Excuses are a great way to deflect work. And just like everyone else I’ve ever met I’m guilty of using them when they suite my needs. But it feels like I’ve run into more than my fair share of people lately that have nearly perfected the art of the excuse.
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Category: Uncategorized
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The art of the excuse
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Pharmacists and medication adherence
WSJ: “”Retail pharmacists appear to be able to play a really substantial role in encouraging patients to use their medications better,” says William Shrank, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of pharmacoepidemiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “They are an underutilized resource.”
A study by researchers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that a pharmacy-care program for 200 people age 65 and older who were taking at least four medications for chronic conditions boosted adherence to 97% from 61% after six months. Patients were educated about their medications, including usage instructions; medications were dispensed in blister packs that made it easier to keep track of whether they had taken their pills for the day; and pharmacists followed up with patients every two months.
After 12 months, those who continued to get the pharmacy care kept their adherence at about 96%, while adherence among those for whom the program was discontinued dropped to 69%.â€
This ties back in to what I was talking about on Saturday, i.e. that better use of pharmacists in the community practice setting might be a good thing. And one way to get community pharmacists to spend more time with patients is to get them out from behind the counter and away from the phones using better automation and technology. The inability of a patient to adhere to their medication regimen costs the healthcare system in the United States millions of dollars each and every year, but for some reason we continue to sit idle and allow it to continue.
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Monday evening quarterback
What a great weekend. The Super Bowl wasn’t a blowout and turned out to be quite exciting in the end. The commercials weren’t extravagant, but were surprisingly entertaining. The one downside was the absolutely embarrassing rendition of the National Anthem sung by Christina Aguilera. For all those would be National Anthem singers out there, please don’t add to or take away from the National Anthem. When you do, you’re doing nothing more than punching this great country of ours in the face.
Anyway, here’s some other stuff I’ve found interesting over the weekend:
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Pharmacy goals, a reality check and insanity – what the heck are we doing?
I’ve been conversing with several pharmacists about the future of pharmacy practice, specifically about the PPMI developed earlier this year by ASHP. This is a sharp group of people, but what I continually hear is the same thing I’ve heard for a number of years. While I’m not as experienced as many of my esteemed colleagues due to a late start to my career, I have worked in several acute care facilities. I’m not sure who said it, but Einstein gets credit for defining insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The literature presented in support of a new practice model is, in reality, based on current practice. It’s all looking at how best to apply the pharmacist’s current knowledge and resources to the current practice model. Economic outcomes improved by a pharmacist; great, but not new. Improved patient outcomes with a pharmacist in a team approach; awesome, but not new. Use a pharmacist as a prescriber; cool idea, but not new. These models are easily ten years old and we’re still talking about them as if they were new ideas. See a trend here? I think this is exactly what Einstein had in mind when he defined insanity.
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Merry Christmas 2010
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch of their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:8-11
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Google body browser is pretty cool
If you haven’t heard of the Google body browser, then you’re really missing out. Google body browser is an incredible in-browser 3D rendering of the human body. It offers individual anatomic layers of the skin, muscles, bones, vascular system, nervous system and organ system. The various layers can be selected or deselected as desired while offering even more flexibility by allowing the user to make any of the selected anatomic layers transparent. Truly amazing. I highly recommend giving it a try.
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To think outside the box you must first know what box you’re thinking in
I know you’ve heard it before; someone telling you to think outside the box. I know I’ve heard it a lot of times. It seems to be the catch phrase of choice when people want you to come up with a solution to a problem that no else can solve, or a problem where conventional wisdom doesn’t seem to be working.
I spent the last three days in San Francisco attending a pair of seminars put on by a company called Pragmatic Marketing. The first was a two day seminar titled “Practical Product Management†and focused on all the things an effective product manager should be doing. The second was a one day course titled “Requirements That Work†that spent time explaining the best way to move your product through a minefield from solving a market problem to getting your well defined solution designed, developed and shipped.
Overall the information was worthwhile. Because I’m new to the world of product management I was pretty much overwhelmed by the information because I have a lack of familiarity with everything from the verbiage to the business world. I looked around the room and noted how many heavy hitters in the technology world were represented, including RIM and HP. The thought hit me like a ton of bricks: these people are here to learn how to think inside the box. Let’s face it, the material was a well laid out roadmap of how to be a successful product manager. I always wonder how things like this get started. Someone made it big and everyone else decided that that was the right way to do things and started copying the process.
Several times during the three day course the instructor used the phrase “lather, rinse, repeatâ€. In other words create a process that is standardized and repeatable; interesting concept. This is the exact opposite of thinking outside the box. In fact, it is teaching every product manager to use the exact same box if they want to be a success. Is that the right approach? I have no idea. Obviously I’ll take what I’ve learned and try to apply it verbatim. I mean after all, I no idea what being a product manger is all about. I’ve been a pharmacist for the past 13 years and a product manager for three weeks. I really need someone to draw a box for me to work in. I’m just sayin’.
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“What’d I miss?” – The week of December 5
It’s been a busy week, and pretty much all my attention was focused on the ASHP Midyear event in Anaheim, California. Of course as a pharmacist that’s where my focus should have been, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of the world stopped moving. Here are some of the things I found interesting this week:
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Don’t blame the turkey
I love Thanksgiving. It’s about being with family, watching a lot of football and trying to eat my body weight in Pumpkin pie; everyone needs a goal.One of the most common things I hear around Thanksgiving time is that “turkey makes you sleepy”. When questioned about it people “in the know” say that it’s the tryptophan in the turkey that’s responsible for making everyone’s eyelids heavy. But is that true?
L-Tryptophan is an essential amino acid found in various protein rich foods such as the traditional Thanksgiving meal, i.e. turkey. The body utilizes tryptophan to help make niacin and serotonin. And as we all know, serotonin is responsible for changes in mood and is thought to affect sleep.
But does that mean that the L-tryptophan in turkey makes us sleepy? Not necessarily. Most people say it will, but they’re simply repeating what they’ve heard. Truth be told, there’s no good evidence to suggest that L-tryptophan induces sleep. In fact, the evidence in the literature is inconclusive. So based on the lack of evidence don’t blame the turkey for your post Thanksgiving meal coma. Instead, stuff your face with great food, unbutton your pants, lay on the couch to watch the games on TV and let nature take its course.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Enjoy the time with family and friends.
