ever, disciplines a rogue physician and unfortunately most physicians could easily be classified as rouge. It’s a hostile work environment to say the least. In order for healthcare reform to be successful the current relationship model between hospitals and physicians must change. No question about it.

- Journal of Advanced Nursing (PDF): “Large dose deviations or weight losses can occur while splitting tablets. This could have serious clinical consequences for medications with a narrow therapeutic-toxic range.” – I find this article interesting for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, compounding pharmacists have been saying this for years and people called them quacks. Several years ago I worked in a compounding pharmacy in San Jose, CA and the pharmacist there was adamant about the fact that tablets are not designed to be cut in half. The entire tablet contains the active ingredient, but there is no guarantee that the active ingredient is evenly distributed throughout the tablet. Chalk one up for compounding pharmacists who were well ahead of the curve on this one. The other thing I would like to point out here is the number of pharmacists listed as authors on the article. Bravo ladies and gentlemen. Why wasn’t this published in a pharmacy journal?

- The New England Journal of Medicine audio summary is available for the week of January 13, 2011. I’m telling you now that this is a fantastic way to deliver the abstracts from a particular journal. ASHP really needs to be doing this with the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy (AJHP).

- My lovely wife bought me a Kindle DX for my birthday; that’s the big one. What an awesome device. It makes reading books and PDF articles a snap. I love this thing. I can even get journal articles downloaded directly through Whispernet, Amazon’s free 3G on the Kindle devices. This includes issues of AJHP. Unfortunately it requires anther paid subscription, which kind of pisses me off considering I’m already an ASHP member and paid subscriber to the paper copy of AJHP.

- I can’t believe I almost missed this one, but Motion Computing recently announced the release of the CL900 Tablet PC, a rugged, lightweight tablet designed for healthcare. I’ve only briefly looked at the device, but what I’ve seen so far is impressive. As you may or may not be aware, I am a fan of the Motion J3500 device and on the surface the CL900 looks like a smaller, lighter version. Cool!

- InformationWeek Healthcare: “As AT&T advances its healthcare strategy by providing technology that supports wireless, networked, and cloud-based solutions specifically for the healthcare industry, the company announced Tuesday that it will be partnering with Vitality to sell Vitality GlowCaps on Amazon.com.” – I think GlowCaps are pretty cool and even blogged about them here. With that said, I think the pricing structure is a tad bit high. According to the article “The Vitality GlowCaps will be available for $10 per cap and $15 per month for AT&T service.” Ouch!

- There’s a great on-demand webinar called “Use of Automation and Robotic Technology to Improve the Process for Preparing Compound Sterile Products” over at the ASHP Media site. The presentation is delivered by Bill Churchill of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. I’ve heard Bill speak before. It’s worth an hour of your time.

- This is funny. The Borowitz Report: “Elsewhere, Verizon trumpeted its new iPhone, announcing, “For the first time, consumers will have a choice of which wireless carrier drops their calls.””

- Has everyone heard of Quora, the new social media website that has users ask and answer questions as “experts”. Can you say Wikipedia all over again? If I was going to look for information on how to change the oil in my truck I might have a look. Otherwise I’ll go to more reputable sources for my information. There’s an interesting little blurb over at hive.org by Dr. Chris Paton on Quora Health. Chris says, “There are already lots of questions and answers but, as yet, I haven’t seen many health professionals posting up replies. There are obviously lots of legal and ethical questions about giving medical or health advice through a site like this which may be deterring the professionals. This does mean, however, that many of the answers will be personal opinions and not backed by reliable evidence, and hence may end up being the wrong advice.” He makes a valid point, but who’s checking to make sure the information is reliable and evidence based? Please don’t go to sites like Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers, Twitter, Facebook or Quora for information pertaining to you or your family’s health. It’s just not a good idea.

- EHR reference in a comic strip? You bet.

- CES is over, but there’s a great article over at ReadWrite Mobile about the best new Android devices that appeared at CES 2011. I can’t tell you how excited I am to see all these new Android devices. Seriously, I am chomping at the bit to get my hands on all of them. Of course I’ll never see most of them, but that doesn’t matter. It’s the thought of seeing them and what the future holds that piques my interest.

- When do you think we’ll see the first physical Android Store? Think about it, something like an Apple Store or Microsoft Retail Store. People have a real interest and curiosity regarding Android tablets, netbooks and smartphones. With the exception of smartphones, it is nearly impossible to get your hands on any of these devices. Without playing with them for a few minutes it’s difficult to make a decision on which device to spend your hard earned money on.

- Ok people, it’s playoff time. This is the time of year that all football fans wait for. The BCS bowl disasters are over and it’s time to get down to business. On tap for this weekend in the AFC we have Pittsburgh vs. Baltimore and New York Jets vs. New England. And over in the NFC we have Green Bay vs. Atlanta and Chicago vs. Seattle. I like all the teams except New England. I hate the Patriots and hope they go down in a spectacular ball of burning white-hot flame. Otherwise I’ll just sit back and enjoy the games. Speaking of which, it’s time to go get comfortable on the couch.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Below is a list of opinions I’ve gathered over the past 12 months. Some are pharmacy related, some are technology related, some are personal, and some are just random thoughts.

And here we go…

Best idea for healthcare – An integrated healthcare solution; easier said than done

Worst idea for healthcare – An integrated healthcare solution. The current infrastructure won’t support it.

Biggest healthcare story of the year – Meaningful use and electronic health records (EHR)m

Biggest pharma story of the year - Withdrawal of propoxyphene from US market. Good riddance.

