Todd Eury of Pharmacy Technology Resources hosted the PTR BLOGTALK RADIO SHOW, which focused on Pharmacy Remote Dispensing. This time around the episode was titled “How will Remote Dispensing Revolutionize the Pharmacy Industry?” and included an interview with Talyst CEO, Carla Corkern. As most of you are aware, I am very familiar with many Talyst products. However, my specialty is acute care and I learned quite a bit about “the other” types of pharmacy automation from the podcast. Do yourself a favor and heck it out next time.

John over at EMR (EHR) and HIPAA posted an EHR Stimulus poll he took last week. His take on the results….”What’s surprising to me from the results so far is that such a large percentage of people are either waiting to hear about the EHR stimulus money or are planning on the EHR stimulus money. This poll is a little bit biased since so many of the people visiting EMR and HIPAA these days are coming here to learn about the EHR stimulus money.” A table with the results is available here.

From Reuters.com: “What’s in a cough? 20000 viruses. As many as 20,000 viruses are expelled in an average cough, which may be sufficient to infect many people — particularly those who are not vaccinated.” -Ah c’mon, I didn’t really need to know that.

Rob at crabapples.net posted an intersting piece on Another Stange App Store Rejection. What did he have to say about the issue…”If Apple has issue with certain search terms they should provide API’s that applications MUST use prior to submitting those search terms to web services, so Apple can let the developer know the term is inappropriate and cannot be submitted. At a bare minimum they need to provide developers with a list of terms they’re not allowed to search for, and make their own software abide by the list.” -I agree.

I stumbled upon a blog called The Angry Pharmacist this week. The blog was intriguing and a little entertaining, but not for the faint of heart. I spent a few months working retail (not to be confused with community or independent) pharmacy and will probably never go back. I didn’t enjoy the money driven environment with little or no time for patient care. One thing is for certain, he is truly an angry (and bitter) pharmacist.

PTR posted a summary of what happened at the ASCP Midyear Conference in Orlando, FL last week. It appears that long-term care (LTC) is taking technology seriously. Maybe it’s time for me to consider a change in practice environments.

Neil Versel’s Healthcare IT Blog broadcast an open invitation to editors to do a feature on “Live video from amubulance to ED“. The author does a follow-up piece at FierceMobileHealthcare.com.

New York Times: “…in a report, Gadgets and Gigawatts, released on Wednesday, that the number of people using a personal computer will exceed one billion in coming months, and that already half the globe’s population subscribes to a mobile telephone service. These trends were helping to account for increasing demands on grids. Nobuo Tanaka, the agency’s executive director, said that “despite anticipated improvements in the efficiency of electronic devices, these savings are likely to be overshadowed by the rising demand for technology” in rich and developing countries.”  Wow, one billion personal computers. Gives some validity to “If you build it, they will come“.

Mobileread.com reported that anyone can make their blog available to read on the Kindle via the new Kindle Publishing for Blogs Beta program. Or course you’ll have to pay for the privilege.

Speaking of the Kindle, my brother purchased one for his wife on Mother’s Day. I had the opportunity for a little “hands on” this week. My impression of the Kindle prior to laying my hands on it was that it was lame, very lame. Now I feel silly because the device is completely and totally awesome. The online photos simply don’t do it justice. It is a sleek, sophisticated device that was a pleasure to hold and read with. I’m placing an order for the new Kindle as soon as it’s available. Hopefully the waiting list won’t be too long.

Dynamism offered a pre-order event for the Viliv S5. If you haven’t seen this little device in action, treat yourself to a video.

The author of the EMR (EHR) and HIPAA blog has gone crazy this week by posting some of the best information on EMRs that I’ve seen to date. The information is refreshing, thoughtful and plentiful. He has some great insight on the subject. It leaves me wondering how he comes up with all these great blogs every single day. Well done.

ASHP.com: “The Leapfrog Group’s annual hospital survey report, released in April, found that hospitals have a long way to go to fully implement the organization’s recommendations for improving the safety and efficiency of patient care.” If you have the opportunity make sure to read the entire article, it’s a real eye opener.

The American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP) held their Midyear in Orlando, FL where Todd Eury (Pharmacytechnology.com) fed us timely updates via Twitter.

The FBI investigated a ransom demand from a hijacker claiming to have stolen approximately 8.3 million patient records from a Virginia government web site.  The hijacker’s demand note read: “ATTENTION VIRGINIA I have your [stuff]! In *my* possession, right now, are 8,257,378 patient records and a total of 35,548,087 prescriptions. Also, I made an encrypted backup and deleted the original. Unfortunately for Virginia, their backups seem to have gone missing, too. Uhoh :(“

We got to see a nifty little video on “The Impact of Health IT on Consumers, Payers, and Providers” by Adam C. Powell.

A group of senators asked for the release of federal regulations that allow electronic-prescribing for controlled substances. Whether this is a good idea or not remains to be seen. Security, security, security.

Dr. John Halamka (Life as a Healthcare CIO) gave us an interesting look at what he calls “Your Karma Account Balance“. Be yourself, stay calm, stick to your values and do the right thing. Then at the end of the day you’ll be able to look yourself in the mirror without any feelings of regret. We could all benefit from this information.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) released their numbers for the HIMSS 09 Coference and Exhibition. Staggering. The conference drew nearly 27,500 attendees. For those of you that missed it, you can find the sessions posted here.

The Healthcare IT Guy blogged about Amazon’s offer of free cloud computing services to educators and students. Cloud computing is an exciting field that I am just beginning to explore. Expect to see much more about this in the future.