“Patient Centered Medical Home” (PCMH) – is likely to be the best opportunity for aligning physician and patient frustration, demonstrated models for improving care, and private and public payment systems to produce the most profound transformation of the health care system this far. Wait a second – what about the Family Pharmacist or Consultant Pharmacist? How does pharmacy play into this model? What relationships are being formed today between the community retail pharmacy and these home-care physicians? What active correlation or network can be established nationally to group together seamless health-care services between the home-patient, the physician, and the pharmacy?

First – we’ll say – its ePrescribing with all the industry attention this mode of communication brings between doctors and pharmacists – however – I say it takes more than an electronic network to ensure the proper care is given to the patient. This medical home based model sounds similar to the model from the 1990’s of managed care that was about decreasing costs. Is this system designed to help patients instead of insurers? The relationship between the “local” doctor and the “local” pharmacy is imperative. We have come full circle – where in the 1950’s the relationship between physician and pharmacist was much more prevalent. Today – the home-care doctor can grab his iPhone and digitize the necessary communications with pharmacy for a seamless and completed transaction for the patient. But what about the relationship between the doctor and pharmacist and the periodic medication review for the home-care patient?”

- “Up” was #1 at the box office for a second straight week.

- The biggest event of the week had to be the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. I follow several technology blogs and I couldn’t go to the bathroom without missing ten new posts about the happenings at WWDC this week. There were several items of note, but the crown jewel had to be the introduction of the new iPhone 3G S.  The most significant item for me wasn’t what was announced at WWDC, but what was missing: A Mac Tablet/Netbook. C’mon Apple, you know people want it.

- Not to be outdone, Palm introduced the Pre via Sprint and sold more than 50,000 units during it’s opening weekend (of course the iPhone sold over 140,000 units it’s opening weekend).

- The Kindle Dx started shipping on June 10th. This should be exciting to anyone in health care as the new Kindle offers native PDF support. No more lugging around a couple hundred printed pages of literature or killing your eyes while reading PDF documents on your laptop.

-Airstip Technologies announced their new product, Airship OB for the iPhone at WWDC this week. Airstrip OB “delivers vital patient waveform data — including fetal heartbeat and maternal contraction patterns — in virtual real-time directly from the hospital labor and delivery unit to a doctor’s mobile wireless device. This application gives physicians the ability to closely monitor patients 24/7 when the demands of their day necessitate their periodic absence from the labor and delivery unit.” – Cool!

- Todd Eury at PTR: “A plan for integration of multiple systems, implementation, training, and deployment of new software and or technologies needs to include a plan to deliver on the expectations of the pharmacy management team within a specific amount of time. We must understand their “end-game” and help our customer execute or we have failed which affects the financial stability of our customers and ultimately the viability of our own businesses.” – I couldn’t have said it any better myself.

- The HIT Consultant blog had a great post on using open source software in health care as a cost savings measure.  I love open source software. I think it’s a great way to think outside the box. Sometimes several minds are better than one. Not always, but sometimes.

- Rob Fahrni at Crabapples.net: “Why all the negative press about AT&T’s pricing on the iPhone 3G S? Look, I’m not a mobile phone power user, I’ve had two personal cell phones, which I’m sure is well below the nation average, and I can’t figure out why people are upset? If you went out and bought a brand new laptop and two weeks later an updated version came along would you expect the vendor to heavily discount an upgrade to the latest version? No, I didn’t think so. So why do people expect heavy discounts on the 3G S? Do other phone vendors give huge discounts on upgraded hardware? That’s a serious question. I don’t know the answer, but I’m guessing it’s a big fat No.” – I have to agree with this assessment. Cellular providers subsidize hardware all the time to lock you into long term, and sometimes expensive, contracts. It’s not AT&T’s fault that Apple continues to out due them selves at a break-neck speed. If you want the “latest and greatest” you’re going to end up paying a premium for it. Look on the bright side, the current iPhone 3G is now $99 with a two year contract. I could live with that.