Biggest story in acute care pharmacy operations – Recalls and drug shortages; 2010 was the worst year in recent memory.

Best idea for new pharmacy practice model – PPMI from ASHP

Biggest disappointment in pharmacy practice – PPMI from ASHP

Biggest disappointment from a pharmacy organization – California Society of Health-System Pharmacists (CSHP). I reached out to CSHP regarding tech-check-tech in California and they blew me off. I received a generic response to my first email, then nothing from my follow up email back to them. It’s ok if your opinion is different than mine, but at least have an opinion. #Fail

Best idea in pharmacy that has yet to mature – Clinical Decision Support (CDS) and RFID

Best drug information resource, hardcopy – Lexi-Comp Drug Information Handbook

Best drug information resource, handheld/electronic – Lexi-Comp Lexi-Drugs

Best pharmacokinetics calculator, handheld/electronic – RxCalc for the iPhone, of course

Best medical reference, electronic/web based – UpToDate (includes access to Lexi-Drugs, online version)

Best customer support – Talyst – Disclaimer: I’ve been working for Talyst since the beginning of December 2010, but had this opinion log before then. That’s part of the reason I decided to go to work for them. I’m just sayin’.

Worst customer support – Integrated Informatics, makers of POMS

Best bar code scanner used this year – Code Reader 3500. Still my favorite.

Best article on bar-code technology – “Effect of Bar-Code Technology on the Safety of Medication Administration” NEJM 2010; 362: 1698-1707

Biggest bar coding challenge for me this year – Actually I had two challenges this year: 1) keeping up with bar-code changes from the manufacturers and 2) acting on analytics collected from out BCMA system.

Most valuable data collected – Data from our MAK (BCMA) system

Least useful data collected – Pharmacist intervention data. I just don’t see the value in continuing to collect data to justify our existence when no one does anything with it.

Best automated dispensing cabinet technology – Omnicell. While Pyxis is still king of the hill, Omnicell is chipping away with better R&D.

Best tablet that never was – Notion Adam Ink. The tablet looks great on video, and you can pre-order it, but I’ll believe it when I see it. You wonder why Apple is winning the tablet market; look no further than companies like Notion Ink and their year long tease.

Best eReader – Barnes & Noble Nook. Say what you will about the Kindle, but my daughter has a Nook and it’s a very nice, easy to use device.

Best eReader that no one is talking about – Barnes & Noble Nook Color. The Nook Color is an Android driven eReader with 7-inch LCD screen with touch interface, and it’s a great device.

Best information collection tool I used this year – Evernote. I couldn’t live without it. SpringPad is nice, but Evernote is still the big dog in this category.

Best file sync tool I used this year – Dropbox is simply awesome. SugarSync deserves mention. Microsoft has all the pieces in place, but has yet to deliver a coherent solution. Maybe next year boys.

Best screen capture utility – FastStone Capture. It’s light weight, easy to use and performs admirably. I use it all the time.

Best new desktop application I used this year – Skype

Best new smartphone application I used this year – Google Voice

Best convertible tablet PC I used this year –Lenovo X201 tablet PC, hands down.

Worst convertible tablet PC I used this year – Dell Latitude XT2 tablet PC. I used this tablet PC for about a year and always thought it was ok. That was until I purchased a Lenovo X201 tablet PC. Now I consider the Dell as an overpriced piece of junk.

Best slate tablet PC I used this year – Motion Computing J3400. The J3500 is the updated version of the J3400 rugged slate tablet. As far as Windows based slates go, I don’t think you’ll find a better device in the current crop of tablets.

Coolest new concept for a tablet PC – The Dell Inspiron Duo. I would love to see more tablet PC manufacturers use this design concept.

Worst marketing campaign for a tablet PC – The HP Slate 500. No wonder tablet PCs have such a hard time catching on.

Best not-a-tablet-not-an-ereader device – The Kno. Great concept, I hope it makes it.

Most popular “tablet” – Apple iPad

Most overhyped device – Apple iPad

Mobile device with the biggest impact on healthcare – Apple iPad

Biggest status symbol for physicians and executives in healthcare – Apple iPad

Most underrated “tablet” of 2010 – Samsung Galaxy Tab

Best tablet PC software – Microsoft OneNote. I use it all the time and love it.

Best PDF annotation software – PDF Annotator

Best tablet pc blogger on the ‘net – Warner Crocker (@WarnerCrocker) of GottaBeMobile.com.

Best UMPC blogger on the ‘net – Steve ‘Chippy’ Paine (@chippy) of UMPCPortal.com.

Most interesting blogger on the ‘net – Louis Gray. He blogs about things that interest me, and he appears to be less biased than most. I can appreciate that.

Best everything mobile site on the ‘net – GottaBeMobile

Best gadget site on the ‘net – Engadget

Coolest gaming gadget of the year – Kinect for Xbox. Bought one for my nephew for Christmas. Man, what a blast. And that doesn’t even include what you can do with it once it’s been hacked.

Best new smartphone – Samsung Galaxy S and the iPhone 4. Bought my daughter a Samsung Fascinate for Christmas and let me just say that it is one phenomenal smartphone.

Biggest surprise in the smartphone market – Windows Phone 7. I spent some time playing with one at the Microsoft Retail Store and it was really nice.

Biggest tragedy in smartphones – Basically the webOS died in 2010. I hope I’m wrong because the user interface is really something.

Most functional smartphone – Android smartphones. Take your pick.

Most exciting developments in an operating system – Android. It’s only just begun.

