Pharmacy Informatics

AJHP abstracts available for Kindle

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I was pleasantly surprised today when I read my ASHP NewsLink and found the following tidbit: “Download AJHP Abstracts to Kindle Reader – Users of the Kindle wireless reading device, from Amazon.com Inc., can now automatically download abstracts of AJHP articles as they become available.” AJHP abstracts are delivered directly to the Kindle e-reader via … Read more

Top blog posts and searches from last week (27)

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I always find it interesting to see what brings people to my website and what they decided to read once they get here. Most read posts over the past 7 days: An almost disastrous bar-coding mishap Cool Technology for Pharmacy – Post from before I started putting the name of the cool technology in the … Read more

Using the big boys to search for consumer health information

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I’m sure you’ve heard people say “just Google it”. Not only have I heard the phrase, but I’ve used it myself. But how do search engines like Google and Bing work for health related information? Out of simple curiosity I spent a few minutes with Google and Bing to find out.

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Speaking of healthcare data, is Microsoft the elephant in the room?

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In a previous blog I discussed the need for a uniformed data structure in healthcare. The concept got me thinking about how to accomplish such a monumental task, and make no mistake, it would be a monumental task. There aren’t many “people” out there that could develop the hardware and software infrastructure solid enough to handle the needs of the complex data stream coming out of the healthcare industry.

Then I noticed a trend at a lot of the web sites that I frequent: Microsoft has slowly, and quietly, been positioning itself to jump into the healthcare market.

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Time for a new model of data storage and software distribution in pharmacy

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There was a time when I thought all a pharmacist needed to do his job was a pen and a calculator. It was just so cumbersome to carry anything else. If you wanted to have mobile drug information it meant carrying a drug reference book with you everywhere. Who can forget being in pharmacy school where every self respecting pharmacy student had a Drug Information Handbook stuffed in their lab coat pocket along with all the other stuff they carried like a homemade peripheral brain scribbled on the pages of a notebook or on those neat little 3×5 cards.

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Will hype for iPad in healthcare translate into benefits for pharmacy?

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Unless you’ve been comatose for a while, you’ve certainly heard about the Apple iPad. The device has already been crowned the de facto device for everything from e-reading to creating a new wave in healthcare unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Of course this is all speculation as the device hasn’t been officially released yet.

Many people have speculated that the iPad will be a great device for healthcare. Whether or not that will be the case remains to be seen. One thing is for certain: everyone is banking on the iPad being a big hit in healthcare. Based on the success of the iPhone as a favorite among physicians and nurses, this certainly isn’t a wild prediction. Will this success translate to the pharmacy? Good question.

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What is the future of pharmacy informatics as a career choice?

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Over the weekend I spent a little time looking at trends in pharmacy and technology. As expected the healthcare technology market is expanding rapidly and this expansion is creating a need for pharmacists with technology know-how. To prove my point I created a job trends graph from indeed.com using the following search criteria: “pharmacy informatics”, … Read more

Pillbox – a website for tablet/capsule identification

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The National Library of Medicine has a website know as Pillbox beta that allows anyone to use various identifiers on a tablet or capsule, i.e. imprint, shape, color, size and/or scoring, to quickly identify a medication. I’ve used systems like this many times for the emergency department when a patient would roll in the door with ten different medications all thrown together in a plastic baggie. The nurse would bring them to the pharmacy and say “I need you to tell me what these are”. I tried holding the baggie to my head like the Great Carnac on Carson, but most of the time I had to use other references to help me out.

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