“What’d I miss?” – Week of October 10, 2010

As usual there were a lot of things that happened during the week, and not all of it was pharmacy or technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I found interesting. And yes, this is for the week of 10-10-10. Cool!

–  The Social Network was #1 at the box office again last weekend. I haven’t seen it yet, and just can’t generate enough interest in my own mind to do so. My wife and I took in RED yesterday. It was a good movie, I would recommend it.

– I was looking for information on touch surfaces and came across this great video from the University Of Michigan Museum Of Art, UMMA, demonstrating their Dialog Table. And the most amazing part of the video is that it was shot more than a year ago. C’mon Microsoft, get this stuff to the consumer market already.

– Anyone on the lookout for a rugged Android OS smartphone? Well, look no further. The Motorola Defy is dust, water and scratch resistant. The Defy has a beautiful 3.7-inch display covered with Corning Gorilla Glass, making it virtually indestructible for the average smartphone user. This device is designed to take some abuse, which makes it ideal for the hospital environment.

– Fast Company: ““but it would also make the entire cultural heritage of the country accessible free of charge to all of our citizens.” Small community colleges without extensive libraries would stand to benefit especially. Something else that sets apart the new vision, Darnton has recently said, is that that “It’s not as if we are just issuing high-minded manifestos. We are taking concrete steps at the organizational level.”” This quote is from Robert Darnton, Harvard’s chief librarian speaking about a National Digital Library. There is no question in my mind that all literature, textbook, journals, etc should be available as digital media. With the onslaught of mobile technology in both the consumer and non-consumer world alike, it’s the only thing that makes any sense. For those of you that at some point in your career would have loved to have access to a reference at 2:00am, but had no access to it, please raise your hand. **my hand is up**

– Calleam.com has a website called Why Technology Projects Fail. A recent post gives some insight into why with a great list of classic mistakes. Anyone that’s been involved in a technology project of any kind can relate. A few that are especially applicable to healthcare inclide lack of communication, lack of oversight/poor project management, poor quality implementations and insufficient user training. Thanks to @omowizard for the link.

– This week the FDA approved onabotulinumtoxinA, aka Botox, for headache prophylaxis “in patients with adult chronic migraine who suffer headaches on 15 or more days per month, each lasting longer than 4 hours.” That’s a lot of headaches.

– Practice Fusion is holding their first ever user’s conference on Friday, November 5, 2010 in San Francisco. The conference, dubbed Practice Fusion Connect 2010, is free of charge and will include “previews of EHR feature launches, educational breakout session, training and feedback opportunity”. Practice Fusion is a free, web-based EHR. I’ve blogged about Practice before. It’s a neat application.

– Healthcare IT News: “Information technology professionals in the United States can expect starting salaries to increase an average of 3.4 percent in 2011, according to the Robert Half Technology Salary Guide 2011.” – Sweet!

– RxInformatics: “Recently I [John Poikonen] was fired from a faculty position for posting a blog entry.” This kind of thing never ceases to amaze me. I too have been stung by an employer that didn’t care for something I posted online, but I wasn’t fired. I know John and find his wit, experience and intelligence a refreshing change. He says what’s on his mind and people should listen. I tease John that he likes to poke bears with a stick, and he does, but that’s ok. We need people like John in our profession to raise concerns about issues that others may not be willing to speak out about. I’m not afraid or offended by what John has to say. He and I don’t always see eye-to-eye, but that has generated some great conversations and thought. If I can’t defend my position against opposing forces then my position is weak, and I should re-evaluate. I’m just sayin’.

– There’s a great article at The New York Times blog titled “When the Nurse Disagrees With the Doctor”. Theresa Brown, R.N. writes “I couldn’t believe that this doctor, who had always worked well with the nurses on my floor, had just suggested, at least in my mind, that a nurse’s opinion on patient care matters less because patients don’t directly make appointments with us.” Unfortunately this position from many physicians isn’t limited to nurses. I’ve played out similar scenarios with physicians many times over during my career. Sometimes the nurse, pharmacist, dietician, respiratory therapist, social worker, etc has valid concerns regarding a patient that should be taken seriously, evaluated, and addressed when appropriate. I worked for a pediatric hospital many years ago and we held interdisciplinary rounds in the pediatric ICU every week. All the stakeholders for the patient were in the room and everyone had a say. I can say without hesitation that it created an environment of caring and better care for the patient. No question about it.

– Check out Danielhooker.com. The site is dedicated to talking about “health libraries, and the impact that technology is having on information, medicine and human health.” I love medical librarians. They have so much to offer the profession of pharmacy and I find that they also have a healthy interest in technology.

– EasyMedMobile has thrown their hat in the mobile medicine ring with an iPhone app. Then again, who hasn’t?

– Submitted by @carlacorkern for our amusement, a great image of a martini glass with the caption “Just the Prescription” from a place called BARx. It’s weird to the see “Rx” attached to things other than pharmacy.

– Cardinal Health has announced that it will be expanding their integration with hospital pharmacy technologies.” Cardinal Health plans to integrate its services based on each hospital’s technology preference, but has already created partnerships and integration protocols for automated dispensing cabinets, carousels, robots, re-packaging equipment and software from pharmacy technology providers including CareFusion, Sentry Data Systems, Inc., Swisslog and Talyst. Current examples of integration capabilities include:

• CareFusion: Pyxis MedStation system;
• Sentry Data Systems, Inc.: Sentinel RCMTM and SentrexTM 340B software solutions;
• Swisslog: PillPick® system; BoxpickerTM and ATP Series;
• Talyst: AutoCarousel, AutoPack, AutoCool and AutoSplit 340B software.

Ok, I’m with you so far, but how are you planning to do it and is this really anything new? I’d love to talk with someone from Cardinal about this in more detail, and no I don’t want to speak to your marketing department; no offense.

– I found this little jewel at John Hill’s website. Sure makes life with a tablet PC easier.

– I am a fan of tablet PCs. Shocking, I know. Well, as it turns out I’m in the market for a new one. I’ve been using a Dell XT2 for the better part of 18 months now and have been satisfied with the device, but not all that impressed. I’ve excluded slate models because I really like having a keyboard. HP is out because I simply don’t like HP machines, which has me looking hard at Lenovo and Fujitsu. I really like the Levovo X201 tablet, but Fujitsu is the last vendor that I’m aware of still making a 13-inch tablet PC. Decisions. Anyone willing to share their experiences please feel free to educate me.

– Is it just me or is the NFL trying really hard to ruin the sport? I love football. I love watching football. But what I’m starting to really dislike is all the time, energy and effort the NFL is putting into making the NFL about entertainment instead of about playing football. The rules have become so complex that the NFL Network now has an entire weekly segment dedicated to explaining why something isn’t the way it should be. You can tackle people, but not by the top of the jersey in the back, or around the head, or if you accidently bump someone else’s helmet, or if the guy with the ball happens to be the quarterback, or if you’re near the boundary marker and are clearly going out of bounds; it’s a penalty for a quarterback to intentionally throw a ball away to keep from getting sacked unless he intentionally, intentionally grounds the ball, i.e. to keep from being tackled “outside the tackle box” or if he needs to stop the clock. Oh man, it gives me a headache. Unfortunately it’s starting to filter down into the college and high school ranks now. Bummer.

I’m through ranting now. Have a good weekend everyone.