Jerry Fahrni

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  • Beyond the idea of a medical-alert bracelet with the use of text messaging

    I stumbled across an article in The Wall Street Journal that discusses the use of advancing technologies to improve first responder access to important patient information. Anyone that has a severe allergy or that requires special treatment for a rare or life threatening medical condition is probably aware of medical alert bracelets. Order forms for these trinkets are prevalent in pharmacies across the country. Well it seems that the idea of medical alert bracelets is starting to take on a more technologically advanced edge like everything else in healthcare these days.

    One of the things that caught my eye in the article was the mention of a program called Invisible Bracelet (iB) that utilizes text messaging to retrieve pertinent medical information about a patient, while at the same time notifying the patient’s emergency contact(s). And since I was just talking about using text messaging as a way to improve patient compliance with medications I thought it was worth a closer look.

    “The program, a partnership between Docvia LLC of Tulsa, Okla., and the American Ambulance Association, a trade association, allows members for $10 a year to upload personal medical data to a secure website and receive a personal identification number. Members get cards to place behind their driver’s license, key fobs and stickers that can be put on, say, a bike helmet that show their identification number and the website address.

    The program is currently available in a dozen markets and is expected to expand. Docvia trains ambulance medics to use the system. The website also allows medics to automatically generate text or email messages to designated family members notifying them where the patient is being taken by ambulance.”

    Neat concept.

  • Cool Technology for Pharmacy – CareSpeak

    Texting is a popular method of communication for nearly all walks of life nowadays. I fought the texting bug for a long time until I finally discovered that it was a quick and easy way to communicate with my wife and daughters throughout the day.

    It was only a matter of time before texting made its way into healthcare as a viable option as a way to remind patients to take their medications. Texting has been used to increase medication compliance in certain disease states such as diabetes and pediatric liver transplant. This isn’t the case for all patient demographics as text reminders did not improve compliance with women taking oral contraceptives.

    Nonetheless, the idea of using text messages to encourage patients to take their medication is the goal of CareSpeak and their line of available applications: MediM Alerts, Diabetes Monitor and MediM Alerts+.
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  • Conference note taking with a tablet PC

    I took a trip to San Diego last Friday to visit with some colleagues. During one interesting conversation the subject of me using a tablet PC in place of almost any other type of computer came up. One of the things that has drawn me to tablet PCs is their functionality. They offer nearly everything I get from a laptop plus the added benefits of a touch screen and inking. While the touch screen is useful for navigating the web and playing with photos I find it most useful for taking notes, i.e. inking. I no longer carry one of those yellow legal pads that I see everyone writing on at meetings. What do people do with those legal pads when they’re full?
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  • Top blog posts and searches from last week (37)

    Top blog posts and searches from last week (37)
    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. Best iPhone / iPod Touch Applications for Pharmacists
    2. Automated unit-dose packagers for acute care pharmacy
    3. Cool Technology for Pharmacy (June 18,2009 – Alaris Smartpumps)
    4. Cool Technology for Pharmacy – Practice Fusion EMR
    5. Medscape Mobile for the BlackBerry
    6. Cool Technology for Pharmacy (September 10, 2009 – The Capsule Machine)
    7. Is the 30-minute rule for medication administration good or bad?
    8. Dell Streak to be integrated into healthcare solutions, Yippee!
    9. Cool Technology for Pharmacy – Baxa Repeater Pump
    10. Why automated medication kiosks could be good for pharmacy practice

    Top searchterm phrases used over the past 7 days:

    1. “how to script in practice fusion”
    2. “Medscape mobile”
    3. “jerry fahrni”
    4. “transparency ”
    5. “black cloud”
    6. “mckesson carousel”
    7. “alaris pump”
    8. “baxa repeater pump”
    9. “free iphone apps for pharmacy students”
    10. “30 minute rule for medication administration”

  • Siemens West Coast User Group Meeting

    I spent all day Thursday at San Francisco General Hospital (SF General) attending the annual Siemens West Coast User Group Meeting. The meetings are generally low key with a couple of formal presentations from Siemens customers located on the west coast, updates on upcoming releases of Siemens Pharmacy and BCMA system (MAK) and of course lots of discussion on hot topics.

    For my part I re-presented the same slide deck that I used at Siemens Innovations only a few weeks ago. It wasn’t exactly the same, but pretty close. I did manage to make some minor changes. I also think it was a little smoother the second time around. Anyway, the other presentation was delivered by a Psych pharmacist at SF General. Apparently SF General has been experimenting with a Nursing-Pharmacist shadowing program. It’s an interesting concept. Following a survey assessing the perceived roles of nurses and pharmacists, and how well the two disciplines communicate, it was determined that there was a basic lack of understanding between the two professions. Really? Go figure. Based on that information SF General decided to enact a program where nurses spend time shadowing pharmacists and vice-versa. According to the presenter, the initial beta test went well and they are planning to go house wide with the program in January 2011.

    Nursing and pharmacy have been at odds with each other since the beginning of time. Both groups operate in stressful environments where minutes seem to last forever. Pharmacists complain about nurses and nurses complain about pharmacists. It’s nothing new. The relationship between the two groups can be tenuous during good times, and downright vicious during times of high stress. The program at SF General sounds like a great way to gain a little understanding between the two disciplines. I applaud their effort and hope it works well. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of their experiment. Hopefully they will share the information with the rest of us.