Best smartphone user interface – iPhone 4. HTC gets honorable mention here.

Most exciting non-hardware smartphone development – HTCSense.com. The website is a series of connected services for security, backup and remote control of your HTC device. I’m surprised Google hasn’t done something like this already. The potential is off the charts.

Best meeting/conference attended – ASHP Midyear 2010

Best advice I received in 2010 – Change jobs

Best presentation attended – There were two presentations I attended at this year that really caught my attention: 1) Alternatives to Barcoding: RFID and RTLS at the unSUMMIT and 2) Better Patient Care and Safer Staff with IV Compounding Automation at ASHP Midyear

Best presentation I gave this year – Hard to say really, but the presentation I did for Nova Southeastern University titled “Pharmacy informatics – One pharmacist’s perspective” had some pretty good informational content.

Best webinar attended – Barcoding End-to-End Solutions: From Pharmacy to Bedside. This webinar featured Dr. David W. Bates and Dr. Eric Poon from the NEJM article mentioned above.

Best vendor I worked with this year – Talyst

Worst vendor I worked with this year – Siemens

Best RSS Reader – Google Reader

Best email client – GMail

Best online collaboration tool – Google Docs

Best new thing that people won’t use – Google Buzz

Best search engine – Bing is gaining, but Google still rules.

Best browser for Windows machine – Google Chrome has now overtaken Firefox as my browser of choice.

Best extensions for Google Chrome
1. Chromed Bird
2. Clip to Evernote
3. Session Buddy
4. iReader
5. Docs PDF/PoserPoint Viewer (by Google)
6. Awesome Screenshot

Best consumer cloud provider – No brainer, Google

Most impressive push into the cloud – Microsoft with Window Azure

Best Twitter client for Android – Seesmic

Best Twitter client for the iPhone – TweetDeck

Best Twitter client for the desktop – Don’t know. I no longer use a desktop client for Twitter. I now use a combination of the Twitter website and the Chromed Bird extension for Google Chrome.

Best desktop operating system – Windows 7. I don’t care what anyone says, I like it.

Most exciting new development in a desktop operating system – Google Chrome OS. I’ve only seen glimpses of it, but I’m excited about its potential.

Most frustrating computer upgrade – Mac OS X Snow Leopard. I was forced to upgrade my 21-inch iMac  secondary to the purchase of an iPad. Following the upgrade it became slow and unresponsive, basically turning it into a very expensive paperweight.

Number of movies my wife, Lori and I saw at the theater this year – 47

Best movie that I saw in the theater- This is tough for me. I think I’m going to go with:
1. Iron Man 2
2. Red
3. How to Train Your Dragon

Most overhyped movies that I saw in the theater
1. The Other Guys
2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part I)

Worst movie that I saw in the theater- The American with George Clooney. The Wolfman was a close second.

Worst trend in movies – 3D. Someone please knock some sense into these people. I don’t know anyone that actually likes 3D.

Biggest grossing movie of 2010 – Toy Story 3. It did over $400 Million at the box office. Avatar actually grossed more domestically in 2010, but it was released on December 18, 2009.

Most overused word of 2010 – Meaningful use. I still don’t fully understand what it means.

Most valuable lesson learned in 2010 – Don’t wait so long to make a move and let people know what you want.

Best thing I did for myself – Changed jobs

Biggest surprise about my new job – The laptop assigned to me is older and in worse shape than the one I used to complain about when I worked in the hospital. Doh!

Best thing about the new job – The people and the projects.

Worst thing about the new job – Having to wear a “jacket and tie” when visiting “customers”.

Coolest commercials on TV – Geico (Therapist Sarge and Woodchucks) and E-trade (Solitary)

Worst advertising campaign – Visa and their Never Miss a Super Bowl commercials. Meet Larry “I’ve missed weddings. I have missed babies being born. But I have no intention of ever missing a Super Bowl, ever.” Makes me want to turn off the TV and spend a little time with the family. I assume that wasn’t Visa’s intent.

Best YouTube video of 2010 – iPhone4 vs HTC Evo. If you’ve ever met an Apple cultist, errr, I mean fanboy then you know they can’t be reasoned with because their minds are sealed off from rational thought. Baa-baa!

Biggest surprise in professional football – The Kansas City Chiefs. Well done.

Biggest disappointment in professional football – The Arizona Cardinals. What a difference a year and the loss of Kurt Warner makes.

Gutsiest coaching decision in professional football – The New Orleans Saints decision to open the second half of Super Bowl XLIV with an onside kick. Wow.

Best catch in the NFL 2010 – Randy Moss one-handed TD catch against the Jets. Crazy.

Biggest what-the-heck moment in pro sports – Jets assistant coach Sal Alosi tripping a Miami Dolphins player during kick coverage

Biggest disappointment in college football – Boise state losing a game and not going undefeated

Worst system in the universe to determine a sports champion – The BCS. Unfortunately it seems to work out year after year as teams like Boise shoot themselves in the foot.

Worst professional sport to watch on TV or in person – Major League Baseball

Best professional sport to watch on TV or in person – The NFL of course.

Most visited post on this website in 2010 – Best iPhne/iPod Touch Applications for Pharmacists originally posted September 14, 2009

Biggest blogging disappointment this year – My former employer censoring my blogging by whipping out a “social media” policy. Nice!

Here’s to a New Year full of new and wondrous things.

- The Social Network was #1 at the box office last weekend. I haven’t seen it and am not sure that I want to. My family and I took in Easy A instead. It wasn’t at the top of my list, but I was outvoted. Fortunately for me it was better than I expected.

