Jerry Fahrni

Author: Jerry Fahrni

  • Cool Technology for Pharmacy – MedReady

    Medication compliance was an issue long before I became a pharmacist, and it will continue to be that way until the end of time. Some patients chose not to take their medication, while others simple can’t remember, and still others may be willing to take their medication but can’t for one reason or another. The impact of medication noncompliance on healthcare is staggering. Depending on the reference used, the cost of medication noncompliance can run into the billions secondary to hospital admissions caused by treatment failure.

    The MedReady system is a solution that can effectively help those with bad memories stay compliant. The small, smoke alarm looking device is designed to hold up to 28 separate medication doses with frequencies up to four times a day.
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  • An almost disastrous bar-coding mishap

    At some point in the past few days it was decided that our technicians should re-label all injectable controlled substances with one of our “after market” flag labels. I’m not sure when or how the decision was made, but it was. When questioned about it, the rationale behind the decision was that the nurses were wasting unused medication at the ADCs and not taking the vial to the bedside. And apparently the solution was to use our flag labels because they offer a peel away section that can be taken to the bedside with the drug in a syringe for scanning and administration purposes.
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  • Motion J3500 gets a wicked upgrade

    Earlier today I mentioned the Motion J3400 in reference to the mobile computers we use in pharmacy.  And right on queue Motion Computing announces the release of the Motion J3500, the big brother to the J3400. Several of the key changes include availability of Intel Core i5 and i7 vPro Processors, a dual touch display – optimized for digitizer and touch input, Gorilla Glass, a View Anywhere display and an optional 128GB Solid State Drive. Throw in 7 hours of battery life plus the rough and tumble nature of the J3500 and you’ve got yourself a pretty nice tablet.

    There’s a great look at the J3500 over at RuggedPC Review including photos and a video.
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  • Quick Hit – Mobile devices in our pharmacy

    During preparation for a presentation that I’m giving at Innovations 2010 on mobile computing in pharmacy, I realized that we seem to be collecting quite a variety of mobile devices in the pharmacy at Kaweah Delta. Below are some images of the devices currently in use.
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  • Top blog posts and searches from last week (25)

    I always find it interesting to see what brings people to my website and what they decided to read once they get here.

    Most read posts over the past 7 days:

    1. Cool Technology for Pharmacy – RxVerify – RxVerify is a neat piece of software that fits a nice little niche.
    2. Cool Technology for Pharmacy – This was before I started putting the name of the cool technology in the blog title. This particular post was from June 18, 2009 and covered Alaris Smartpumps.
    3. Best iPhone / iPod Touch Applications for Pharmacists – As I’ve said before, just throw any Apple product in the post and it’s bound to get some hits.
    4. Cool Technology for Pharmacy – Another post from before I started putting the name of the cool technology in the blog title. This particular post was from September 10, 2009 and covered the capsule machine.
    5. Medscape Mobile for the BlackBerry – Looks like interest in Medscape Mobile for the BlackBerry devices is starting to slip. Still, it’s amazing that this post stays on the list.
    6. Cool Technology for Pharmacy – Practice Fusion EMR – Great piece of software.
    7. Curriculum Vitae
    8. Bar-code musings
    9. Quick update: Pharmacy iPad use – What the heck is an iPad, anyway?
    10. Scanning difficulties with certain barcodes – I received some great feedback on this information

    Top searchterm phrases used over the past 7 days:

    1. “alaris pump“
    2. “transparency” – Interesting, I’ve never talked about transparency in healthcare.
    3. “jerry fahrni“
    4. “black cloud”
    5. “cloud computing cartoon”
    6. “fenton capsule“
    7. “alaris iv pump“
    8. “bcma and iv interoperability“
    9. “va hospital with rfid scanner“
    10. “ipad pharmacy applications“

  • Lexi-CALC now available for Android

    I received an email today from Lexi-Comp announcing the availability of Lexi-CALC for the Android OS. The email reads in part:

    “…you might not be aware of the newest addition for Android® smartphones: Lexi-CALC™!

    Lexi-CALC includes 65 medical calculators designed to assist you in addressing dosing, drug conversions, infusion rates, pharmacokinetics and more.

    Purchase any Lexi-Comp® handheld product for your Android smartphone today and get 25% off! Take advantage of this special discount offer in celebration of the Lexi-CALC release!”

    The 25% discount is nothing to shake a stick at as purchasing Lexi-Comp drug information databases can add up quickly. Lexi-CALC does not appear to be a stand alone application, but shows up as one of the databases in several of their packages.

  • What type of techie are you?

    Technology is a funny thing. It’s as diverse as it is interesting. Like many other disciplines, the field of pharmacy technology offers a host of options for pretty much every taste. And not everyone considers all types of pharmacy technology interesting, which has become abundantly clear to me as I continue to meet more professionals in my field.

    My opinions on certain key pharmacy and automation technologies are clearly in conflict with many of my friends and colleagues. It’s an odd thing being in the minority and it can drive someone to think their ideas are wrong. However, after serious consideration I realized that the main difference between many of my colleagues and myself is that I tend to be drawn toward hardware based technology while they are drawn toward software technology and regulatory affairs. While it’s true that I like playing with certain types of software, in general it doesn’t have much to offer. Thinking about how to make a piece of software easier to use might be interesting, but if you really think about it that is a gray area between software and hardware, i.e. user interface not necessarily software functionality. That’s probably some type of human engineering discipline to be sure, but I don’t have an official term. And let’s face it, regulatory affairs is simply boring. It’s a necessary evil in healthcare as every governmental agency thinks they need to regulate pharmacy and medicine with more rules then you can shake a stick at, but there really isn’t a while lot you can do with it besides learn it and use it.
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  • “What’d I miss?” – Week of June 13, 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.
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  • Cool Technology for Pharmacy – RxVerify

    While reading through a pharmacy listserv I came across a seemingly simple piece of software that fills an important gap in the pharmacy distribution process. RxVerify, by Pharmacy Ideas, is a bar-code verification system used during the medication restocking phase for code boxes, anesthesia trays, transport boxes, etc.
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  • Bar-code musings

    Bar-code verbiage
    Last week I posted some examples of difficult bar-codes. The post was well received and generated a fair number of comments; for me anyway. One of the commenters, John Nachtrieb of Fotel, had this to say: “Jerry: Another comment–The ASHP Statement on Barcode Verification (If I’m reading it accurately) speaks about using a barcode to verify that the medication is correct, which is a different usage of the term “verify” than I think you are using. Barcode pro’s use “verify” the same way you do–making sure the symbol is “legible” to the scanner. Then there is the issue of “validation” which, in the parlance of barcode professionals, refers to making sure the barcode correctly identifies the product it’s on.”
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