This has nothing to do with pharmacy technology, but I thought it would be worth posting. Questions about cross reactivity of one local anesthetic to another don’t come along often, but when they do it’s never easy to formulate a quick answer. Lucky for me I’m an electronic pack-rat and saved a small drug information consult I did a few years ago regarding the issue. Remember, this is for entertainment purposes only. ;-)
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Author: Jerry Fahrni
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Local anesthetic allergies.
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Web 2.0, Health 2.0, Medicine 2.0…I bring you Pharmacy 2.0
Spend any length of time around health care related websites and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. Words like “Web 2.0”, “Health 2.0” and “Medicine 2.0” are catch phrases being tossed around like socks in a dryer. It’s officially a phase 5/6 pandemic. Here’s a little background to get you started.
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“What’d I miss?” -Week of May 4th
As usual there were a lot of things happening this week in healthcare, and not all of it was technology related. Here’s a quick look at some of the stuff I browsed this week:
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.
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Radio-frequency identification (RFID) as a form of EHR
TheHealthCareBlog.com:  “When Harvard Medical School and CareGroup CIO Dr. John Halamka agreed to place his medical information on an RFID chip and have it implanted it in his arm, he triggered an instant global spotlight on this unusual form of portable electronic medical record.  The decision, made in December 2004 and disclosed in early 2005, captured worldwide attention from places a diverse as Fox News, the BBC and the New England Journal of Medicine (where Halamka contributed a commentary ).
As recently as 2007, a debate over chip privacy and safety versus having critical medical data instantly at hand (as it were) was featured in a PLoS Medicine exchange. In it, Halamka asserted, “Implantation of RFID devices is one tool, appropriate for some patients based on their personal analysis of risks and benefits, that can empower patients by serving as a source of identity and a link to a personal health record when the patient cannot otherwise communicate.—
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Cool Technology in Pharmacy
The InforMedix Med-eMonitor is an internet enabled medication storage device that sounds musical chimes when it’s time for a patient to take their medication. Coined a “smat pillbox” by the maker it provides dosing instructions to the user and monitors their medication use. According to the website the device offers:
– Medication reminders and dosing information for up to 25 medications
– Separate medication trays slots to hold up to 5 different medications
– Secure monitoring 24 hours a day
– General health questionnaires and health education
– Alerts to caregivers and loved ones, whom you select, are sent as necessary if medications are  missed or health is declining
– 24/7 support available through optional support services-COMING SOON
– Supports the “five Rights†of Medication Safety – Right Patient, Right Medication, Right Dose, Right Time, Right route of administrationThe device has been used successfully in at least one study along with similar devices in other studies.
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How medical [or pharmacy] students can get into Health IT
Healthcareguy.com: “If you’re a medical [or pharmacy] student who is also interested in information technology, there’s a great way to make both your passions meet and make a career out of it. Healthcare IT is a field that’s growing rapidly, more so with the advent of handheld smart devices that are making the sharing of information extremely simple. As a medical [or pharmacy] student, you have the advantage of being knowledgeable in the field, knowledge that you can apply to your new career.” Health care information technology is growing rapidly, and I think health care professionals have a unique perspective on how to design and implement the very systems they use on a daily basis. It’s a good fit for me anyway.
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Special report on health care and technology
Economist.com: I’m not sure how I missed this article, but it is a must read for anyone interested in health care and technology. The contents of the special report include:
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Back it up, sir. Back it up.
When it comes to backing up data I feel a little like the Featherduster in Beauty and the Beast when she says [to Lumiere]…”I’ve been burnt by you before!”
I have several back-up solutions that I use based on my location. My primary machine at work is a Dell Latitude D520. I prefer a laptop for many reasons and do not have a desktop machine at work. My data is automatically backed up to the network. Because I’ve lived through a couple of hard drive (HD) melt downs, I like to keep an up to date image of my laptop around just in case. A Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 1 TB drive with Norton Ghost does the trick. I get a complete image of my laptop every Thursday at 4:00pm.
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Innovations ’09
Siemens Innovations ’09 is being held in the “City of Brotherly Love” this year (i.e. Philadelphia). I received the registration packet in the mail just a few of hours ago. A lot of great minds gather at this meeting to discuss many timely topics. I highly recommend attending. I attended the meeting last year in Las Vegas, NV and picked up some great tips on how to make our pharmacy system run smarter and more efficiently.
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iPhone as a mobile healthcare device?
Apple.com: “A community medical center near Philadelphia, Doylestown Hospital relies on a mobile workforce of 360 independent physicians to provide a highly responsive healing environment for thousands of patients. Those physicians stay connected 24/7 to colleagues and hospital staff with their first responder: Apple iPhone 3G. With iPhone, doctors get access to patients’ vital stats, medical reference applications, and breaking health alerts to provide collaborative and efficient patient care.†The article goes on to describe how the iPhone has physicians linked to the hospital’s exchange server and also allows them access to the hospital’s electronic medical records system (MEDITECH Client/Server 6.0) via the phone’s Safari browser. The mobile access certainly doesn’t have to be from an iPhone, but the popularity of the device has certainly sent creative minds in the right direction.