Month: July 2012

What the heck is MolPrime for Android? I’ll tell you….

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How’s this for convoluted? Following a link to Chemspy about the Open Drug Discovery Teams (ODDT) app in the iTunes store led me to Cheminformatics where I got all giddy about finding a website dedicated to “chemical information software for next generation computing environments”, and eventually found the post below:

“The Android port of MolPrime is getting closer to being a functional app. As you can see in the two-part snapshot to the right, the both the main screen and the diagram sketcher have enough capabilities to present the initial facade. The sketcher currently only displays the structure and some buttons, but that’s still solid progress.”

I’m a fan of all things chemistry, especially when it involves awesome apps that let you look at and draw chemical structures. I mean seriously, is there anything cooler than that? Doubtful. It was like stumbling onto the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

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Effect of a Pharmacist Intervention on Clinically Important Medication Errors After Hospital Discharge [article]

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Ann Intern Med. 3 July 2012;157(1):1-10

A study looking at pharmacist-assited med rec, counseling and telephone follow-up after dischage for adults hospitalized with acute coronary syndromes or acute decompensated heart failure. According to the article pharmacist intervention didn’t do much in the way of reducing “clinically important medication errors“, but may have led to fewer potential ADEs.

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Saturday morning coffee [July 14 2012]

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So much happens each and every week that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Here are some of the taps that are open in my browser this morning along with some random thoughts….

The coffee mug to the right was part of a Pharmacy Week swag bag when I was still a real pharmacist. Pharmacy Week occurs yearly in October. It’s an attempt by some of the professional pharmacy organizations to increase the publics awareness of the profession. It also gives the pharmacists employer a chance to hand our “atta’ boys”. One year I received a folding beach chair, another year I recieved a water bottle, and so on. Not sure what year I received this mug, though. I haven’t actually worked as a pharmacist for a couple of years so it’s been at least that long.

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Color to differentiate information on pharmacy labels

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I put this up the other day at my Talyst blog. I don’t often cross post between that blog and this one because I tend to keep the “corporate” blog a bit more watered down. But in this case I thought it was worth it. I’ve been thinking a lot about the use of color in pharmacy labels. I’m not sure why we don’t see more of it in pharmacy. It may have something to do with the limited number of suitable color printers and label stock. As prevalent as color printing is in the consumer world, you’d think it would be simple. Unfortunately it’s not.

I for one think color has a place in the pharmacy. It could be used to improve patient safety, and when used appropriately improve workflow and operations.

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Stabilization of vaccines and antibiotics in silk and eliminating the cold chain [article]

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This would be huge for pharmacy if/when it all gets worked out and commercialized. Eliminating cold chain? Wow. chemistry world: Kaplan’s process to formulate drugs with silk is incredibly simple. After preparing a solution of silk protein in water, the medicines are added and the mixture is freeze-dried to create a stable preservative matrix. Kaplan … Read more

CMS allows repackaging of single-dose vials “under certain circumstances”

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Each Friday I receive a newsletter from CompoundingToday.com. The newsletter features an editorial from Dr. Loyd V. Allen, Jr, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Pharmaceutical Compounding.

A couple of weeks ago the editorial focused on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) newly clarified position on the use of sing-dose vials in medication distribution. It’s a rather important piece of information that I haven’t seen elsewhere. You’d think hospitals would be jumping all over this as it not only saves waste, i.e. cost, but can help with the drug shortage issue as well. It’s hard to say why I haven’t heard more about it, but I haven’t. Go figure.

Anyway, Dr. Allen’s editorial is reproduced in its entirety below. The CMS document can be found here (PDF).

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Teaching Medication Adherence in US Colleges and Schools of Pharmacy [article]

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An article in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education takes a look at “the nature and extent of medication adherence education in US colleges and schools of pharmacy”. Surprise, the authors found that “Intermediate and advanced concepts in medication adherence, such as conducting interventions, are not adequately covered in pharmacy curriculums”. Disappointing outcome as medication … Read more

Saturday morning coffee [July 7 2012]

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So much happens each and every week that it’s hard to keep up sometimes. Here are some of the taps that are open in my browser this morning along with some random thoughts….

The coffee mug to the right comes straight from Philadelphia. I picked it up at a Starbucks near my hotel during a “Siemens Innovations” conference in 2009. The city is certainly full of history, but not my kind of town. It didn’t help that I was there in August. Yeah, it was hot and humid. On the bright side I had my first authentic “Philly Cheesesteak”, although there was some argument at the hotel when I asked where to get it.

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Forcing re-entry of patient ID cuts wrong-patient errors

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You know how websites make you double enter your email address and password when you sign up for a service? Well, apparently that’s not a bad system for making sure you have the right patient during order entry. You’d think we would have figured that out a while back, but then again this is healthcare … Read more