    Following the presentations a representative from Siemens gave the group an update on upcoming product releases for Pharmacy and MAK. The information was the same as that presented at Innovations, but no less interesting. I’m looking forward to implementing the newest releases of both systems as they offers functionality that I’ve been waiting for.

    The hot topics segment of the user group meeting is always good as it raises some interesting items for discussion. Some of the topics are more controversial than others, but the discussion is always beneficial to those that chose to participate. It’s nice to know that you’re not the only one in the universe with a problem.

    Overall I think the user group meeting was a success. I picked up a few little tidbits and did a little networking that may come in handy as I’m “working the spreadsheet”. *smile*

  • Dell Streak to be integrated into healthcare solutions, Yippee!

    Dell announced today that it is going to integrate its Android-based mobile device, the Streak, into its healthcare solutions. The idea of a company the size of Dell working on something like this is truly exciting as it brings credibility to the Android platform in healthcare. In addition, you know the project is going to receive serious consideration and resources as Dell wouldn’t be willing to dump millions of dollars into something like this if they didn’t believe it would succeed. They clearly believe in the future of the Android OS. I would love to be involved in a project like this as it brings together so many fascinating technologies. In fact, I think I’ll dust off my resume and send a copy over to Dell. They’re bound to need a pharmacist on staff for something like this. Right?
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  • Why automated medication kiosks could be good for pharmacy practice

    I followed a little banter on Twitter this weekend regarding the use of automated dispensing kiosks to dispense medications to patients instead of using a physical pharmacy. There are many pharmacists out there that believe the use of automated medication dispensing in the outpatient arena is bad practice and separates patients from their pharmacists. I don’t share their sentiment. I’ve blogged about these devices before, here and here, and believe they could be used to improve the pharmacist-patient interaction. I actually had the opportunity to watch an InstyMeds Prescription Medication Dispenser in action under a physician dispensing model late last year and thought it was well done.

    It is unclear to me why pharmacists fear these machines, but it reminds me of the fear surrounding automated dispensing cabinets during their inception back in the day.  Now they’re an integral part of acute care pharmacy practice. Perhaps pharmacists believe that patients won’t get the necessary consultation and instruction that they would had they visited their local retail pharmacy. As one that has worked in a retail pharmacy environment, albeit briefly, I don’t buy into that belief. Under the right set of circumstances, and with thoughtful implementation, kiosks could free up pharmacists to spend more time with patients in emergency departments and urgent care clinics across the country. After all, don’t pharmacists argue for more clinical face time with patients and less association with the physical medication dispensing process? That’s what I’ve been hearing from pharmacists for years.

    I would argue that placing kiosks in certain locations could improve medication therapy management and patient compliance. The odds of a mother with a tired, cranky, ill child going out of her way to visit a local retail pharmacy at midnight is much lower than grabbing a prescription at an automated dispensing machine in the urgent care clinic following the child’s exam. It certainly couldn’t hurt. Now throw in a consultation from the pharmacist prior to going to the medication kiosk and you have a winning combination.

    Kiosks certainly wouldn’t fit every situation, but there is certainly room in the pharmacy practice model for their thoughtful use. Think about it.

  • What defines a good pharmacy practice model?

    I received an email today from the ASHP PPMI group asking me to take their pre-summit survey. I did, and you should too if you care about the future of pharmacy practice. In addition to the request for survey participation the email included a link to the PPMI practice spotlight, which just so happened to feature Children’s Hospital Central California (CHCC) where I spent a few years working in their pediatric ICU.

    The spotlight article talks about CHCC’s use of decentralized pharmacists as well as judicious use of automation and technology. While working for CHCC I never stopped to considered whether the practice model we were using was advanced or not. It was simply the model we were using at the time. It occurred to me that most people probably don’t see their practice sites as advanced because everything in front of them appears “normal”.
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  • Top blog posts and searches from last week (36)

    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. Best iPhone / iPod Touch Applications for Pharmacists
    2. Moving storage around in the “cloud”
    3. Automated unit-dose packagers for acute care pharmacy
    4. Cool Technology for Pharmacy (June 18,2009 – Alaris Smartpumps)
    5. Medscape Mobile for the BlackBerry
    6. Scanning difficulties with certain barcodes
    7. Don’t miniaturize your application, redesign it instead
    8. Cool Technology for Pharmacy (September 10, 2009 – The Capsule Machine)
    9. Barcodes on patient wristbands
    10. Don’t dismiss the value of an operationally sound pharmacist
    11. Laser etched bar-code may help curb counterfeit drugs, among other uses
    12. Pediatric labels for bar code medication administration (BCMA)

    Top searchterm phrases used over the past 7 days:

    1. “black cloud”
    2. “capsule machine”
    3. “transparency ”
    4. “Medscape mobile”
    5. “cloud”
    6. “alaris pump”
    7. “cloud gif”
    8. “alaris iv pump”
    9. “cloud computing cartoon”
    10. “iv pump” tied with “pharmacy ipad”

  • Don’t miniaturize your application, redesign it instead

    Anyone that’s read this blog knows that I am a fan of mobile devices and touchscreen technology; from the smartphone to tablet PCs and the iPad. My love affair with mobile technology actually began with the HP 200LX palmtop computer when I was in Pharmacy School. I couldn’t believe that something so small could have so much power; funny now, but a marvel at the time. Now fast forward to early 2000 when I purchased a TRGpro, my first Palm OS device, and never looked back.
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