Jerry Fahrni

Author: Jerry Fahrni

  • Infographic for future of RFID

    Found this little jewel over at the ThinkMagic website.

    According to the commentary: “There is no doubt that over the next decade, RFID systems will become an integral part of the consumer and business experience. The convergence of wireless technologies will be augmented by RFID systems. The development of passive RFID as part of this platform will be driven by the potential to measure, report and monetize a growing number of transactions in the physical world.  Purpose-built systems will incorporate passive sensors and computational systems will emerge.  In certain applications, it is hard to imagine everyday physical objects without “built-in” RFID.” – RFID is one of those technologies that should be used more in healthcare, but isn’t. It’s inexplicable.
    (more…)

  • New hydrogel research gives new meaning to “sustained released” medication

    Medical Xpress: “Researchers from the University of Cambridge have developed injectable, reformable and spreadable hydrogels which can be loaded with proteins or other therapeutics. The hydrogels contain up to 99.7% water by weight, with the remainder primarily made up of cellulose polymers held together with cucurbiturils – barrel-shaped molecules which act as miniature ‘handcuffs’….

     The hydrogels developed by Scherman, Dr Xian Jun Loh and PhD student Eric Appel are capable of delivering sustained release of the proteins they contain for up to six months, compared with the current maximum of three months. The rate of release can be controlled according to the ratio of materials in the hydrogel.” –  I think you’ll see more and more treatment with proteins in the future as we continue to advance “drug therapy”. Given that chronic conditions cause major problems for healthcare in terms of patient adherence, a system that acts as a six month reservoir offers up some serious potential.

    The article referred to can be found below. Unfortunately I could only access the abstract, which was almost useless.

  • Motion takes the wrapper off new F5t and C5t rugged tablet PCs

    Motion has is a familiar name in the healthcare industry. Their C5 tablet PC used to be fairly popular among hospitals implementing BCMA. Not so much anymore.

    Regardless of their current popularity, Motion has announced an update to a couple of their rugged tablet PCs, namely the F5t and C5t. I’m not a big fan of either as I prefer their J3500, but they’re still pretty slick machines.
    (more…)

  • Microsoft Surface RT tablet for $199? Too good to be true

    I’ve been reading reports at various tech blogs that the new Microsoft Surface RT tablet due out in late October is going to be priced at $199. While I’d like to believe it, I simply think it’s too good to be true. At $199 the Windows RT version of the Surface tablet would be a no-brainer for anyone looking for a nice tablet with enterprise potential. Let’s face it, at that price I wouldn’t hesitate to grab one site unseen.


    (more…)

  • Amazon Cloud Player [Music] – Initial Impression

    I’ve been using Google Music to listen to and store all my music for a while now. The reason I’ve been using it is obvious, i.e. it’s well integrated with all my Android devices; of which I have four. It’s fairly easy to use. I dump music on any of my computers and Google kindly syncs it to my other devices in addition to the cloud. It offers all the essentials including offline listening, which I use while traveling.

    (more…)

  • IV room technology …just sayin’

    From a recent article in August 2012 issue of Pharmacy Practice News:

    Within the first month of implementation [of a bar-code medication preparation (BCMP) system], 85% of all IV drugs in the children’s hospital IV room were covered by the BCMP system, which does the following: “prints” labels to a touchscreen computer from which a technician can pick which dose he or she wants to prepare; verifies via bar-code technology that the correct medication and diluent were chosen, provides instructions to technicians about how make the preparation, allows technicians to take pictures of the preparation process and automatically time stamps each step in that process for future record keeping and management reporting.

    The unique bar code that is assigned to each product then can be used to track the medication to the nursing unit, or whatever end location has been provided, with a location bar code.

    Since the implementation of the BCMP IV system, which both Drs. Fortier and Maughan describe as a “best practice for the near future,” MUSC staff have seen “eight to 10 medications a day that could have been an error [with] the old system,” according to Dr. Maughan. “That represents 1.3% to 3% of the total number of doses dispensed.”

    It’s no secret that I think the IV room is an area that pharmacy has yet to address properly when it comes to automation and technology. We simple haven’t developed a product that will change the way pharmacy compounds IV’s. I have some thoughts on that, but will keep them offline for now. If you’re interested in talking about the future of IV room practice feel free to drop me a line. Sorry, I digress.
    (more…)

  • Saturday morning coffee [August 11 2012]

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

    The coffee mug to the right comes from Six Flags Over Texas. As with last weeks coffee mug, I picked it up while the Fahrni crew was on vacation terrorizing the Lone Star State. I like red and I like M&M’s. No brainer.