- I found this great article on “What’s Wrong With Writing Down Your Password?” over at How-To Geek. Good stuff and worth a look.

- Years ago I worked in a compounding pharmacy. I really liked the job and continue to have an interest in the subject, albeit a global interest at best. Anyway I receive a weekly newsletter from CompoundingToday that always includes a Letter from the Editor section written by Loyd Allen. This week he had a rant about the power instilled in government agencies. I don’t agree with everything he has to say, but it was a good read nonetheless. One interesting paragraph includes the following: “the bill is being “implemented” by governmental “agencies” and the implementation documentation is already double in size compared to the “passed” bill, and, the bureaucrats, they are just beginning! It is also interesting that a lot of “new” things are coming out that have not been previously discussed. Why is it that in the “interpretation and implementation” of a new law, many new things seem to be introduced?” That’s a good questions.

- I found a great little article at The Angry Pharmacist that talks about problems with different dosage forms and inconsistency among providers in how the information is communicated to pharmacies. Retail pharmacy really is a thankless job. I still don’t know why pharmacists subject themselves to it. I tried it for a while early on in my career and again a few years ago. I didn’t last long. The retail pharmacy environment wasn’t for me.

- Speaking of how retail pharmacists get abused, make sure to check out this article at KevinMD. A guest blogger takes a few unwarranted shots at the industry in general. It’s unfortunate, but the majority of consumers have no idea what goes on behind the scene in a retail pharmacy. It’s chaos on the best day, and many times the brunt of the consumer outrage is aimed at the wrong people. Be sure to read all the comments as well as the article. It’s pretty enlightening, and a bit entertaining.

- Anyone have any doubt that the iPad is impacting healthcare? EMR Daily News has a short blog post showing the growth of EMR/EHR applications in the iTunes App Store since the device landed on earth.

- How cool is this! medGadget : “Imec, an electronics research institute out of Leuven, Belgium, has teamed up with the R&D Holst Centre and TASS, a software company out of Augusta, Kansas, to create a mobile and wearable ECG system based around an Android smartphone.”

- RxInformatics.com: ““A ground-breaking system for predicting how individual patients with HIV and AIDS will respond to different drugs is launched today”. After signing up and logging in I was humbled by my complete lack of HIV therapy and genomic knowledge. The user interface and idea is compelling. It is not hard to imagine a Diabetes/CV/Stroke/DVT/ Treatment Response Prediction System, integrated into an EHR that feed a data repository that had real time updates based on population outcomes” – The potential uses for such as system are staggering.

- Ah, those radiologists and their love of sharing information. CMIO.net : “GE Healthcare has completed a digital imaging repository (DI-r) that connects hospitals and medical centers throughout southwestern Ontario, Canada, enabling the sharing of patient health data across the region”. It’s a good start.

- RxCalc 1.2 was approved in the App Store this week. A lot of work went into this version as we added some much needed functionality like extended interval aminoglycoside dosing and single level vancomycin kinetics. We also enlisted the help of an outside beta tester for the first time ever, and I’m grateful. The insight and feedback we received was very valuable. You can get more information on the latest release of RxCalc at the App Store or at the Apple Core Labs Weblog.

- An interesting thing happened on Twitter this week as some pharmacists got on the subject of powder papers. Powder papers are a long forgotten method of dispensing medications that have to be mixed from raw ingredients and for one reason or another can’t be encapsulated or packaged any other way. I haven’t made a powder paper in years, but I think it’s important to keep the history of pharmacy alive so I’ve included a video and a couple of links below that will give you a better idea of what I’m talking about. Thanks to @psweetman for the video and links.
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Also look here and here for additional information.

- According to The Digital Reader, Augen is going to be releasing six new Android based tablets in the near future. This is very exciting news if the company can pull it off. I’m especially interested in the Expresso doppio model depicted on the site. The design is a dual boot system, Android/Ubuntu, a clamshell case with keyboard and a 10.2” multi-touch screen. Almost sounds too good to be true. I have my fingers crossed that’s it’s real. The tablet market is humming along with activity and I can’t wait to see what hits the market over the next six months.

- Check out the giant touchscreen vending machine at the Engadget site. Oh boy, I can see so many applications for something like this in pharmacy; drug information, patient access, dispensing kiosks, and so on and so forth. How do I get my hands on one of these bad boys?

- HTC introduced a new concept this week, HTCSense.com. There’s a lot going on here, but the nuts and bolts of it is that you can now use the cloud to backup and archive important information directly from your Android mobile device. The service includes contacts, text messages, call history, etc. You can get more information here. This is only the beginning.

- Meridia (sibutramine) was voluntarily removed from the market this week secondary to clinical data suggesting an increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Sibutramine is used to treat obesity by blocking the reuptake of norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine. It has a laundry list of side effects, precautions and warning.

- Worst quote ever by a pharmacist: “I liked it when I could learn everything I needed to know about a drug from a professionally prepared advertisement. Ads like that are much easier to read than clinical articles, because Big Pharma really wants me to read them.” What! I had to read it twice myself. I won’t provide the link to the article, but suffice it to say that I’m disappointed by that statement. When you start using Big Pharma propaganda  to build your pharmacy drug knowledgebase, then it’s time to call it quits. Pharmacists are the drug experts. We know things about medications that can only be found in the primary literature after careful reading and evaluation. Advertisements in “magazines” are designed to drive consumers to ask for medications and get physicians to prescribe the latest and greatest. It’s like selling cars. In the same article the pharmacist also makes an interesting comment about “Vancocin” that would cause any self respecting pharmacist reading the article to raise their eyebrow and throw up a red flag. Pharmacy journals, even the “throw aways”, should be more careful with the information they allow to grace their pages. Physicians and pharmaceutical companies use information like this as a sword when it’s actually about as sharp as a doorknob. I’m just sayin’.

