Jerry Fahrni

Tag: Drug information

  • Death of intellectual curiosity, due diligence and our profession

    Over the weekend I read a tweet from a friend and colleague @kevinclauson. The tweet shared a link to an article titled “Young Adults’ Credibility Assessment of Wikipedia”. I don’t have a problem with the article. On the contrary, it just reinforces my dislike of Wikipedia as a healthcare reference source.

    From the abstract: “This paper found that a few students demonstrated in-depth knowledge of the Wikipedia editing process, while most had some understanding of how the site functions and a few lacked even such basic knowledge as the fact that anyone can edit the site. Although many study participants had been advised by their instructors not to cite Wikipedia articles in their schoolwork, students nonetheless often use it in their everyday lives.” Kevin also links to the pre-print version of the article here (PDF).
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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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  • “What’d I miss?” – The week of December 12, 2010

    It’s been a good week in the world of non-pharmacy. ASHP Midyear 2010 is behind us, but the work generated from that meeting has just begun. And 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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  • Wolters Kluwer acquires Pharmacy OneSource

    You may not be familiar with Wolters Kluwer, but if you’re a pharmacist I’m sure you are familiar with their products: Facts & Comparisons, Medi-Span, Ovid, ProVation Medical, UpToDate. While Facts & Comparisons has become an afterthought in the drug information world, products like UpToDate and ProVation Medical are gaining traction in the healthcare industry. This is especially true as physicians, pharmacists and other healthcare providers look for ways to access information while on the go, i.e. access from mobile devices.

    Wolters and Kluwer just bolstered their position and gained significantly more credibility with their purchase of Pharmacy OneSource. Pharmacy OneSource is the maker of several innovative pharmacy products such as Accupedia pediatric dosing software, Sentri 7 clinical surveillance software and Quantifi for pharmacist intervention documentation. Pharmacy OneSource not only provides several interesting and innovative applications, they also offer them by way of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, which is uncommon in the pharmacy world.

    I’ve blogged about Pharmacy OneSource several times as I’m not only a fan of their products, but their distribution model and use of cloud computing as well. It’s no secret that I believe in cloud computing as the future for many applicaitons in pharmacy and feel that Pharmacy OneSource has created a solid foundation on which the rest of the industry can build. My only hope for the Wolters Klumer acquisition of Pharmacy OneSource is that their innovative products and strategy won’t change. Often times the first thing to go when a smaller company is purchased by a larger company is innovation. Here’s hoping that won’t happen.

  • “What’d I miss?” – Week of November 14, 2010

    It’s been a weird week for me, people. I haven’t had much time to blog as things have been whirling past me at lightning speed. As with all things in this life some of it is good, while some of it is bad. The short of it is that I’ve left my post as IT Pharmacist at the hospital and am trying something a little bit new. Wish me luck.

    On with the things that I found interesting this week.
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  • Micromedex drug information application for the iPhone

    I received an email recently announcing the availability of a free Micromedex Drug Information application for the iPhone.
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  • The Skyscape iPad giveaway

    I thought you might like to know that Skyscape is giving away 10 iPads as part of a promotion celebrating October 10, 2010, you know 10/10/10. All you have to do is spend $75 or more by 10/27/2010 and you’re automatically entered into the drawing.

    Here’s the email I received:

    Skyscape makes medical reference material designed for healthcare professionals. Most references are available for all the popular mobile platforms like the iOS, Android OS and the BlackBerry. You can take a peek at their list of drug information resources here. I don’t really use Skyscape references, but some of the items that jumped out at me included AHFS Drug Information, The Johns Hopkins POC-IT ABX Guide and iFacts: Drug Interaction Facts. Skyscape offers quite a selection.

  • AJHP abstracts available for Kindle

    I was pleasantly surprised today when I read my ASHP NewsLink and found the following tidbit:

    “Download AJHP Abstracts to Kindle Reader – Users of the Kindle wireless reading device, from Amazon.com Inc., can now automatically download abstracts of AJHP articles as they become available.”

    AJHP abstracts are delivered directly to the Kindle e-reader via Amazon’s Whispernet for a monthly subscription of $1.99. However, details are a little sketchy as there is limited information available at the Amazon website.

    It’s nice to see AJHP embracing digital technology. It’s a little late in the game and only abstracts are currently available, but it’s clearly a step in the right direction. Hopefully this is the first of many new digital offerings from AJHP and ASHP. I would eventually like to see AJHP journal articles available in their entirety for all digital readers. Articles are currently available for download in PDF format, but that’s really not the same as having a document formated for use on an e-reader.

    Additional information can be found at the Amazon website here.

  • Using the big boys to search for consumer health information

    I’m sure you’ve heard people say “just Google it”. Not only have I heard the phrase, but I’ve used it myself. But how do search engines like Google and Bing work for health related information? Out of simple curiosity I spent a few minutes with Google and Bing to find out.
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  • 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.