    - Dark Knight Rises continued its reign as #1 at the box office last weekend. My family and I took in Total Recall last weekend. Meh, not what I was hoping for. It simply wasn’t that good.

    – All I have to say is football season is here. Finally! Finally I can listen to sports talk radio again. Finally I can watch grown men try to kill each other on the football field. Finally I get to see Ray Lewis blow up some poor schmuck. Finally I can vent my anger at something besides people. Finally Major League Baseball will slide into obscurity again until next year. Finally football season is here. Holy crap it feels like years since I watched an NFL game.
    (more…)

  • Biased pain medication prescribing

    KevinMD.com:

    “Undertreated pain is worse than addiction.”

    On one end is the doctor who is deeply, morally troubled by patients in pain. This doctor is not unaware of the risk of addiction but is willing to risk being taken advantage of by a wily narcotic seeker rather than leave pain untreated. This doctor knows that undertreated pain can tremendously decrease his/her patients’ quality of life. He/she feels that relieving suffering is one of the most important responsibilities of a physician.

    “Addiction is worse than undertreated pain.”

    On the other end is the doctor who is deeply, morally troubled by the possibility that he/she may contribute to someone’s narcotic addiction. This doctor is not indifferent to pain but is willing to risk undertreating pain rather than inadvertently create an addict. This doctor knows that every single narcotic addict gets their ongoing pill supply, directly or indirectly, from a physician’s prescription pad. He/she feels that preventing the misuse of these dangerous medications is one of the most important responsibilities of a physician.

    The article is interesting because it’s basically true. The author describes two camps in the pursuit of pain and the potential for “addiction”: 1) “Undertreated pain is worse than addiction.” or 2) “Addiction is worse than undertreated pain.” I’ve come across both camps during my stint as a pharmacist.

    I think there are a couple of things worth mentioning. First, I would speculate that those on the side of addiction-is-worse-than-undertreated-pain have never been in severe pain. Pain can be both mentally and physically devastating; been there. And second, I believe there is a distinct difference between addiction and dependence. People that are in pain, real pain, will seek pain medication. That doesn’t make them an addict. It makes them humans in search of relief from pain. They are basically dependent on pain medication to maintain a certain quality of life. People with diabetes utilize insulin to maintain a certain quality of life. Do we say that they are addicted to insulin? Not likely.

    The controversy surrounding pain medications is troubling to me. I fear that people will needlessly suffer as physicians and other healthcare providers become paranoid about potential addiction and regulatory issues, which will ultimately lead to rampant under treatment of pain. All I’m saying is first and foremost treat the patient.

  • Time to revisit the ultra-mobile personal computing platform

    Time to revisit the ultra-mobile personal computing platform

    Remember when ultra-mobile personal computing (UMPC) was all the rage? I do, but it’s been a while. That was back in the day when you had machines like the HTC Shift or the OQO Microcomputer (Models 1-3).

    You could argue that smartphones have become the new UMPC platform, or even perhaps the host of new iOS and Android tablets, but they’re really not the same thing. The UMPC movement involved computers that were designed, in concept at least, to give you the desktop experience on a machine that you could fit in your pocket. This included using an operating system similar to the desktop as well as a physical keyboard and the ability to dock the device and use peripherals like a mouse.

    A perfect example of a UMPC device was the OQO Microcomputer. The OQO was a 5-inch computer with physical keyboard that ran Microsoft Windows. I wanted one so bad I could taste it. Unfortunately the OQO was a $2000 luxury that I simply couldn’t justify at the time. I did however get my hands on one for about a week. The experience was cool, but it definitely left me feeling like the device would be difficult to use as a true desktop replacement.
    (more…)

  • Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 just around the corner

    It appears that the Android tablet I’ve been waiting for is mere weeks away from hitting the street. Of course I’m talking about the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. If reports around the ‘net are true, the Note 10.1 should be available by the end of August, i.e. this month.

    Specs include a 1.4GHz quad core processor, 2GB RAM, a pair of cameras (1.9MP on the front and a 5MP on the rear), microSD card slot, and of course pen support. I’m looking forward to having a 10.1-inch Android tablet optimized for the S Pen.

    My limited experiences with the Galaxy Note have been exceptional, and one can only imagine that the additional real estate provided by a 10.1-inch screen will provide ample opportunity to do some really cool stuff.

    The promotional video is below. If the tablet can perform even half of the functions covered in the video, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 will be a must have tablet.

    Samsung is on fire.