- The Unofficial Apple Weblog has a nice compilation of iPhone 5 rumors. I love the rate at which smartphones are being developed, but it sure makes it hard to keep up. Do you think we’re headed for a time when you’ll lease a smartphone instead of purchasing one? With the development of cloud storage it may be time to consider the model; mobile-as-a-service, MaaS anyone?

- KevinMD : “What if you could improve patient safety, cut costs, broaden your medical knowledge and find 20% more time in your workday? On October 1, 2010, that is just what we can expect when clinical pharmacists move from the back room to the bedside in ten general medical units at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.” – Seems like they’re a little late to the party, but I suppose better late than never. Like several thousand other pharmacists, I’ve been preaching this for years: get the pharmacist out of the physical pharmacy and to the bedside. How do you accomplish such a goal? Easy, liberal use of technology and by expanding the role of pharmacy technicians. C’mon ASHP, help me out here. Let’s hope your PPMI Summit does the trick.

- On a similar note I sent CSHP (California Society of Health-System Pharmacists) an email asking them for their position on tech-check-tech in the acute care setting. Their response was, how shall we say, weak. I shot them another email asking for clarification, but haven’t received a response. When I do I’ll update everyone on the progress.

- Fast Company: “Patents are re-injecting some intrigue into the thoughts about touchscreen iMacs, and potential MagSafe connectors for the iPad could hint that Apple plans wireless syncing at last.” – Let’s hope so. Mac is seriously lacking in their cloud development as well as the use of touchscreens on their laptops. I’m hoping the new MacBook Air will include a touchscreen. I still say it would make an awesome tablet.

- Football season is in full swing and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Well, I could if my Cardinals weren’t so bad. Anyway, some intriguing games in the NFL this week include:

• Kansas City at Indianapolis – I know it’s early in the season, but who would have thought the Chiefs would be the last unbeaten team in the NFL.
• Green Bay at Washington
• Chicago at Carolina – Carolina is just plain bad, but the Bears don’t exactly look like champions either. I’m curious to see if the Bears defense can keep them in the game with a backup quarterback filling in for Cutler.
• Minnesota at NY Jets – The Jets look good. I want to see if the Vikings are any better on offense with the addition of Randy Moss. I’m not a big fan of Moss, but he can still light-up a defense when he wants to. Farve looks old, which is funny because he and I are the same age. Funny.

- College football is more exciting than the NFL at the moment and there are some great games today. I’m a PAC-10 guy at heart so I’ll be watching UCLA at Cal, Oregon State at Arizona and USC at Stanford. I wanted to attend college at Stanford, but didn’t have the brain power for it. My application never made it past the initial screening process. My daughter says she wants to attend Stanford, and as a high school junior it’s about time to start applying. She’s a lot smarter than her dad so I think I may get an opportunity to live vicariously through her.

- Would someone please stop Major League Baseball already, it’s taking up valuable air time that should be dedicated to the NFL. Look, I loved playing baseball as a kid, but as a adult I find it about as fun as watching grass grow. There may be ten minutes of action in a three hour game, maybe. It’s the only sport where the best game you can play is one in which two guys play catch for three hours while everyone else watches, i.e. a perfect game. Football, hockey and basketball are sports that involve constant action. Extend the football season and limit baseball to the summer months. Please, I’m begging you.

Have a great weekend everyone.

- What’s that? Oh, Avatar is still #1 at the box office. It’s now #2 on the list of top grossing movies of all time with its crosshairs squarely set on #1.

- KevinMD: “But when this health-care reform package passes, and if it does to the economy and to medical practice what many of us fear, will anyone be accountable? Will they step up and say, ‘yep, that was me! Sorry, I’ll try to fix it!’ It’s unlikely. That’s not how politics are conducted.” – Scary thought

- The Apple iPad was announced this week. It’s basically a giant iPod Touch. It isn’t available for purchase yet, but is already creating quite a buzz in heath care. Every card carrying clinician is claiming the iPad is going to revolutionize how they practice health care. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on one and spending some quality time figuring out how best to use it, but I’m a little gun shy about making claims like that.

- You can find positive blog posts on the iPad everywhere, so here a couple of negatives to help balance it out: interesting view from a 16-year old boy and another from VentureBeat and one final one from GottaBeMobile.

- Hitler responds to the iPad. I find these “Hitler” videos very funny. Be warned, however, they contain some offensive language.

- Here’s a tablet PC survey aimed at health care spurred on by the arrival of the iPad.

- Healthcare IT Consultant Blog: “Medical records for about 4,400 UCSF patients are at risk after thieves stole a laptop from a medical school employee in November, UCSF officials said Wednesday. The laptop … stolen on or about Nov. 30 … was found in Southern California on Jan. 8. There is no indication that unauthorized access to the files or the laptop actually took place, UCSF officials said, but patients’ names, medical record numbers, ages and clinical information were potentially exposed.” – This is why you never, ever store patient information on any type of physical media be it hard drive, CD, flash drive, etc. This is also why storage of patient information on the cloud should be considered.

- This is funny.

