Jerry Fahrni

Category: Uncategorized

  • Lexicomp announces expanded neonatal dosing information

    Lexicomp is still the best drug information resource in the business in my opinion, and today I received an email announcing expanded neonatal dosing information in their pediatric references. The new information should be available for online subscriptions and all handheld subscriptions almost immediately; officially June 2. Changes to the print version should appear some time in mid August.

    From Lexicomp News & Notes Update:

    Introducing NEW Neonatal Dosing Information

    Lexicomp is improving and expanding its neonatal dosing information in all handheld subscriptions to help deliver even better patient care for this sensitive population. Detailed dosing information for this high-risk population has been enhanced and highlighted to reduce confusion. This new field will be available in both print and handheld software, and will make it easier to find relevant neonatal dosing information on hundreds of drugs. In fact, Lexicomp now has specific neonatal dosing information on over 250 drugs — over 50% more than other sources!

    ONLINE AND HANDHELD

    On June 2, the Pediatric Lexi-Drugs database will be renamed Pediatric & Neonatal Lexi-Drugs. The new field with enhanced neonatal dosing information will start showing up on the same day. If you already subscribe to this database, you will only need to perform an update to get the new field.

    IN PRINT

    The next edition of the Pediatric Dosage Handbook is the 18th edition, which is scheduled to publish in mid August 2011. This edition will have a new name — the Pediatric & Neonatal Dosage Handbook — and will include the enhanced and highlighted neonatal dosing information.

  • Now here’s a job worth investigating

    I’ve been infatuated with job listing lately as I feel that many healthcare systems looking for pharmacists just don’t get it. But I have to give credit where credit is due. I came across the following listing in my RSS feed this morning. It comes from The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.

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  • AJHP Podcast on PPMI with Dr. Henri Manasse of ASHP

    I just finished listening to an AJHP Podcast interview of Dr. Henri Manasse, CEO and Executive Vice President of ASHP and keynote speaker at the PPMI Summit last year.

    Overall it was an interesting interview. Dr. Manasse had some good things to say. One thing I found particularly interesting was a short section near the beginning of the interview where he spoke about using pharmacy residents to focus on issues brought up during the PPMI Summit.

    Every pharmacy resident is required to do a project during their residency. The projects range from investigational medication use, to antibiotic stewardship programs, to investigating new practice models. Most hold significant value not only to the resident, but the facility as well. Project time in many pharmacies is difficult to come by for pharmacists in a staffing role, so it makes sense to make use of pharmacy residents when appropriate.

    With over 1500 pharmacy residents each year it shouldn’t take long to knock out all those PPMI Summit recommendations.

  • West Coast fails to get single city in list of top 7 cities for IT jobs…bummer

    Healthcare IT News:

    Houston claimed the top spot to find an IT job in large part due to its position as a key hub for numerous global organizations – many of which are now rebounding from the recession and benefitting from increased IT budget.

    …

    A number of east coast cities also took top spots on the list – including Washington, D.C., which came in second, and boasts a 6 percent unemployment rate, well below the national average. Not surprisingly, most of the employment demand in the nation’s capital is being driven by the U.S. government, as it provides a variety of economic incentives for companies to start up or to relocate in the market. In addition to the government, other sectors seeking IT talent in Washington, D.C. include biotech, associations, telecom, financial services, technology, IT startups/dot-coms, construction and hospitality.

    The full list of top cities to find a job in IT are:
    1. Houston
    2. Washington, DC
    3. Columbus, OH
    4. Detroit
    5. Philadelphia
    6. Edison, NJ
    7. Boston

    Why do you suppose the West Coast is so far out of the loop?

  • Why I dropped DropBox

    I received the following email message from DropBox the other day:

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  • Being labeled as ‘Google sheep’

    sheepI’ve been labeled ‘Google sheep’! All this because I said the Google Chromebook wasn’t a bad idea. Did I come out and say it was the only platform worth using? Nope. Did I say it was the greatest thing since sliced bread? Certainly not. Did I say it was revolutionary? By no means. Did I say it would change the way we look at computing? Not even close. Did I say it would be the dominant computing platform for the next 100 years? Sorry, but no. So why label me Google Sheep?

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  • Why Disney should run healthcare

    My oldest daughter’s competitive cheer team qualified for the World’s Cheer competition in Orlando, FL. The competition was held a couple of weekends ago at Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports. There were teams from all over the world; Czech Republic, Canada, Japan, China, Mexico, New Zealand the US, among others. It was big, really big and Disney handled it without incident.

    Here are some observations:
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  • Some friendly advice for pharmacy recruiters

    I get a fair number of emails and phone calls from pharmacy recruiters. The number has decreased over the past couple of years secondary to the change in demand for pharmacists, but I still get them. Lately I think it’s a byproduct of having a LinkedIn profile, which makes me wonder if LinkedIn is worth the time, energy and effort of keeping an online work profile up to date. That’s a post for another day.

    Regardless, most of the recruiters that contact me offend more than intrigue me, and here’s where they make their mistakes. (more…)

  • All good things must come to an end, and so goes the pharmacist shortage

    The pharmacist shortage was both good and bad for the pharmacy profession. On one hand it created demand which drove up salaries and improved work environments for some. On the other hand it created an environment of apathy where competition to become better dipped because frequently all you needed was a pulse and a license to get hired and/or keep your job.

    Well, times are changing. I noticed a slight change in pharmacist demand during my last two years in the hospital and many people that I’ve talked to across the country confirm what I’ve been thinking – the pharmacist shortage is over.
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  • When are you most creative?

    Recently I was asked to deliver a presentation at a conference coming up at the end of April. I don’t typically turn down opportunities to take a trip and talk about something of interest to me, so I agreed. The topic was in the neighborhood of my comfort zone, but not exactly on the same street if you know what I mean.

    I sat down and started putting the presentation together and realized I had no idea what I wanted to talk about or what direction I wanted to take the slides. The time seemed to drag on over a couple of evenings while sitting in my favorite creative spot in the house, i.e. sitting on the floor with my back against the couch in front of the TV. The problem wasn’t the desire, but rather the approach. It felt forced. It’s much easier to be productive when you have something in mind and are working toward that goal. Creativity on the other hand seems to flow when you give your brain some time to rest and focus not on the task at hand, but something you enjoy.

    Anyway, I forced myself to put the presentation aside and forget about it. Fast forward several days to the weekend and I’m sitting in a convention center in Sacramento watching my daughter’s cheer competition; nothing unusual about that. During a break in the action the MC was talking about something and made a small gesture with his hand. For reasons beyond my comprehension it sparked a thought that ended with me coming up with the content for the presentation I was working on. When I got back to the hotel that night I quickly hammered out the outline for the presentation and filled in the content a few nights later.

    What’s the moral of the story? It’s really quite simple: creativity isn’t something you can “think about” or force. It usually comes when you’re doing something you enjoy or when you take the time to quiet your mind. The typical work day is full of distractions that lead not to creativity, but productivity. As strange as that may sound it’s true. So I encourage everyone to take some time to simply “zone out” and let your mind wander. It’s worth it.