- Pharmcotherapy : “The genetic study of disease states can be the stepping stones for thoroughly understanding the genetic basis of ADEs. Gene polymorphisms are implicated in the development of diseases and corresponding disease-like ADEs.” – Pharmacogenetics, the study of genetic variation on the effects of drug, has been around for several years now, but has never really taken hold like many thought it would. The idea behind genetic testing to determine how you will respond to medications makes sense, but I don’t see it in practice. I wonder why?

- The Palmdoc Chronicles: “VisualDx Mobile for the iPhone and iPod Touch aids physicians in their decision making efforts by increasing diagnostic accuracy, helping to reduce health care costs associated with unnecessary return visits, referrals, and tests– all of which increase patient satisfaction.” – Clinical decision support for the iPhone/iPod touch.

Endgadget: “Researchers aim to give surgeons 3D maps, directions of human body – the group’s TLEMsafe system does provide surgeons with a complete 3D map of the lower body, which can actually be personalized for each individual patient, giving surgeons a reference and means to practice before any actual surgery takes place — and, yes, even an “automated navigation system” during surgery.” – Pretty cool stuff.

- LiveScience: “Researchers have built a new super-small “nanodragster” that improves on prior nanocar designs and could speed up efforts to craft molecular machines.” – This is amazing, The nanodragster is built using a combination of phyenylene-ethynylene molecules for the chassis and buckyball wheels. Cool!

- medGadget: “To see if clinical measurements can be performed using a cheaper solution, researchers at University of Melbourne tested Nintendo’s Wii Balance Board (WBB) against a laboratory-grade force platform (FP), and concluded that the cheaper option can provide results “suitable for the clinical setting” – So having a Wii is totally worth it, right?

- ASHP: “Health care facilities can expect the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by October to release a set of best practices for managing excess, expired, and unwanted pharmaceuticals.” – What to do with these medications has always been an issue.

- LA Times: “Unfortunately, even great stories have their endings, and the chapter on Warner’s NFL career closed today when the 38-year-old quarterback announced his retirement.” – I’m disappointed for my team, but happy for Warner. The man is a class act and a lock for the Hall of Fame. Check out his stats sometime. They are impressive. Kurt Warner is one of the few professional football players that I would like to meet in person. Perhaps I’ll get the opportunity some day. Good luck Kurt.

- I went 1-1 last weekend, bringing my playoff record to 7-3. The Vikings game was one of those rare moments in the NFL where the better team lost. Even with all the Vikings turnovers and bad penalty calls, they were only one play away from a trip to Miami for the Super Bowl. I was really hoping the Vikings could pull it off, but it wasn’t meant to be. My hat goes off to the Saints for hanging staying in the game. Now I hope Favre retires and enjoys being one of the greatest quarterbacks to have ever played the game.

- I’ll give you my Super Bowl pick next week.

Have a great weekend everyone.

- Avatar continues to rake in the money as it remained in the top spot at the box office again last weekend. It has quickly risen to #3 on the list of top grossing movies of all time. Cool.

- CCHIT plans to reopen testing against the initial Set of Standards, Implementation Specifications, and Certification Criteria for Electronic Health Record Technology. Testing will reopen by February 12, 2010. More information is available here.

- LG has created the world’s largest flexible ePaper display. It’s 19” wide and it’s pretty slick. I wonder how I can get my hands on a couple of sheets. Hmm….

- GIGAOM: “Who Exactly Owns Your Data in the Cloud? – Between Gmail, Google Docs, Zoho, Facebook, Basecamp, Flickr, Twitter and countless other applications, much of our data now sits in the cloud. But few people ever stop to think about where that data is stored or how it might be accessed or used. So who exactly does own your data and who has access to it? And how much privacy can you expect?” – The post raises some interesting questions that I don’t think have any easy answers.

- besttabletreview: “There’s a lot of potential in tablets — no one can deny that. The main debate is if any company will be able to unlock that potential and offer it to consumers at a reasonable cost. A lot of people think that will happen next week when the Apple Tablet or iPad or iSlate or iDontCareWhatItsCalledIWillBuyItRegardless is announced. While we’re not convinced of that, Apple will certainly provide the kick in the pants to validate tablets and boost them into the mainstream.” – I think this is a fair statement. Look what the iPhone did for the smartphone industry.

- The WSJ has an article about Apple just in time for the speculated release of their new tablet.

- 9to5Mac: “Today, I was presented with two simulations of what Apple’s futuristic OS could look like working with medical and engineering applications. The simulations were done on an iMac and I think that you’ll find them to be absolutely fascinating. As long as you know that they’re simulations and not secret tests that I’ve discovered.” – The video below shows some pretty wicked-cool stuff. There is more information and an additional video at the 9to5Mac site.

- A colleague of mine told me last year that “if you only attend one technology conference next year, make it HIMSS.” That was my plan until I was informed late last week that my trip was canceled secondary to budget cuts at the hospital. HIMSS10 will be held in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center March 1-4. The Pharmacy IT Symposium will be held on Sunday, February 28. Perhaps I’ll see you there next year.

- Healthcare Informatics: “In addition to kiosks, tablets are another touch-screen device that patients can use independently. At Adventist, Snyder is using them as a kiosk alternative that can also take credit card swipes and can be used anywhere in the hospital. “You can push the same content to the tablet or the kiosk,” says Snyder. At Adventist, patients waiting for morning surgeries are handed tablets in the waiting room. “If there is a co-pay due, we process that, and it allows one registration clerk to handle four or five patients at a time,” he says. “We’ve been an early adopter as to how much we’ve leveraged this in our revenue cycle.” – Interesting use of tablet PCs don’t you think?

- I’ve developed a bit of an interest in telemedicine in the past couple of weeks. Here are a few links I found helpful: Telemedicine and Telehealth Articles, an Introduction to Telehealth at Digital Telehealth incorporated, and a TeleHealth stream at the Healthcare Informatics Forum. The concept of Telehealth has much broader application than I once thought. This could be a very interesting and dynamic field in the very near future.

- A friend of mine, @poikonen, recently turned me on to using Posterous (http://posterous.com/). The same friend pointed me to an interesting article on Posterous vs. Tumblr, both popular mini-blogging services. The article is very thorough and interesting.

- Thanks to @carlacorkern for Tweeting a link to ASHP’s Pharmaicsts’ Letter on Stability of Refrigerated and Frozen Drugs. References like this are a good thing to keep tucked away just in case.  Here’s another handy references for Light-Sensitive Oral Prescription Drugs from the December issue of Hospital Pharmacy. You always seem to need references like these at the worst possible moment, and you can never find them; murphy’s law.

- Speaking of Hospital Pharmacy, the journal can no longer be found at the Facts & Comparisons website. The journal now resides with Thomas Land.

- Earlier this week I tweeted that I was thinking about going back to school and asked for recommendations on what field to pursue. Out of the entire Twitter universe I only received three responses: one to get an MBA, one to pursue software engineering and one person thought I should become a belly dancer. Hmm, I wonder what I would look like in a belly dancing outfit. On second thought don’t, that image could cause someone irreparable harm.

- I do a little per diem work at Children’s Hospital Central California (CHCC) in Madera, CA a couple of days a month. It helps me keep my pediatric pharmacist skills current. One thing odd about the place is the inability to connect to the outside world while inside the hospital; no 3G, no cell signal, no wireless, etc. In addition, the hospital IT department has the internet locked down so tight that you can’t do anything online. I worked at CHCC yesterday and felt very isolated from the rest of the world for the 11 hours I was there. It was strange, but I felt relieved whey my DROID went crazy with all my new Tweets, emails, and text messages when I was about half-way to my truck in the parking lot. Weird.

- GottaBeMobile has been hammering Dell about the Dell Latitude XT and N-Trig drivers. I use a Dell Latitude XT2 and have a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate sitting at home on my shelf, but haven’t installed it because of what I’ve been reading at GottaBeMobile. I haven’t been impressed with the XT2 and am already looking for a replacement.

- Evernote has a new release for Windows.

- mobihealthnews has an interesting read on the use of technology and medication adherence.

- PEPID is now available for the Palm Pre.

- Engadget: “While we can’t say for sure that videogames, as your grandmother insists, do indeed rot your brain, thanks to research conducted at a variety of Universities around the States we know that better gamers tend to have more gray matter than others — at least in certain areas.” – Very interesting.

- The NFL Title Games are this weekend. I went 2-2 last weekend, bringing my playoff record to a respectable 4-2 overall. One of my loses last week was handed to me by way of the Saints kicking the crud out of my Cardinals. Oh well, there’s always next year. My picks for this weekend are: Vikings and Colts to win.

Have a great weekend everyone.

- Avatar was #1 at the box office again last weekend. According to Movieweb.com Avatar has made approximately $380,000,000 at the boxoffice, making it the 10th highest grossing move of all time; to date.

- The January 2010 issue of The Annals of Pharmacotherapy has some great articles in it that are a must read. The issue is full of articles exploring the impact of pharmacists on various healthcare services.

- The Annals of Internal Medicine (January 5, 2010 vol. 152, No. 1: 66-67):  Researchers at Cornell University asked participants to measure 5 mL of medication into different sized spoons. Participants were confident in their ability to measure the medication, but the study found that the participants “underdosed by 8.4% when using the medium-sized spoon and overdosed by 11.6% when using the larger spoon.” A similar article appeared in The Journal of Family Practice back in August of 2000. I recommend getting a pediatric oral dosing syringe for measuring medication. Don’t use a kitchen spoon.

- In the same issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine there is an article about the use of low-dose aspirin following GI bleed (Continuation of Low-Dose Aspirin Therapy in Peptic Ulcer Bleeding). Whether or not to continue aspirin for prophylaxis is a very common question from patients that have experience some type of GI problem. The authors of the article conclude that “Among low-dose aspirin recipients who had peptic ulcer bleeding, continuous aspirin therapy may increase the risk for recurrent bleeding but potentially reduces mortality rates. Larger trials are needed to confirm these findings.” In other words it’s a risk versus benefit decision between you and your physician.

- Mobihealthnews: “On December 11 Kaiser Permanente officially rolled out its SMS appointment reminder service, powered by mobileStorm. mobileStorm’s SMS platform enabled Kaiser to create and facilitate appointment reminders, treatment reminders as well as alerts that lab results have returned.” This is a very interesting concept and one that is a little overdue in my opinion. Read more about it here.

- Medscape: “The feasibility of contracting for medication therapy management (MTM) services in a physician’s office was studied.” And the conclusion: “Over a six-month time period, pharmacists in a family medicine practice were unable to receive compensation by Medicare for providing MTM services.” This has been a long standing problem with pharmacist providing services. When is it ever going to change?

- Medical News Today: “Scientists at the University of Maryland, Baltimore have successfully used near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) — a method already used to test farm product quality — to predict how quickly pills dissolve in the body.” – Very cool stuff.

- The Nexus One was officially announced this week. What a great looking device. According to reports, Verizon should have the phone sometime in the spring of this year. Just enough time for me to convince my wife I need one.

- The consumer electronics show (CES) is being held in Las Vegas this week. If you’re into gadgets this would be the place to be. The stream of information coming from CES this week has been intense and interesting. One of my goals before I die is to attend the CES. Now all I have to do is figure out how. Unfortunately “consumers” aren’t allowed to attend. Go figure.

- If you are interested in reading more about the CES show in Vegas I would recommend visiting the following websites: Gizmodo, Endgadget, GottaBeMobile, TechCrunch, jkOnTheRun and Mobileread. That should keep you busy for a while.

- With the release of the meaningful use guidelines, I’ve noticed a significant number of acronyms flying around the internet. If you have a need to decipher one check out the list at Health IT.

- Check out the Ford Work Solutions Truck at GottaBeMobile. Who says technology can’t be fun?

- Pixel Qi finally made an appearance on a device. I’ve been looking forward to these LCD screens for quite some time. They offer readability in direct sunlight, but more importantly can significantly increase your work time between charges by extending your battery life.

- Congratulations to Alabama for winning the national title. What would have happened if Colt McCoy wouldn’t have been injured? We’ll never know.

- The NFL playoffs start today; I’m ready. I’m taking the Jets, Cowboys, Ravens and Cardinals. Wish me luck.

Have a great weekend everyone.

The Final Destination was #1 at the box office last weekend for a second week in a row. “9”  landed in movie theaters Wednesday, 9-9-09. I’m looking forward to seeing it with my girls this weekend.

It’s officially football season. Hallelujah. The season kicked off last night with a Steelers victory over the Titans 13-10 in overtime.

President Obama delivered a speech to Congress this week detailing his health care plan. Information about the speech is all over the internet, but I thought the prepared text of the speech published by the New York Times was interesting.

Our pharmacy went through another Siemens upgrade. That’s all I have to say about that.

My hospital blocked my access to Twitter, friendfeed and Microsoft’s Live Mesh. In addition I can no longer access URL shortening sites like bit.ly, is.gd, etc. They were very thorough.

It looks like Dell has thrown their hat in the EMR ring. According to Healthcare IT News “The Round Rock, Texas-based computer maker [Dell] on Thursday introduced an electronic medical record system for hospital-affiliated physician practices. The intent, said Dell executives, is to accelerate the sharing and meaningful use of digital patient information among hospitals and physician practices.”

Healthcare IT Consultant: “pMDsoft, Inc. today announced the completion of over a dozen more HL7 interfaces with some of the most recognized and popular software systems in the medical industry. pMDsoft’s industry-leading interface engine has allowed it to integrate seamlessly with its customers’ existing software infrastructure, eliminating data entry and increasing the accuracy of their claims. The variety of different interfaces available has taken pMDsoft beyond the limits of charge capture, allowing it to act as an elegant EMR front-end; a mobile practice management system; or a gateway to the local hospital.” – Is this really a great thing? Take a look at the HL7 example below and tell me what you think.

At least one person thinks Apple may be trying to push their way into healthcare. No surprise here, considering that Dell and Microsoft are already involved in the healthcare industry.

ASHP is reporting that early trials of the H1N1 virus look promising.

With all the press surrounding H1N1, the CDC has created a set of interim recommendations for the use of antiviral medications during the 2009-2010 influenza season. For more information follow this link to the official CDC site.

Ever heard of the UnSummit? I hadn’t either until this morning. The UnSummit is an annual conference dedicated to barcode medication administration. I’m adding it to my list of conferences to attend in 2010.

I’ve never been a fan of combining an ARB and an ACE inhibitor in CHF. It just never made sense to me even though it was popular among physicians. Medscape , reporting on the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2009, says that “the combination of angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs) and ACE inhibitors should not be used to treat congestive heart failure (CHF), because the benefits do not outweigh the risks, according to the results of a new meta-analysis. Dr Andrea Kuenzli (University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland) reported the findings at the European Society of Cardiology 2009 Congress last week.”

9to5Mac: “In a press release citing a survey of 1,200 US students conducted by higher education-specialist research firm, Student Monitor, Parallels claims more than one third (36%) of full-time undergraduates at four-year US colleges and universities already plan to purchase a Mac.” – I’m not surprised by the results of the survey. Earlier this year I took my youngest daughter on a field trip to UCLA and we noticed a large portion of the student population was carrying Mac laptops.

Palm released its latest phone this week; the Pixi. Here’s a little hands on from the GartenBlog.

Check out the interactive Rock Wall at the Hard Rock Café on the Vegas Strip. I’ll be there in November.

Apple announced new iPod products this week, but to my wife’s utter dismay the new iPod Touch is missing a camera. Just so my wife wouldn’t be alone in her misery, Apple also decided not to announce the new “Apple Tablet”. Bummer.

This from the “who cares” category, the PDR Network is reporting that “The iconic PDR drug reference found in every doctor’s office, hospital, and clinic is merging with the Health Care Notification Network (HCNN), the only network that delivers FDA-required drug Alerts to doctors online.” – There is no drug reference more worthless than the PDR. It’s nothing more than a collection of manufacturer propaganda.

mobihealthnews: “According to survey conducted by MDsearch, 53 percent of physicians who responded to the survey said that they own a smartphone, and of that group 63 percent use mobile medical applications. Curiously though, MDSearch did not explain how many physicians actually took part in the survey or other details — so take the numbers as light reading or simply fodder for future research.” – So, physicians using the most advanced smartphone available, i.e. the iPhone, are using it to access healthcare references. Duh!

Have a great weekend everyone.